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Our Flip: Fun With Big Machines

July 9, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 7 Comments

It’s time to bust out the big guns.

Want a sneak peek at what’s going on at our flip at this very moment? Check it out:

Oh yeah, that’s right – it’s my brother-in-law on a ProTrac. [A ProTrac is like a skid loader that you stand on - and a skid loader is a piece of equipment that you can attach different types of tools to, like buckets, augers, trenchers, etc. - don't worry, I didn't know either until yesterday.]

And what is he doing on that crazy piece of equipment, you might ask? Well, he’s going to move this:

over here, to raise the ground level after we removed the original pool decking:

He started leveling things out yesterday by hand, and after about 4 hours of constant work it looked like this:

[Are you oohing and aahing over the pool? Wait til you see what it used to look like!! Don't worry, I'll fill you in on what's been going on with the pool a little later.]

Clearly it was time to part with the $160 it would cost to rent a ProTrac – using the machine will speed this process up by about 4 days. Talk about a worthwhile investment!!

Wanna see how that big pile of fill dirt wound up in the driveway? If you were following my Tweets, you know it was no easy feat!! Here are the pics, thanks to my hubby’s quick work with his camera phone:

Maneuvering that dump truck down the alley and around all the power lines and the dumpsters was apparently a total nail-biter. And they had to do it twice!! Luckily there was no big disaster (although the hubby said he hid in the garage during the power line scare . . . I should hope so!!).

Now you’re up to speed on today’s activities over at the flip – things are moving so fast and looking awesome, so hopefully it will be on the market in no time!

What’s the biggest piece of equipment you’ve ever used? For me, it’s a drill - what about you? A table saw? A jack hammer? Maybe you’ve conquered the ProTrac!

Be sure to swing by DIY Day over at A Soft Place to Land – you’re sure to find some fab DIY projects to either admire or attempt yourself!

Our Flip: Pretty Little Things

July 2, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 6 Comments

I’m a firm believer that cabinets should have hardware. For some reason, it really irks me when I see beautiful, naked cabinets – why miss out on an opportunity to add a little bling? Also, I just think it’s odd to claw at a cabinet or drawer to open it when you could just grab a knob or pull instead. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, yesterday was awesome because we finally got to pick out the hardware for the cabinets at the flip!! I was shocked when we counted up all of the hardware that we would need – 33 pulls and 50 knobs. Doesn’t that seem like a ton? I guess it’s not when you really think about it, because we needed hardware for the kitchen (and pantry), jack ‘n jill bath, laundry room bi-fold doors, bi-fold closet doors in the second bedroom, and a built-in desk in the fourth bedroom.

We were afraid that we would have a tough time finding hardware that we liked, but we were definitely wrong!! Our first trip to Home Depot yielded these beauties for the jack ‘n jill bath and the built-in desk:

[I know my pictures can't do them justice, so I added in their glamour shots from the Home Depot website]

Aren’t they pretty? I think they are going to look fab in those two secondary areas – they have some personality while still remaining affordable. Excellent!

Restoration Hardware was the next stop on our quest for hardware. We fell in love with their hardware when we were buying pulls and knobs for our own master bath – they have some really beautiful, classic designs. On the downside, they are pretty darn expensive, so we promised ourselves that we would only buy hardware for the master bath. Here’s what we chose:

I love them!!! Want to hear something funny? We actually had a bag of leftover hardware to return to Restoration Hardware that I hadn’t peeked into in about 6 months – when we got to the register to buy the new stuff and return the old stuff, it turns out that we had picked the very same knobs again!! I guess we must have really liked them, right?

And you probably noticed that we got two sizes of pulls for the master bath – that’s because the drawer fronts in front of the sinks are pretty big, and the drawers in between the two sinks are much smaller. Using two different sizes of pulls will add a little visual interest to the vanity, and keep everything in scale.

By the way, if you’re thinking about buying hardware from Restoration Hardware, I would advise planning ahead – most of their hardware is special-order only these days, which is kind of a bummer. They still have a little stock left over in the back so we were able to score all of our hardware in the same day by driving around to two different stores, but otherwise we would have had to wait for a week.

Next we were off to Lowe’s – we were hoping that they had a few different styles of hardware that Home Depot didn’t have. Turns out, Lowe’s has a much better selection of hardware – I was totally impressed!! Take a gander at all of this playground o’ hardware:

Four whole sections of hardware!!! And most of it was in-stock (as opposed to special order), so I was a happy girl. I absolutely love this collection of hardware:

This collection is chunky and very heavy to the touch, which is a great quality for hardware to have. I love how sturdy it looks, and I think it’s going to look great in the new kitchen.

We were pretty consistent with the hardware throughout the flip – almost all of it is satin nickel, except for the polished nickel in the master bath (for a little extra swank). We think that will make the house feel even more cohesive, and hopefully it will all look great with the other finishes we picked out. I can’t wait to show you guys the house when it’s all finished!!

So now I’ve spilled the beans on the hardware in the flip – what sorts of goodies adorn your cabinets?

Images courtesy of Restoration Hardware, Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Our Flip: Granite and Marble and Travertine, Oh My!

June 19, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 28 Comments

Holy moly, Wednesday and Thursday were a flurry of tile-related craziness. In the past 48 hours we have been to the granite fabricator, the contractor tile place (twice), two different discount tile places (and we went to one of them twice, in two different cities), another tile place, and Home Depot (to two different locations). A freaking flurry of activity, I tell you! Not to mention the FOUR times we went by the flip today. This flipping stuff is serious business!

Luckily, there was some serious eye-candy along the way. Check out some of these gorgeous slabs of granite that we saw at the contractor tile place:

Seriously, it’s crazy to think that such beautiful materials were dug up from the earth – it’s so awesome! I drooled, I fawned, I caressed each and every slab. Then I had a reality check and moved along . . . slowly.

By the end of Wednesday we had picked out the marble countertop for the master bath:

the travertine countertop for the jack and jill bath:

and the countertops for the kitchen.

We also picked out this gorgeous glass and marble tile backsplash for the kitchen (which we picked up on Thursday) – it looks fab with the granite and will be such a great focal point looking from the den into the kitchen:

For the bathroom off the kitchen, we picked out white subway tiles accented with taupe glass 2 x 2 tiles for the shower walls and 8 x 12 marble tiles in a herringbone pattern for the floor – I can’t wait to see how it turns out!!

The laundry area is tiled in a honed travertine (still waiting to be grouted):

The master bath will be done all in matching marble, with the floors done in 12 x 12 tiles, the shower walls in 3 x 6 subway tiles, and the shower floor in a tiny hexagon tile – I am beyond excited about this bathroom and I hope they’re finished soon so that I can show you pictures!! Here’s how it’s looking right now (not too exciting):

We had a minor faux pas with the tile for the master shower – there was a miscommunication with the supplier and they gave us crema marfil porcelain tile rather than crema marfil marble tile. Both of us just referred to crema marfil, and assumed we were talking about the same thing. The mistake wasn’t discovered until we lugged those ridiculously heavy tiles back to the house – and the porcelain tile has a distinct grayish cast that doesn’t match the marble – oops!! That’s the reason behind one of our many repeated trips to the tile place. Lesson learned – always refer to the full name of the material when you’re speaking with a supplier, and always check inside the box before you leave the store.

Whew! So busy but so fun. And I still can’t believe how quickly things are moving along with the flip. I swear, it’s going to be finished and ready to put on the market before I have a chance to blink!

So now you’ve heard what countertops we chose for the flip – what do you have in your house?

Don’t forget to leave a comment on any post through Monday, June 22, for a chance to win a ton of awesome products from Gorilla Glue in the IGTBH Gnarly Giveaway!!! More details about the Gnarly Giveaway can be found here.

This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.