Our Very First Flip

I have been bursting at the seams with excitement over writing this post. The biggest reason is because this means that our flip house is finally complete. There were so many days and long nights where we thought it may never be finished. We have poured our hearts into this home. We have worked countless hours, literally hundreds of hours along with my parents and brothers to get this house done. And ya’ll, it goes on the market this week! 

Let me start by saying that no one anywhere would have blamed us for bulldozing this house down. It was that bad. We purchased this home at auction and had never before seen the inside of it until the day we had the deed in our hand. It needed everything, besides a roof. It had an almost new metal roof, but besides that it had nothing going for it. Let me give you a little insight before I share some pictures. The ceiling was caving in. The wood paneling walls were coated so thick with nicotine that you could smell it from the driveway. There were termites and bugs, huge holes in the walls, trash everywhere, oh and the house had a full basement that had a dirt floor and had never had any jack posts to support the house so the middle of the entire house was sagging over three inches. The front and back decks were in dire need of repair, the “garage door” was plywood nailed to the house. Every single window in the basement was broken and the one bathroom was so nasty no one even wanted to step inside of it to take a picture. Can you picture it yet? Here are some before pictures. 

 The view from standing at the road and looking at the front of the house.  

  This was the first impression upon pulling into the driveway to the back of the house.

 This is looking from the hallway down to the basement that looked like it was from a horror movie.
  Inside the basement. Those “jack posts” that you see are little wooden posts and some of them are logs from cedar trees that were doing nothing. If you touched them they moved right on off of the little blocks they were sitting on.

 This is the kitchen during the clean up day. It was actually already looking much better. 
   
  This view if from the kitchen looking at the dining room.

  The only bathroom in the house at the time.

    This is the living room.

   
Living room view from the other side.
 Bedroom #1. Enough said.

   Bedroom #2.

 I don’t have a before shot, but here is bedroom #3 after cleanup and some demo of the baseboards and trim.
So now you understand a little better. Bulldozing would have seemed like a nice option. 

Up next is just a few progress pictures.

   Kitchen during demo.

Dining room during demo.

  View from living room into kitchen area after removing two walls.  

  View from kitchen into living room right before putting in the new ceilings.

  Hall bathroom after demo.

 View from hallway into the closets that had been opened up. We added a closet in the old master, enlarged the small closet of the blue room because we were making it the new master, and we turned a linen closet into a laundry room.
   Guest room #2 that we turned into the master by adding a bathroom.

    
    Dining room area right after ceiling drywall was hung.

 This shot is from the dining room looking into the kitchen area right after all the new drywall was hung.

And now, are you guys ready for the after pictures?! I am so excited to be able to share them with you!

   
This is the brand new front porch that will welcome the new family home! The light fixtures are new as well, and I love them! The shutters were previously a very worn out and faded green, so we painted them black and they look so much better!

 Fresh, new landscaping and you can sorta see the foundation that we painted as well. 
   View from the road before the grass was planted.

 Kitchen. The floors throughout the house are engineered maple hardwoods and the kitchen has brand new solid oak cabinetry and a natural stone backsplash.  We furnished all the stainless appliances, except a refrigerator. We added the coat closet that is on the right side of this picture.
   I love this huge window over the sink.

 View from the dining room into the living room. Talk about huge, open concept living spaces.
   
    
 View from the living room into the dining and kitchen.
   
 View from kitchen into the dining room. You can see the hall bathroom on the left. 
   Hall bathroom.  Everything is brand new. Dual vanities with granite tops, new mirrors, lighting, tub/shower, toilet and flooring.

    Guest bedroom #2. Former master bedroom. We added the closet you can see. We took over the old closet to add it to the new master bedroom.

New master bedroom.
   Master bedroom looking into its new bathroom. We created the master bathroom by adding dual vanities with a nice farmhouse flair in a calm gray color and porcelain tops, and we added a huge shower and a new toilet. Actually, everything is brand new, considering this bathroom didn’t exist before.

    
 View from the hallway down to the new basement. The basement was cleaned out, graded, cement footings and jack posts were added, and then poured with concrete. We had new steps built, we water proofed and painted the walls, and we added a new garage door. 
I am so pleased with how this house turned out. Now, we just need to find this home a new family to love it! When I think about a new family celebrating the holidays here it warms my heart so much. I can just picture it. Now we just have to find them and tell them that their house is ready. ☺️