Real Estate & Flipping Houses | It's Great To Be Home

Finished Flip Photos: The Exterior & Guest Bath

May 7, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 18 Comments

For our fourth and final round of tours of the finished flip, I thought I’d show you how we changed the exterior and the guest bathroom (and if you’re just tuning in you can check out the finished kitchen here, the master suite here, and the den, dining room and office here).

The exterior was in pretty great shape for the most part – it just needed some love! We switched out the old iron porch support and scrollwork for a more contemporary stained cedar post – an instant improvement!

We also added modern house numbers, new lighting fixtures, new windows in a striking bronze color . . .

. . . and a new solid wood front door with sleek hardware.

Much better!! The iron bars on the windows and front door got the boot, too. :)

A little sprucing of the landscaping and we were good to go!

And before we head to the backyard, let’s check out the guest bathroom. Remember how we changed the layout? Well, here’s how the finished product turned out:

Nothing like the original, right? In fact, the only thing that stayed was the original mirror, which we repainted to match the new vanity.

I really love how this bathroom turned out, and I would use any of these finishes again in a second. Especially the floor tile – my fave. :)

And the last stop on our tour? The deck!!

I never knew I could love a deck like I love this one. I am 100% committed to having one like this at our next house (not that we’re moving, but a girl can dream).

The benches are my favorite part. Why have a railing when you can have benches?!?

And remember, we tore down this insane addition before adding the deck (and in turn adding access to the backyard through new sliders).

So much better! I can totally envision laying out on these benches, or throwing an awesome backyard party. I’m jealous.

The new sliders above . . .

. . . and the new fence!

That’s it for the before and afters of our fourth flip!

We should be closing on the purchase of our fifth flip by the end of the month, so hopefully I’ll be able to fulfill your need for photos of demolition carnage soon. Fingers crossed. :)

Finished Flip Photos: The Dining Room, Office and Den!

May 3, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 17 Comments

I’ve been dying to show you guys these photos of the dining room, office and den at our fourth flip – the new open floor plan turned out so great!! (If you’re just tuning in now, you can check out finished photos of the kitchen here and the master suite here, and a recap of the entire renovation here.)

When you walk into the house the first thing you see is the dining room, which is a fun balance of chic and cozy thanks to the capiz chandelier and fireplace.

I’m so glad that we ditched the formal living room in favor of turning it into a dining room – and that meant that the old dining room became a home office!

You can see from the photo below what a difference opening up the walls made, and of course removing the old carpet so we could refinish those awesome oak floors.

I think I could get some work done in this office! :)

The two photos below really show what a difference that big opening between the dining room and den made – look at all of that light!!

And creating that opening also let us close up the funky doorways between the office/kitchen and hallway/den. Much better.

All of the sunlight kind of keeps this photo from being all that great . . .

. . . but I just had to show you the new view from the front door! (Yes, that wall really was all up in your grill the second you walked in the door!)

And now onto the den. We had an open house over the weekend and it was awesome to see the house flowing exactly as we had envisioned – there were no weird bottlenecks, and all of the rooms had such a great connection.

I especially love the wider opening between the kitchen and den, which was achieved by moving the washer/dryer to the new laundry room and relegating the water heater to the attic.

Much better than before!!

We chose to keep the paneling instead of replacing it with drywall, and I think the overall look works – I was worried that it would feel a little too traditional or outdated but I think all the modern touches throughout the house give it a nice balance.

Probably the best change that we made overall was replacing that window (above) with a huge glass slider so that the den is now connected to the backyard (instead of just being able to access the yard through the kitchen). The floor plan just didn’t make sense before!!

So there you have it!! Did everything turn out how you thought it would? I’d love to hear what you think!

Scope out all four of our flips here.

Finished Flip Photos: The Master Bedroom and Bath

April 30, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 21 Comments

Now that you have scoped out the kitchen, it’s time for a tour of the flip’s master suite!

Originally, the master bedroom had only this tiny half bath – no bueno!

Luckily, after lots of planning and sketching and creative rearranging . . .

. . . we were able to squeeze a really awesome master bath into this home’s footprint. I’m crazy happy with how it turned out, and it was definitely worth the extra expense of moving the furnace and everything else that went into creating this space.

This was our first time using vessel sinks – what do you think? We had to modify the cabinets a bit to allow for the taller sinks (i.e., cutting down a really tall toe kick) and I think it turned out really well.

And I’m someone that loves a ginormous shower, so the fact that we were able to add a really spacious shower makes me quite happy. :)

It’s come a long way, huh? :)

Some little features – we placed the shower controls right by the shower door so that you can reach in and turn on the shower without getting wet, and we made sure to hide the shampoo niche in the pony wall so that all of the soaps and potions aren’t on display to the rest of the bathroom.

To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with this bathroom during construction – but once all of the pieces were in place, the mirrors in particular, I absolutely fell in love with it. It’s funny how that happens!

And now the master bedroom! It has 3 windows, which I love, and great views of the backyard and the deck. I think that would be nice to wake up to.

The bedroom needed minimal work, mainly just the new windows, refinished floors, new ceiling fan and reworking the closets. Here’s how it started out: