~ Flipping Houses | It's Great To Be Home

Finished Flip Photos: The Kitchen

April 27, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 22 Comments

You guys, the flip is FOR SALE!!!!

Even though our fourth flip was the smallest project that we’ve tackled, it still needed tons of work – opening up walls, gutting bathrooms, moving the furnace, tearing down a nasty addition, creating a laundry room, and all sorts of other fun goodies. When we bought the flip in the beginning of February we hoped it would be just a two-month project but it turned into almost 3 months – but that’s okay because we were still able to get it listed and start having showings before our little girl arrives – whew!

Now that the flip is all shiny and finished, want to take a little tour?

Let’s start in the kitchen – you might remember our original kitchen design plan and then the little snafu which forced us to take a slightly different route with the counter tops. We also made some changes to the layout in the kitchen but we were able to re-use most of the existing cabinetry (which was amazing – there are even pullouts in the lower cabinets!). The finishing touch was to add wood floors to the kitchen so that the rich oak flooring flows throughout the entire house.

Check out the final results!

It’s amazing how a little rearranging and a coat of white paint really updated the cabinets. We opted for floating shelves on the range wall for an open, airy feel and I love how they turned out!

You can barely see it because of the light coming through the window, but there’s a gorgeous glass pendant floating above the sink. I love it!

From this angle you can see the new laundry room and the cabinetry that will house the fridge.

Can you believe that space at the end of the kitchen used to be unused, and that the washer and dryer were stuck under those ugly white cabinets on the right-hand side of the kitchen? Craziness!

By moving the plumbing and framing in a laundry room we were able to create a much more functional layout (and a breakfast bar!).

Ah, you can finally catch a glimpse of the pendant in this photo. And the penny tile turned out great!

Framing in that door between the office and kitchen turned out to be a great move, I think. I love being able to have a balanced look on either side of the range, and there’s quick access to the office and dining room just to the left of the kitchen.

All in all, I love this kitchen. It turned out to be a sunny, fresh space with lots of fun touches, from the penny tile to the industrial faucet to the floating shelves – and one of my favorite things is the hardware on the cabinets, a last minute switcheroo due to shipping delays that definitely turned out for the best. It’s funny how those things work out!

I’ll show you how the rest of the house turned out next week! In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Bits & Pieces

April 24, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 5 Comments

I’m excited about today for 3 reasons:

(1) A photographer is coming to the flip at 9am to take shots for the listing – which means that the flip is about to hit the market!

(2) We have our 38-week doctor appointment – eek! All of our ducks are in a row and we’re ready for our daughter’s arrival, but it’s still a little crazy to think that she could decide to show up at any moment.

Any last-minute advice for us?

(3) The movers are arriving between 3-5 to deliver all the staging furniture!

You might be wondering why we’re taking un-staged photos in the morning – we like options. :)

I’m excited about tomorrow as well, for 3 reasons:

(1) Our fifth flip is getting inspected!

Once we get the report back we’ll have a concrete idea of unknown issues that we’ll need to tackle during the renovations.

(2) We’re taking that opportunity of having a few hours in the house to measure and photograph anything in the house that will stand still (for floor planning, permit and design purposes).

(3) We’re listing the flip for sale! Unless something crazy happens we’re going to have this puppy on the market by the end of the day. I can’t wait!

In other fun news, there’s really no better feeling than someone saying, “I think you’re cool!” That’s why I was so stoked to receive two blog awards recently – so fun!!

Thanks to Samantha for giving me the Liebster Blogging Award and to Susannah for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award – you chickies rock!

Remember those Ikea slipcovers in our breakfast nook that I painted awhile back?

Well, Lisa started her own version, and they’re turning out great – check’em out here!

And last but definitely not least, my friend Lauren wrote an eBook about flipping!! How cool is that?

Go on and get you some right here. I guarantee you’ll learn something in between all the chuckles.

This Post Brought To You By Calgary Apartments.

And Who Says Flipping Houses Isn’t Glamorous?

April 17, 2012 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 11 Comments

Flipping a house generates a lot of debris . . . and it all has to go somewhere.

We typically just have a giant dumpster in the driveway that gets rotated out with a fresh dumpster as it gets full – easy!

But last week we kissed our last dumpster goodbye – we’re near the finish line and we figured that we could handle disposing of any last-minute trash and debris on our own. So we did.

And let me tell you – the city dump is not glamorous.

After loading up the truck with construction debris, we drove down to south Dallas, turned on a random road and there we were. The dump.

We were greeted by some lovely signs . . .

. . . and a long line of other trucks filled to the gills with junk. Once we got to the front of the line, we pulled our truck onto a big scale and I hopped out to show the guy behind the counter my driver’s license to prove that I live in Dallas County. He printed out a little receipt with the weight of our load and we were on our way!

We drove up a giant hill and caught what is probably the best view of the Dallas skyline in the whole county. Of course that fabulous view would be at the dump!

And then we saw it.

The day that we went to the dump was a day that I felt very grateful to be pregnant, because I got a “get out of jail free” card and didn’t have to load up the really heavy stuff or help Jason heave it into the giant, insanely stinky pit. :) I stayed in the truck where I only caught whiffs of the stench.