The Flip: Buying Appliances

October 4, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 9 Comments

How was your weekend?

Ours was pretty great, partly because we bought appliances for the flip last night and spent about $1,300 less than we had budgeted.  Score!!

Like Lauren, we discovered long ago that you just can’t beat Sears for great appliances at great prices – definitely key considerations for any flip.  (In fact, Sears has been our go-to appliance store for years and is where we got the goods for both our house and the last flip.)

We actually picked out the appliances a few weeks ago but waited until last night to purchase them – the salesman we’ve worked with over the past few years let us know that we could get an extra 10% off if we put off the purchase until Friends and Family Night, which just so happened to be last night.  The 10% discount covered tax and then some, and we’ve found that it always pays to chat up the salesman because they’ll often give you little tips on when the store will be offering deals and discounts.

We’ve been really happy with our own Kenmore Elite appliances, and decided to go with Kenmore for the kitchen at the flip.  Here’s what the kitchen will be outfitted with:

(wine fridge, slide-in gas range, range hood, dishwasher)

From checking out our appliances you may have noticed a few things:

1. We got a slide-in range instead of double ovens and a stovetop (which is what the kitchen has now).  Yup, the layout of this kitchen is changing.

2. We got a gas range even though the existing stovetop in the kitchen is electric (which totally bummed us out, BTW).  That’s because we made an exciting discovery when meeting with the plumber the other day – the stove area is equipped with electricity and gas.  Double woohoo to that one!

3. We didn’t buy a fridge or a microwave.  In our market, it’s common for people to provide their own fridge so we felt like it would have been an unnecessary expense – and same thing with the microwave.  We could always change our minds in the future, but that’s what we did with the last flip and everything worked out great.

4. We opted to go for a range hood rather than an over-the-range microwave like we have at our house.  Simple reason for that – we just thought it would be fun to do a range hood and switch things up a bit from what we’re used to.

We arranged for the appliances to be delivered in early November so that we don’t have to worry about storing them while the construction is being completed – I can’t wait to see how they look when they’re installed!

So there’s your first peek into some of the changes that will be made to the kitchen!  And while we’re on the subject of kitchen remodels, what’s one thing you would splurge on if you were remodeling your kitchen?  Jason wants our dream kitchen to have a really fancy range, but I think an over-sized fridge/freezer might be on my list . . . what about you?

UPDATE: Demo got pushed back and is now starting tomorrow.  Boo!  Oh well, these things are to be expected during renovations, right?

What Would You Do?

February 17, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 13 Comments

As you may have guessed, we have been dying to flip another house since the last one sold in November.  Dying, I tell you!!  We’ve been trying to be prudent, going over all of the costs associated with the last flip to see where we can increase our profit margin, scouting around for better financing options and, of course, trolling the city for ugly-with-potential houses.  While we’ve been doing our due diligence a few incredibly tempting houses slipped away, which was a total bummer.

Anyhoo, we are now very close to having our ducks in a row and we’ve got our eyes on a few little gems.  Here’s the kitchen from one of the front-runners:

What Would You Do?

Ick, right?  That being said, this baby has a lot of potential – I mean, just look at the floor plan!

What Would You Do?

I think this kitchen has the potential to be a true entertainer’s kitchen – it’s right off the dining room, can be opened up to the den, has double ovens and a gas cooktop, a bar for seating and setting out food . . . all in all, great bones.  And it makes my heart go pitter pat to think that we wouldn’t have to move any gas or plumbing lines!!

That being said, this is one ugly kitchen.  There are a few options as to how to approach it:

1.  Demo the whole thing and start from scratch with new cabinets, etc.  Pros – cabinets would be much, much cuter, there would be more vertical storage, we could rework the existing storage, add a wine fridge.  Cons – could be an unnecessary cost since the cabinets are in good shape and the layout is essentially staying the same.

2.  Paint the existing cabinetry and just spruce everything up a bit with new countertops, appliances, etc. Maybe give the cabinets a similar treatment to what Kristin did?  Pros – costs would definitely be lower.  Cons – I know that we wouldn’t get the look that we want (like getting rid of the curved detailing on the doors), storage would not be maximized.

3.  Mixture between 1 & 2 by refacing the doors. Pros – still not as expensive as new cabinets.  Cons – still not as cheap as keeping the cabinet doors, and storage still isn’t maximized.

And once the choice is made between 1, 2 and 3, there’s the fun of deciding on the finishes!!  I’ve been wanting to do a remodel with somewhat modern finishes, but I don’t think this is the house for that – the rest of the house (and if the kitchen cabinets stayed) is fairly traditional.

So here’s my question – what would you do with this kitchen? Which option would you pick, and how would you finish it out?  Subway tile or glass tile, wood floors or tile, pendants or recessed lighting . . . there are so many things to think about!!  I would love your input, I know you guys have great ideas – let the brainstorming begin!

365 Days of Blogging

February 12, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 7 Comments

A year ago, I sent an email to about 40 friends and family members announcing that I was starting a renovation/interior design blog, It’s Great To Be Home.  I didn’t know what to expect, but no matter how things turned out I knew that I would have a great time sprucing up my house, trying new projects, and sharing all of it with anyone that might be interested.  I’ve been so thrilled for this little ol’ blog to grow from 40 visitors to tens of thousands each month – how cool is that?

I Got a New Attitude

During the past year, tons of things have changed.  I left my job as an attorney, started a new career in real estate, flipped my first house, started working from home instead of driving 45 minutes to an office, began sprucing up the homes of strangers over the web . . . and it has been such a delight to get to share all of these changes with you, even the little ones like making our backyard a little less ugly and sewing some new pillows for the den.  Who new that there was a whole community of awesome people that are into the same things that I am?  Let me tell you, it’s been awesome to get to hang out with you guys.

Since it’s IGTBH’s first blogiversary, I thought it was only appropriate to share a video with you guys that we shot the day we bought our house – the house that started it all, way before this blog was even a twinkle in my eye.  Want to take a tour of our home and see how it looked before we renovated the heck out of it?

If you weren’t busy getting seasick from Jason’s camera skills (sorry babe!!), here are some things you may  have picked up on from the video:

~ This was during my brief stint as a blonde – so weird to see myself like that!!

~ Our house had the most hideous collection of drapes ever known to mankind.

~ We pretty much stuck to our entire renovation plan!!

~ I say “Alright” at least 30 times.

~ Our breakfast room used to look like a circus tent.

~ I really think that was a gun cabinet in the laundry room – it had locks and everything!

~ I clearly had no idea that the “craft room” would ultimately turn into my office.

~ I’m hoping you weren’t blinded by the original fireplace – sorry about that.

~ Can you believe how dark our den used to be?  And that was with all the lights on!

~ Did you recognize those bookcases in the den that turned into my salvaged craft cabinet?

~ I’m pretty sure Jason’s closet is bigger than mine – don’t know how that happened!

~ Burglar bars were apparently “in” in 1968 when our house was built.

~ After watching this video, I’m going to burn those pants I was wearing.

Anyhoo, thanks for hanging in there with me this past year – I’ve loved every minute of it!!  Here’s to another great year!

If you want to see how our house turned out after the big renovation, be sure to check out the Home Tour page of IGTBH.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
« Older Posts