Adventures in House Flipping

6 Jun

You might notice a slight slow down in progress around 12 Oaks as we have a new project underway– a flip! Ben has actually done a dozen of these over the last 4 years, but over the last year or so it has been hard to find them. Foreclosures were getting bought up by big hedgefunds who would come in way above asking just to make big quotas. So we were happy to finally get another one for the right price.

We closed on it Memorial Day weekend, and so far have pretty much gutted it inside and cleared the property of dead and overgrown trees outside. We plan to have it 100% complete by mid-July. So a quick timeline to get a lot done as you will see.

Here is the front of the house. We will be landscaping and replacing the gutters, soffits and facia.

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We will be adding a new garage door, re-surfacting the retaining wall (seen on the left), and adding a new light.

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Here’s the back of the house. We are building a deck back here and have already cleared out the dead and too-close-to-the-house trees.

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It has a nice little private backyard.

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Here is the living room off the front of the house. We will be adding can lights in the ceiling, new paint and carpet.IMG_1518

Another view of the living room looking toward the kitchen.IMG_1519

The kitchen was a complete gut and we didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it before. But just imagine some nasty old cabinets, vinyl flooring and no appliances.IMG_1515

The kitchen will get new cabinets, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and floating laminate flooring that looks like wood.

Right now this is the only bathroom in the house. It will get a new vanity, lights, tile flooring, tub surround and toilet. Can you believe the toilet is almost rotted right through the floor? Gross!

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This is the hallway with the 3 bedrooms off of it. Paint, trim, new doors and new lights in here. We plan to keep the floors in here and the 3 bedrooms.IMG_1510

Here is one of the bedrooms, and they all look pretty similar. They will each get new lights, trim, doors and paint.IMG_1508

Off the kitchen are stairs down to the basement.IMG_1517

We are going to completely finish the basement, adding 2 bedrooms, a living room and laundry room. Pretty much a blank slate down here now.

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And here is the inside of the garage which will get insulated, drywalled and painted.

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Who wants to move in? No one? Hopefully this place is unrecognizable in another 6 weeks. We will share some after pics when it’s all done!

Front Yard Makeover

27 May

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! Ben and I took advantage of the long weekend by landscaping our front walkway. This included a whopping 105 plants, three 450 lb. boulders and 2 dump trailers full of mulch. You can see how it took us most of the weekend. But hey its fun to play in the dirt. Plus I read on a sign once: “Gardening: cheaper than therapy.”

We were fortunate enough to have a landscape architect friend draw us out a beautiful plan. The plan is half the battle and extremely important, so we were very grateful to have it. It gave us the confidence going in knowing what we were planting would look great and all the plants would thrive in their conditions.

IMG_3151To get ready for the plantings, first we had to cut down the ugly spruce tree that was growing too close to the house.

old treeThen we had to dig up and overturn all the garden beds. We rented a rotary tiller from Home Depot (3 hours for $40) to break it up and make it easier to dig. IMG_3144We got all the plantings at a wholesale nursery less than a mile away from our place. Which was good because it took 2 trips to get them home. Here they all are piled up in the driveway.

IMG_3147And now some before and afters!

Before:

IMG_3087After:IMG_3178Seen above are cone boxwoods flanking the front door and 5 smaller boxwoods, which will create a hedge. In front of those are a bunch of happy returns day lilies which will bloom yellow.landscaping 2Above are 6 knockout rose bushes and behind the boulder are 3 korean lilacs. We also made a new window box and filled it with trailing Calibrachoa.

IMG_3192Before/After of the path looking towards the driveway:landscaping1Before from farther back:IMG_3085

After:IMG_3176The grass got pretty torn up while we were working on everything but we spread seed and it should look good in no time!

Before/After:landscaping3Before/After:landscaping4In the area above by the garage are burning bushes (which go red in the fall) in the back, then top spirea in the middle (they have a white bloom) and then a bunch of autumn joy sedum (bloom pink) in the front and on the opposite side of the walkway.

Before:IMG_3083After:

IMG_3186The purple flowers above are May Night Salvias, more knockout roses behind those and then 3 hydrangeas on the corner.

IMG_3222Around the boulders above we transplanted a ground cover called vinca.

To go along with our beautiful new landscaping, I picked up a couple of wicker chairs at Target and a garden stool from Home Goods. The pillows we already had from World Market last year. In the pots are lavenders (smell so nice) and some hostas we transplanted.

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We also planted some flowers in urns we already had. These were pre-made arrangements which we just transferred over, and for only $15/piece, it was cheaper than buying individuals and making our own.IMG_3221We used the extra mulch to put around all of the trees in the front, which makes everything look a lot tidier.IMG_3213

IMG_3209While our backyard is still under disarray, we plan to spend quite a bit of time out here. Exhibit A: Ben relaxing with a cold beer after a weekend of labor.

IMG_3225And just for kicks, here is flash back of the house when it was overtaken by weeds when we bought it. Crazy!

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“The best money I’ve ever spent”

21 May

That’s what Ben said last night about our newest upgrade- Sonos. For those not familiar with Sonos, it is a wireless home music system that you control on your iPhone, iPad or computer.

I have to admit I wasn’t as excited as he was about getting the Sonos (guys go crazy over that stuff), but now that it’s in, it is awesome!

Ben had been eyeing getting a Sonos system for a while, so when we had the ceilings open after we took out the wall, it was the perfect time to get it installed. Ben became friends with one of his subcontractors, Ish, who is a audio/video specialist and he put together a package for us which included:

  • Two in-ceiling speakers for the kitchen/living room/dining room
  • Two rock speakers by the pool
  • One dual speaker mounted outside on the back of the house.

Speaker collage

Because Ish is a contractor he was able to get it a little cheaper than consumers. Plus being a friend, he installed everything for just $200. Ben was his helper for the afternoon and assisted him running all the wires and cutting holes in the ceiling.

Ben and Ish enjoying a beer after install

Ben and Ish enjoying a beer after install

Both of us were surprised about how cool it really is and how easy it is to use. We just downloaded the apps on our phones, and can now play our iTunes, Pandora stations, radio stations from around the world, and more (Sirius, Spotify, etc). You can play the same or different music inside or out by the pool. Friends who come over can play from their devices. I really like the “queue” function where we can each add songs to a playlist. Ish was even able to hook up our record player (Ben has started a pretty decent record collection), so we’re now able to play records inside or outside.

The Sonos website says their goal is to “make listening a valued experience again” and it is kind of cheesy but true. We sat up until midnight last night just listening to music, each alternating playing D.J.

We’re looking forward to listening to music a lot more and having some fun parties out by the pool!

Once said pool doesn’t look like this…..

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A+B Wedding Video

9 May

It took forever but we finally got our wedding videos back. Here is a 5-min. recap of my favorite day ever… complete with some pretty ridiculous dancing!