Sneak Peek

We're getting closer each day!  We won't quite hit our goal of getting the house listed by October 1st, but we'll only be off by a tiny bit.  Not bad!  It's worth a small delay to get the job done right.

Here's a sampling of the transformation this property has undergone:

Recent Progress

Luke has been working loooong hours to get this house on the market by the end of the month - he's been getting lots of fun stuff done.  Check out the progress (photos taken with Luke's phone):

After new windows, paint, and light fixture.  We pulled up the nasty carpet to find hardwood floors...that were beyond repair.  We're going to have wood floors, but have to put new floors over the top of the destroyed living room floor boards.  I love the look of the wood floors with this paint color though, and it's true to the era of the house to stick with wood:

I'm THRILLED with the exterior paint scheme.  This one was my choice, so I'm relieved! :-)

Bathroom tub and tile. Instead of having to cut a row of tile into awkward little slivers, Luke had the genius idea to buy a couple of inexpensive (but beautiful) sheets of glass tile to make up the difference.  What a great little touch of character too!

Kitchen and dining area with new paint, refinished cabinets, new hardware, new light fixtures (which I adore and want in MY house), and tile floor.  This photo does not reflect the fact that the floor is now finished, and the dishwasher is in place and ready to be hooked up.  Next order of business: counter-top and sink.

I'll be going through and taking excruciatingly detailed 'after' photos, and will put them up with their 'before' counterpart when it's time.

Clock's a-tickin'!  We're down to two more weeks until October...hoping to have the house listed by October 1st!

Finally

After weeks and weeks of early mornings, late nights, and long days...finally...we're putting the house back together!

Until this point, we've been doing demo and repair.  We've had piles of smelly, smoky, dirty drawers and cabinet doors lying around.  We've been mopping and scrubbing the dirt and crud from the walls.  We've been filling a giant trailer with beyond repair house pieces and parts.

But now, it's time for the really fun part!  The interior of the house is going to be two-toned.  An antique white will be on the trim, ceiling, and cabinet doors - a tan color will be on the walls.  This photo is of the kitchen with the trim color on - the base tan color will be on the soffit above the trim.

The most significant note today is that there are cabinet doors hung - it's starting to look like a kitchen again :-)

The exterior of the house was a disaster, and a huge time consuming project.  Although we could have done the work ourselves, we just didn't have the bandwidth this time.  It pained us to hire it out, but it sure is nice to have an extra set of hands there today.  The exterior was pressure washed last week, and today the painter is scraping and caulking. It should be just a few days before he can put paint up on the exterior.

Before you know it, we'll be placing the new appliances and installing new carpet.

I LOVE THIS PART!

In the Works

Found a great deal on some beautiful floor tile we're going to use in the kitchen.  Who would have guessed that a savvy shopper could lay tile for less $$ than linoleum?!  Dropped it off at the house this morning, and took some more pictures while we were there.

The outside (after LOTS of overgrown and/or dead plants were pulled out).  It has a nice two car carport, a solid roof, and some neat craftsman style details.  Clearly, it needs new exterior paint.  If paint were the only work it needed, we'd do it ourselves...but the inside is going to be our priority.  The exterior paint is the only work we're planning on hiring out.

Kitchen (after removal of appliances and destroyed cabinets).  The rest of the cabinets are going to be resurfaced, and this is the floor we're going to put tile on.

The funky living room:

The bathroom (after ripping it down to it's studs/slats).  There are some rotten floorboards, but they're easily replaced.  Found a nice tub today :-)

Upstairs Bedrooms:

Stairs to the pit basement:

We've already removed one wall to open up this downstairs family room and give the space more light and room.

We're leaving one of the rooms in the basement.  Without proper egress windows, we can't technically call it a bedroom.  There is, however, a nice closet in this room.  Maybe an office?

That dinged up wall right there?  We're taking it out to make this a really nice basement family room.

This is the corner of the basement that used to contain the rusted out water heater and a crooked work bench.  This whole room will be getting a coat of paint - this will actually be a very nice sized laundry and storage room.  It's plumbed for another toilet too.  We'll have to see what the numbers look like after we get the basics in.  A second bathroom would be a great selling feature.

And the door heading back upstairs:

New Project Before Photos

I woke with a start one early Sunday morning.  Luke was already gone to begin demo on the new 36th Street project, and I hadn't gotten pictures!  Oh no!  I called him in a panic...he had already taken pictures with his iPhone.  Good man!

Here's the first round of "before" pictures.  

The living room:

This picture doesn't do the dirt justice.  If you walked through this house, I could almost guarantee that you'd have the thought "how could anyone live like this?!".  Truly filthy.

The kitchen:

Basement:

These walls are pretty typical to the doors and walls in the rest of the house.  We're told by neighbors that an "angry drunk and his kids" lived in this home.  It's filled with what look like punch and kick holes.  There's also lots of profanity written in marker on the bedroom walls.  

You can practically feel the pain that existed within these walls.  Can't wait to breathe some new life into this cute little house.

You can't tell in this photo, but the water heater is rusted through on the bottom, and is sitting in a puddle of water.  First order of business: get that thing out of there, cap off the line, and get water flowing to the house again.

Bathroom.  This room was just flat scary!  It was covered in mildew - we didn't even think about starting demo on this room without first dousing the whole room in bleach and letting it soak for 24 hours.  Even then, the guys used an air purifier and their best breathing masks.  It's especially nice how the previous owner plugged a lamp into the wall socket, and then placed the lamp right next to the tub.  Foolish and dangerous!

Apparently, they didn't like the looks of the pipe running through their medicine cabinet.  They cut small squares of wallpaper and glued them to the pipe.  Oi.

Some of Our Other Projects

We've been enjoying the challenges and joys of remodeling homes in the Boise area since 1998!  Would you like to see some of our work?  Click on the tabs at the top of this page and you'll be led to before and after photos.

*Still under construction - thanks for your patience :-)

A New Project!

Well, after the last flip flop (ha!), I thought our house flipping days might be over.  We put our heart and souls into the Gem Street house, only to lose our shirts.  The market tanked, we put too much into the renovation, aaaand....we just got greedy and arrogant.  It was a painful lesson.

Here's a link to the last flip we did:  Gem Street House

Just when we came to the realization that we simply are not US without a project, a new house fell into our laps.  It almost seemed too good to be true.  After many sleepless nights, a couple of thorough spreadsheets, and tons of prayer...we decided to call it a gift from God instead of another opportunity for disaster.

We're so excited about this new project - talk about room for improvement!  It's in a nice part of town, it's definitely the ugly duckling in the neighborhood, and comparable sales show plenty of margin for us to work with.  Also, it's structurally solid with a new roof - the needed improvements are plentiful, but they're all cosmetic.

Stay tuned for "Before" photos.