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Jason's Blog

So while we didn’t actually flip our house to be sold again, we did quite a bit of work. Here is a summary of what was done to each room as well as pictures from before:

First we cleaned out the trash that was left behind. There was an entire Little Caesars Pizza, left in it’s box, in the oven. I had no idea they put so many toppings on a Pizza We trimmed the bushes along the front walkway and got rid of as much ivy as possible next to the back porch. We ripped up the carpet in every room and removed all light fixtures and fans. Throughout the house we replaced knobs, hinges and hardware from gold to oil-rubbed bronze.

The first 2 rows are before, the rest are after pics.

The banister in the living room was updated by removing the wooden balusters and replace them with black iron ones. We also stained the wood railing to match the other wood in the house. Everything was a classic 1990′s golden oak color. We brought it up to date with a nice red mahogany color.

The fireplace in the living room was painted a bold black to help accentuate the white mantle and crown moulding. Originally we were going to do this wall gray, but when we painted the gray, we decided it would look amazing throughout the main living area and kitchen. It really works well to contrast with the red wood color and whites and blacks. We also ripped up green carpet and replaced it with a nice warm laminate wood floor. To finish off the room, we bought black and white pictures of the flat-iron building in New York City. We also added some uplighting and picture lighting.

In the kitchen we left the original tile in place which saved a lot of money. We used the living room plywood floor to stain all the cabinets and drawers. We did leave the cabinet bases on the walls and just stained them in place. What a transformation from golden oak to red mahogany color! We left the original appliances for now with the exception of a refrigerator we bought from Lowe’s on Black Friday. Mandy’s red mirror from our old house look amazing in the dining room along with the new $300 chandelier we picked up at Lowe’s for $50. I did have to fix some wiring problems where the original owners had tried to make 2 light switches work with just one wire ran. Special people.

The basement is pretty much how it was with the exception of moldy insulation removed, a new water heater and furnace fan. Our home warranty covered the water heater and furnace repair, but only after incredible drama. Great thanks to our agent Mike Coutlee for stepping in and taking care of the situation with First American Home Warranty. Without him I would have been paying $800+ out of pocket.

The laundry room didn’t need a lot of help, other than the floor drain actually connected to something, and a bit of cleaning. We spray painted the existing closet organizer shelf to avoid replacing it needlessly.

In the first bedroom which is my office, we replaced the closet door handles and a few broken outlet covers. Oh and a ton of holes in the walls.

The 2nd bedroom closet doors were broken but with a bit of wood glue and some new hinge pieces, you would never know. They also needed new hardware to match our oil rubbed bronze style. This bedroom already had nice bead-board on the walls and a window surround which we kept. There was a few feet of mold under the carpet in the corner which we killed and sealed with Kilz Primer.

The master bedroom is the last down the hall and was probably the nastiest. The carpet was supposed to be white (I think). The only way we could tell was that they had never arranged their bedroom differently so you could see exactly where their bed was the whole time. In the closet they had thrown their shoes against the wall, all the way up to the ceiling. It was amazing. In the master bath they had glass shower doors covered in mildew as well as full out mold growing on the window. We had to kill this several times and repair the drywall around the window which was slightly rotted. Under the sink and jetted tub there was water damage which extended under the wall into the bedroom. We replaced the light fixture for something with sufficient picking potential and a new faucet to match our style. Instead of the glass shower doors, we prefer a curtain which really opens the small space up. It is also safer.

The hall bathroom had water damage as well with several tiles cracked against the tub where the plywood had literally rotted away. You could stick a few fingers in a hole into the basement. We patched it up, replaced the backer-board and used some extra tiles they left in the basement to retile the area. I caulked around the tub and the entire bathroom floor to help keep this from happening again.

Outside the house we added a dryer vent cover where there wasn’t one (to help keep the mice out) and filled in the gaps with expanding foam stuff. Let me just say that stuff is amazing, and it really does expand. I also rebuilt a few feet of the fence to keep the dog in and replaced a few boards that were broken. We got rid of the ivy growing up the house and along the side of the back porch. Neither of us like ivy, though I’m sure it will be back. We also replaced the exterior lights, doorbell and house numbers on the front of the house. All were old and gold. now they are nice, new and modern. We couldn’t get rid of the gold inlay in the front door window, so we just sprayed frost on it.

UPDATE: Added the after pictures to the gallery above. The first 2 rows are before, the rest are after pics.