Now that we've covered what we were looking for, and exactly HOW to find and evaluate a fix/flip property, why don't we go ahead and get into the "good" stuff: The Before and After Series!!!
I figured this is likely what most readers are here for, so over the next few weeks, I will be sharing before, during, and after pictures and progress insight to give you all a taste of the not so pretty side of a remodel project.
So, why don't we start with the "easiest" and begin by tackling the bedrooms in this 1940's home. Sure, we could have just thrown up some new paint and called it good (and I fear, that's what a lot of flippers would do), but we aren't your average flippers, and we definitely did more than "just paint" to the 4 upstairs bedrooms of this home.
First and foremost, take a look at our starting point for each of these bedrooms and initial plans:
Bedroom 1: Wallpaper Room : Tear down wallpaper, refinish floors, patch/paint, new lighting, new trim.
Bedroom 2: The Red Carpet: Tear down paneling, tear out carpet, drywall, mud, patch/paint, new lighting, new trim.
Bedroom 3: The Big Room: refinish floors, patch/paint, new lighting, paint trim.
Bedroom 4: The Primary Suite: wire new light, paint walls, paint trim.
I mean, it is ugly, but we didn't think it would be too bad overall. I initially estimated about three weeks, with one of those being for the floors which we planned to sand/refinish ourselves, and the other two for demo and painting....but, first lesson learned: it ALWAYS takes longer than you expect it to.
Demo went pretty according to plan, with some family coming down to help:
First weekend of demo was a success, but then the reinforcements left, and it was just down to Patrick and me to sort out the rest. After pulling down the paneling and wallpaper in the first two rooms, we quickly realized that some major patching would need to take place before we could even think about painting.
And while we are talking about the not so pretty/fun stuff, let me remind you that this house was built in the 1940's, so the knob and tube wiring, wasn't exactly up to code. Given that we already had pulled permits for the wiring for the rest of the house, we just decided to tackle the upstairs rewire job ourselves as well. I wouldn't recommend this unless you also have a very patient, very intelligent husband who is willing and able to crawl around in a mouse poop filled attic in the middle of winter. Or one who has done wiring before. Luckily for him, I was still at the "this is fun, and new, and exciting" stage, so I only complained about the slow progress and gross work every other hour or so ;)
Insert video of me actually wiring:
After we finally got the wiring up to code, and moved around some light fixtures and switches, THEN we got to the really fun stuff.....Drywall, and patching, and skim-coating - oh my!
**for anyone who has ever hung drywall, or skim-coated old lath and plaster walls, you know how far from exciting this job really is, albeit very impactful, and necessary in a lot of older homes.
Doesn't it look fun? And the best part, is you get to do a layer, wait for it to dry, sand it and look like Timmy from The Sandlot, followed by another coat, and then back to Timmy again....add in some random cracking, a lot of cursing when my husband insisted on me being able to hang/hold ceiling drywall while he screwed it in, and this process might have been my least favorite part of the whole project. Not to mention, it took us a whole month to do it all and many, many trips to Menards and Home Depot for supplies....Second lesson learned: hire someone else to do the drywall and wall prep, or risk divorce ;)
**it's so much more satisfying played at 16x, trust me.
Finally, after the longest month and a half ever (we would both work during the day, and then drive the 40 minutes to New Richmond in the evening, work until about 10 and drive back home...every, single, night....and then would work on the weekends 10+ hours days just to get this place ready to paint. Mind you, this was only the bedrooms we are talking about. Word to the wise: if you plan on renovating a home you don't live in, be prepared for it to be a lot of more slow-moving than you see on the 30 min HGTV specials and Netflix shows we are all so accustom to.
This is already getting a little long, so maybe I'll cut it off here, leave you with some pretty pictures of the finished project (to appease the instant-gratification-type people here), and walk through how I go about choosing paint colors and some of my favorite color options that are always foolproof and guaranteed to give you the "vibe" you're looking for in my next post... i.e. the fun stuff ;)
xo,
-MacK