Update at the Flip House May 27, 2016

It's official!  The flip house is finally done and on the market!  So I had to go through it really quickly to take some photos and post some before and after pics before it sells.  This post will be picture heavy so be prepared.  Here we go!

Update at the Flip House March 18, 2016

We have carpet!  Here's what the front bedroom now looks like:

Update at the Flip House Jan. 15, 2016

The last big project is finished and the basement is fully waterproofed and painted!  Here's what it looks like:

Update at the Flip House Dec. 4, 2015 and My Fondest Memories of my Grandma Ohney

The outside of the house is done!  Well technically it's 99% done as there are a few touch ups I need to make here and there but that will take me an hour max so I'm calling it done for the sake of this blog post.  Here's what it looks like:

Update at the Flip House Nov. 20, 2015

The living room and dining room floors are done!  Here's what they look like:

Update at the Flip House Oct. 30, 2015

Well, unfortunately the hardwood floors aren't finished yet.  I may have run into a little bitty issue.  I need to preface this by saying the previous homeowners apparently had three large dogs that lived in the house, at least according to the neighbor.  Over the course of time, said dogs urinated frequently inside the house and now there are pet stains on the hardwood floors which ruled out refinishing the bedroom floors because they were so trashed. 

When we had a contractor come in to cut and install the countertop for the kitchen he mentioned to me that if it were him he would attempt to refinish the wood floors.  I informed him that there may be some pet urine stains and he said that some times you can get them out with aggressive sanding but a lot of the times you can't, however he felt I should certainly try if the living room and/or dining room were in halfway decent shape, which I felt they were. 

So I sanded the floors to prep them for re-staining yet still there were several dark pet stains in the wood that even though they became significantly lighter, they were still apparent.  I went ahead and stained the floor knowing it wouldn't be perfect but hoped it would be decent at the very least and here's what I was left with:

Update at the Flip House Oct. 16, 2015

The floors are finally sanded!  Here is a pic of what it looks like so far:

Update at the Flip House Sept. 25, 2015

This is going to be a fairly boring post but all the closets are done!  This seems to be a pretty simple and easy task but each one of these closets posed their own unique problems and took longer than I anticipated they would. 

The one below is in the front bedroom and it had a huge hole in the left side which is where the plumbing was run from the basement to the adjacent bathroom.  I ended up re-using a door in a separate part of the house as an access door to cover up the hole.  It is now on hinges and opens and closes to reveal the plumbing should it ever need repaired in the future.  I also painted the entire thing (including the shelves) white and re-hung the clothing rod.

Update at the Flip House Sept. 11, 2015

The kitchen is done and I just put the finishing touches on it this morning!  Well, except for the ceiling light but an electrician is going to have to install that since the house is so old it doesn't have electrical boxes compliant with new fixtures.  But other than that it is done and I'm so happy with how it turned out!  Here are some pics:

Update at the Flip House August 14, 2015

The second floor bedroom is done!  Well, I still have to paint the inside of the closet white and it still needs carpeting, but to make me feel better I'm calling it done.  My boyfriend helped me spray the ceiling with foam insulation and hang the drywall.  Then I sprayed the drywall with knock down, cut and nailed up all the trim, painted the trim and doors, pulled up the old carpeting and the carpet pad, removed all the staples and tack strips from the floor, and even installed the ceiling light fixture all by myself!

Here's what it looks like now:

Update at the Flip House July 24, 2015

If you have been reading my previous flip house updates you may remember I have been working very long and hard on the staircase leading up to the second floor.  And it's now completely done!  The best part of it is I did it 100% all by myself with my own two little hands and I seriously couldn't be prouder of myself or of how it turned out.

Mind you, I have never fabricated a staircase in my life, nor do I personally know anyone who has, so unfortunately I had no one to go to and ask for advise.  That's when I do my best work though because the pressure's on.  I have had lots of practice teaching myself how to do a good majority of the things I currently know how to do simply through trial and error, reading about it, or watching YouTube videos.  And boy were there a lot of errors made throughout the process of building this staircase.  Luckily those errors did not cost over $20 all together so I am very fortunate for that.  Every other error I made I was able to simply re-do in a different way without material waste.

That being said I'm not sure I EVER want to do another staircase again.  It was taxing both physically and mentally not to mention the single most time consuming project to date at the flip house.  But really, who am I kidding?  Now that I know how to build a staircase from scratch I probably will do one again....I just want it to be a long time before I do that's for sure!

So I'm sure you are interested in seeing what this staircase looks like, huh?  Here she is in all her glory:

Update at the Flip House July 3, 2015 and Where Have I Been?!?!

I'm still alive guys!  I'm telling you, this staircase at the flip house is kicking my patootie though.  I'm doing every step of it all by myself with no assistance from anyone and installing stair railing and balusters from scratch is very tricky, especially if you've never done anything like that in your life.  I've had to redo a few things, reconfigure even more, and now I've got a plan which should make it come together very quickly.  Hopefully by next Friday it will be completely done and I can show you guys some pictures as I'm very proud of what it looks like so far!

In the meantime I'm going to show you some pictures of the progress in the kitchen.  Not much has happened because all of my time has been spent working on these darned stairs but here's what it looks like so far:

Update at the Flip House June 5, 2015

The linoleum has been installed in both the bathroom and the kitchen and we are currently working on installing the cabinets and fixtures.  Here are some befores:

Update at the Flip House May 8, 2015 and a Prayer Request

Living room is painted!  Here's what it looked like before:

Flip House Update May 1, 2015

Bathroom drywall is up, window trim is painted, walls are painted, and tub and shower are installed with fixtures.  Here's what it looked like before:

Flip House Update April 24, 2015

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted an update on the flip house so I needed to take a couple of hours off from working over there to sit down in front of my computer and share the latest.  The hallway walls and trim have now been painted.  The color is the same as the dining room (Valspar Smoked Oyster).  The more I paint with this shade the more I like it!  It's definitely the prettiest color I've worked with so far both at the flip house and my own house.

Here's what it looked like before (photo is taken standing in the office looking toward the front bedroom):

Update at the Flip House March 20, 2015

I just wanted to let you all know I've been MIA because I have been working so hard on this dang flip house.  All of my spare time is spent there and I've been knocking things out left and right which makes me feel super productive.  Lately I've been focusing on the dining room and the hallway.  In looking up original photos I realized I didn't have any specifically of the dining room.  I'm not sure why I didn't take photos of it?  But at least you can see this photo of the living room looking into the dining room.  The open doorway in the center of the photo leads into the kitchen and the closed door was the original staircase going up into the second floor.

Update at the Flip House Feb. 27, 2015

I've really been working hard on the room with the wood walls and here are some photos of what it looked like originally to refresh your memory:

Update at the Flip House Feb. 6, 2015

The kitchen is painted!  But first here are some photos of what it looked like prior to my spraying knock down on the walls and ceiling:

Update at the Flip House Jan. 30, 2015

The stairwell walls going into the basement are now painted!  Here's what it's looking like as of today: