FABULOUS FLIP

It is officially....For Sale By Owner

2009-11-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Friday, I showed the house to not one...but TWO people.....Now the waiting game begins......This is the hard part. I am so ready to have this house sold and move on to the next thing. Probably, getting a job.
This was done all wrong...according to "How to Flip the right way".....We never thought one month after purchasing the house, the housing market would take a dive...I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. I have learned so very much that I will be able to take with me either in another flip, or just remodeling of our house. I am not afraid to tackle anything now.

So, this is my last post because I am taking down this site while the house is on the market. So, for the last time, enjoy the pictures of the finished product......

Until my next adventure...Thanks for sharing this with me....See ya soon....never know where......

Lights~Camera~Action

2009-09-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to rock-n-roll over at the ol' flip house.....

We got the ceiling fan installed in the kitchen last night so that........are you ready for this............

the tile guy can see to install the countertops in the kitchen......yes, you heard me right, someone else is going to install the tile....My sweet husband is so over worked he has decided to let someone else do it...Now, we ALL know he can and does a fabulous job, but he has NO time......I so excited...It's like Christmas this week....We went to Home Depot and purchased a kitchen sink, all the trim work, faucets, tile, and lights....I can't wait to get this house staged....That is actually what I have been waiting for all this time.....

Pictures will follow this week, because hopefully, keeping fingers crossed, it will be on the market in two weeks......yeepee...........

A Girl's Gotta Do What A Girl's Gotta Da

2009-09-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

I sitting here in my bedroom with no clothes on, waiting on my husband to get home, thinking of a million things I REALLY need to be doing instead of this....Yes, I agree this is WAY MORE INFORMATION than anyone needs to be reading about!!! However, there is TRULY a method to my madness....No, I'm not trying to have any more children!!! I NEED my husband to say "yes" to something...And having been married 17+ years, I know what gets their attention...Cheap trick? You bet ya....I have heard what makes a good sales person is having the "right" tools....Well my tools might be rusty and worn, but he still likes them......

So, to get to my point.....I found someone that can help us finish this house....Not free, but I have SO learned, you get what you pay for....He can tile our entire counter-tops for a very reasonable price...Not only that, he can do just about anything we need him to do to finish this house by the end of September.....which is my NEW 10th deadline.....

So, sorry, no pictures of this one....just read this and throw this away in your mind....Hopefully I will come back with positive results....If not, I'll have to sharpen my tools......

Da Cabinets Da Cabinets

2009-08-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

I can't help but think of Tee-Too on Fantasy Island when he got so excited when he saw the plane coming to the island with it's guest.....I feel like that today....We got the cabinets installed....Oh yeah!!!! I am truly starting to see we might actually get this house finished in my lifetime!!!

I finished painting the mud room...so, now I will move into the laundry room and get that textured...Not looking forward to that...I am sick and tired of texturing...

Also, discovered a big mistake made...we now have to tile the counter tops instead of Formica...because of the way the corner of the cabinets are, the seam would hit where the sink goes and you can't have that....just a learning process.....

I am getting excited to finish this....

It's the Room that NEVER ends....

2009-08-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am making pretty good progress....I have almost finished putting the texture on the walls in the "mud~room"...In fact one of my dearest friends came to the house to see the progress and bring me a much welcomed strawberry shake showed me a new "texturing" technique that looked much better and was MUCH faster, so I finished the walls with that.......FINISHED!!!! Now I can paint....Oh wait, there is a wall going to the back yard I had not done...are you kidding me....I just finished cleaning up the texture.......Now, I got to get it all back out....I was so mad I got the paint out and painted the corners so I can roll the walls tomorrow....But I will have to finish that one wall....I swear I think those walls grow...This has taken FOREVER!!!!!

I'm really holding out hope to get the cabinets hung this weekend so we can move forward in the kitchen....But I have held out hope on a lot of things and was let down....so, I'm okay if it doesn't happen....I just REALLY REALLY REALLY want this house on the market by September and I am running out of August quickly!!!!

Update soon.........................

I'm So Excited~ I just can't hide it!!

2009-08-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

Another productive day!!!!!! I finished painting the kitchen....Now all we need is to install the cabinets :/ and stage...My favorite part!!!!

Then I moved into the "mudroom" and almost finished texturing the walls...I just got tired and had to quit....It is beginning to look soooo good.....

My oldest came over and mowed, edged, and blew away the grass...Now it looks good again.....

At the end of the day, my husband put the cabinets in the kitchen so we could see how they are going to look....It was so exciting....It is beginning to look a lot like finishing!!!!

We are in panic mode right now...Well, I am....We need the money now to pay tuition for the boys private school....so, it needs to be sold...They start in ONE week!!! YIKES!!!

wind sail~gone

2009-07-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Right now I should be sanding walls and doing texture..However, I'm sitting at home having my pity party....ALL the work I did yesterday (putting down texture to hide all the mistakes) was for nothing....You can see every mistake....Now, I get to sand what I did and try to repair all the mistakes from the incompetent workers.....
I was so pumped yesterday...I got dressed and bought more stuff to stage with...Couldn't wait to get over there and set it out. Today, it sits at my house....I don't even have the strength today to face it and go over and stage...I really thought I would be painting by the weekend...Hopefully next weekend, if I work everyday next week. I still have done nothing with my kids...They have pretty much sat at this house doing nothing all summer. We have not gone on any road trips....Now we are sitting here with August on top of us...we are about to start back to school....
Tomorrow, I will get up, get dressed, and head back over there to start sanding. Today, I just want to sit and veg......

solution for kitchen walls

2009-07-29T10:16:00.001-07:00

I am soooo excited!!! The criminals we had do our walls in the kitchen messed it up, along with everything else they touched, however, I found a solution last night to hide all the mess up and it looks really good....I was really excited!!! I went over there this morning and finished the entire kitchen...Now paint, hang cabinets, appliances, and we are DONE in the kitchen.....Please come soon, please come soon....I wish I could find someone to hang my cabinets for me...but for free...that is wishful thinking...but, can't blame me for wishing.....
Now, I moved into the mudroom and started doing the same thing....Who knew that years ago as a little girl playing in the mud I would be playing in the mud again...this time white mud with a purpose.....I can't wait to get back over there and finish that room so that I can paint, flooring, hang laundry door, and be done with that room...then finish up some small details and be done, done, done.........
Gotta go eat, lunch break is over!!!!!

Back At Work

2009-07-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

My sister and her family have come and gone, so we got back over the house and started working again........We worked most of the day Saturday and Sunday. The boys came Saturday to help. One mowed the lawn...the other helped paint the trim work outside. I put the shutters back up on the house to see how it looks and I like it...

I stained the kitchen cabinets so that when it is time to hang them, that will be done....

Sunday, I plastered the kitchen ceiling until I ran out of mud. I also outlined the front flower bed getting that ready for flowers....that curb appeal thing.....

We have GOT to sell this house...it's killing us....school is about to start and our money is tied up with this house.....

Better go, and finish the ceiling in the kitchen...will update later...

Silence is Golden

2009-07-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Silence is Golden"....not sure where this term originated, however, it does NOT apply here....The house sits empty of workers but full of projects....

I have had my family here all week long and honestly, I don't want to think about this house right now....But, as I sit here not thinking about it, we get the bills piling up....and our boys private school tuition is coming due and so here goes that nasty roller coaster again....

I must finish this house now....I want to set a new deadline of the first of August...but every time I set a deadline...that day comes...that day goes.....and no closer than before...

I have totally failed in this project...I have done everything wrong....Mostly, I didn't have the one thing you must have....MONEY!!!!

Now, we must get rid of it to send that money to private school.......

What a Difference A Day Makes

2009-06-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

okay, I had to end this day on a positive note.....My husband rocks!!!! We all loaded up and went to the house today...I started taping the walls to prepare them for paint....Jim edged outside and the boys picked up many many piles of brush we are clearing out....Then Jim came in and took over where I stopped because I had to go outside to interfere with the boys fighting....Jim tapped the entire room (what was sheetrocked) now, we have to close up the middle of the ceiling and tape the rest and get ready to paint.....trim out windows, carpet, and rock and roll in that room.....then on to the kitchen....

Outside looks a lot better....we are getting NO rain, so I had to water a lot today.....Jonathan mowed the front and the back.....Didn't get to finish everything I had hoped because the boys ran out of things to do and getting tired and hungry...so, we locked up and came home.....to enjoy a wonderful meal.....

Monday, we are going to the lake to have a picnic lunch and just have fun.....I have not done anything with the boys like that all summer and we are going to do it....Tuesday, I will hit it hard...I have got to repaint the trim on the outside.....It looks really bad..... And stain the cabinets.....I think I might have Jim talked into to taking some days off to really hit it hard.....

We will see...I have got to stay focused and take it one day at a time.....It's when I look down the road I get scared.....

Warrior Fallen

2009-06-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

If this sounds bitter today....it's just where I am.....I'll be better tomorrow....Here I am sitting on the end of June and I don't feel I'm any closer finishing this project than before....We had someone working all week long and still the "mudroom" is not finished with dry wall......I'm not real happy with my husband right now....we had agreed to not put in a drop ceiling with the flood lights...previous owner had that idea and with him living in this house, I could see it, however, it is now a flip house and in this neighborhood, it's not needed.....I don't want to sit here and say, I told you so, but today we are looking at a two week project STILL NOT DONE!!!!!! The guy working said, after finishing this drop down ceiling, "it did take too long.." DUH!!!! Is this my project or not!!!!!!

I'm going over there today, both boys are going to have to clear out brush so that my oldest can mow...then we must water, and I have got to stain the cabinets so when ready, they are not waiting on me..

I usually get charged up on Saturdays because I watch Property Ladder...today I'm just mad.....I' m watching all these people going through the same struggle I am, however, they make enough profit to go do this again......Difference is, they don't have two boys in private school, a HUGE warehouse sucking all our money away.......

So, when this house is on the market, we get to go over to the warehouse and get that monster ready......I have got to get recharged somehow.....I am so done with all of it.....I'm only defeating myself when I get this attitude.....

So, I'm going to go eat lunch, get my troops together, and go work.......I just feel so bad for them, they have YET to do anything this summer....

Time is Ticking!!

2009-06-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

My new date of mid-June is here and the house is STILL NOT READY!!! I am past the point of frustration!!! We have hired a guy that actually knows what he's doing and LOVES to work...Imagine that!!!! He has busted it...the Mud room got the new lights, drywall coming up (would have been done, however, the idiots that did our house did that house and so most of the time is spent redoing the screwup from them)...
All the medal flashing is up around the house....I painted the trim in the front...Got too hot and needed to wait until it got cooler to finish....so, I decided to try something to the front brick..The house is painted yellow and just needed some color so I thought I would paint the window frame black and even went so far as to paint the window panes trim black...YUCK!!! It looked like a rebellious teenagers room...so I had to paint over that and thought I would paint it white...That didn't look good either, so now it's gonna have to go back to yellow.... Took the shutters off the middle part of the house to see what that would look like, and I don't like that either.....so, now I have to paint yet again....yellow trim, and put the shutters back on....
I painted the door black....That looks good....Now the next thing is landscape and that will really make the house look better from the outside....Curb appeal...that's what gets them in the door.

Tomorrow, I will go back over and stain the kitchen cabinets so that we can get those installed.....

I'm trying to stay positive, however, I am tired...tired of this consuming my summer....the boys summer... however, if we don't sell this house....we are in big trouble....

The total price is...

2009-05-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

WOW!! Things are so very expensive.....Jim and I went today and bought all the cabinets for the kitchen...This was not as fun as I had hoped....I don't do numbers all that well, and you really have to know measurements....We had to lay it out, measure it, and take off for dishwasher, oven, refridge, sink...all that stuff you don't always think about....We purchased them, got them to the house, and we put them in the kitchen to look at the layout...They are AWESOME!!!!!! But I have almost depleated my "flip" credit card....It doesn't take long...

We have decided to get some help...We have a friend that will be coming on Monday to help us cut while we nail the trimwork on the side of the house....My dream of getting this on the market by May is over...Now, I'm looking at June....This house REALLY needs to be sold by August.....But, it MUST be ready to sell by middle of june......

This next week the concentration will be on the outside and the mudroom....We need to put the sheetrock on in the mudroom... and finish that out....once that is done, I can paint that room, put the carpet down and that room is DONE....Outside, we have to finish putting the cedar up around the house, put on all the trim, and paint....then it's done.....Then the kitchen....cabinets, appliances, tile, beadboard, paint...and that room is done...which means the house is done.....READY to be put on the market!!!!

Hold on, I hope to report good news at the end of this week.......Lots of work done..Hopefully!!

Keeping my Hopes up.......

each "no" gets you closer to your yes

2009-05-09T18:28:00.001-07:00

That is what Jim told me today when I waited and waited for our "potential" clients to show up at our flip house... and they never did....they called once and were out looking and would call when they got through with that, and never did.....And to think I was so mad at myself for not doing more to get the house ready...The living room and bedrooms look really good...Kitchen and mud room and outside is where we have GOT to focus and get it done....I am so ready to be done with this project.....yes, it has been fun, what has not been fun is not having the funds to do what needs to be done....

We busted it last night and this morning...we did things that needed to be done anyway, but WOW, we are tired...and somewhat disappointed that they never showed up...I'm taking the day off tomorrow (mother's day) and we are going to the air force air show....should be fun....Monday, I will start again...I've got to tackle the backyard now...it's a jungle back there....and finally do the trim painting on the front....

signing off tired and disappointed, but not surprised.....

Time is out

2009-05-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

We got the house painted...But not the trim...I still don't have the paint for that...However, I forgot this was Mayor's Prayer Breakfast which meant Jim could not take off to help....So, needless to say, I got nothing done since Monday. However, Monday, I got all the hardwood floors cleaned and polished, staged the bedrooms, competely staged the living room and ready to go for the most part. Now, just need those people to look at this house and fall madly in love with it and want to buy it...ready to be done with this house.......I guess I'll go back over there on Saturday and get started on the paint.....

I can't do it...

2009-05-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

there is someone that is interested in looking at the house next Saturday....I am killing myself to get this house DONE!!! We have broken every rule on "how to flip successfully"....mainly, the month after we bought it, the housing market died...just our luck..however, I am not going to dwell on the negative....God has been very good to us....we got a blessing the other day which will allow us to continue to fund this never ending project...

this weekend I bought drapes for every window and put them up...The look pretty good...Remember, trying to spend NO money...drapes cheaper than blinds...besides, gotta know location of house....also, jim came over saturday and trimmed out all the bedroom windows...now, I will need to sand them and get them cleaned up....then we are finished with the bedrooms....I pulled up the old floor in the master bath and replaced it. It looks a lot cleaner...got to put the commode back and that room will be finished...I already staged it....beach theme..that was exciting....

Today, my wonderful boys and I went to the house around 3 and painted the entire outside...it looks sooooo good....I was so very excited about that....I wish I could go over there right now and finish....neighbors probably wouldn't like it....Tomorrow, I will go and buy the white trim paint and get that done, hopefully, tomorrow....won't have a lot of time because I have a sports banquet to go to....It will really be nice when the boys are out of school, however, I need the house on the market so I can get the elementary exposure across the street....

I have so much to do before saturday and with no help...jim has the mayors prayer breakfast on wednesday and thursday, so he is out....I have got to get the windows finished, floors cleaned up, and stage as much as I can before Saturday.....I am a nervous wreck!!! But I really like doing this...I know I will be tired of it by Friday, however, I am excited to see the progress...

Posting a before picture...the weeds took over...we pulled each one of these by hand.....UHHH!!! that was hard...however, it looks better and those things won't be back....jonathan will mow later this week and ryan will help me plant flowers, maybe..if there is time....and I'll post pictures of that.....

better try to go to bed...my mind is racing and can't sleep....but it's really late and I've got so much to do....

READY, WILLING, BUT SO NOT ABLE

2009-01-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

I am so very frustrated!!! I have not worked on the house for over a month..Christmas and all, just too much going on outside this house.....So, this week, I am ready to go..I got my plans all laid out...what to do, and even how long it should take me to do it...Now talk about over planning....I wake up on Thursday and feel lousy!! I mean my throat hurts, my legs hurt, my head hurts...everything hurts....
Friday comes and I feel worse than the day before....So, not to be defeated, I got all the "things" needed to stage the house should I EVER finish it...I went so far as to write out what picture goes in what room. The theme of each of the rooms.... Boxed it up and labeled it...put all the papers in my notebook, made a picture out of wall paper, and laid on the couch the rest of the day.....
I want so badly to be working today.....MAN!!!!

Today, we went to the house so that I could measure all the windows for treatments......I spray painted the trim on a mirror in the master bath...Took all my boxes for staging and I was like a kid playing house....I can't wait to stage this house...both inside and out...

Next week, hopefully, I can get over there and start working again....

We'll see.....

MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND

2008-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I couldn't work on the house because I had to go in for a root-canal!! Okay, someone shoot me NOW!!! The tooth has an infection so I have been on an antibiotic for two weeks....So, today is the day to finish what was supposed to be a simple putting on of a crown....

So, I am talking to my husband on my cell phone...just going over the day with him and I drive up to the dentist office and he is standing outside waiting for me...That was such a wonderful surprise!! We talked for a moment and he prayed with me before I went in for my lovely procedure.....Then while I was in the dental office, he took my car and had it serviced!! No more "maintenance required" button shining in my face!!!

After I left the dentist office with NO feeling in my left cheek because of 5 shots!!! I went home to rest....He decided to take an office day and just be with me...Now, I really didn't need anyone to stay with me...But I LOVE it when he stays home!!!!

We got out and ran some errands and one the way home, he mentioned stopping at another thrift shop to continue our quest for finding the little round table!!!!

There she was!!!! The perfect little round table with the worst paint job EVER and three chairs!! All I needed was two and the best thing....It was only $70.00 for all of it!!! We couldn't even build just the table for that!!! I am so excited....I wanted to call Jim....but he was there with me!!!!! We proudly stuffed our little round table (which didn't seem so little cramming it in our car) and our three chairs and brought home for a good sanding and striping and a black staining to make it look just right in the new kitchen!!!! It's starting to come together.....

We went to the house and we measured for cabinets for the kitchen..we made some decisions on the fastest way to make the kitchen come together and we are going with that!!! Should take a good two days of work and that kitchen will be done....That is the major interior project!!! Then we need to move outside before it gets too cold.....

No work today...Just don't feel like it today...I will come back Monday and get started....

What a perfect ending to a good work week....Just spending time with Jim talking about our vision about this house and wishing he could be doing this with me every day.....I second that!!!

Still Painting

2008-11-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

Thursday ~ 11-6-08
Still painting the wall....One thing I have learned ( I learned this a while back, but didn't implement it) is cheap paint is not good on a time crunch....It takes too long to paint over and over again...So, I can't paint the massive baseboards until I get better paint...I am finished painting the bathroom...Now, I have to pull up the floor...yuck...It is going to be hard....Such a small area and hard to get any tool in there to rip up the floor....

I addressed the windows...Some of the windows were replaced and some weren't...The ones that weren't are original to the house and I really like them...So, I decided to clean them really good and see how they would look....BEAUTIFUL!!!! I had to call Jim....we decided to just clean them and re-glaze them and live with them...Huge savings in MONEY!! Now, we can add that money to the kitchen budget....which will be the bulk of the budget!!!

Started spray painting the inside fireplace fire box...It is that ugly yellow brick color... So, the fire place has that yellow brick, a red brick hearth, and black tile around the outside...TOO many colors...so, the black spray paint will tone all that down. ...Once done there, I have to build a mantel....

My first week of work coming to a close and I don't feel too good about progress...There is SO much I can't do...So, I have to wait...And again, it's that patience thing again....

Painting Takes so long

2008-11-08T11:49:00.001-08:00

Tuesday ~ 11-4-08
I painted and I painted and I painted.....When you have to cover up a DARK color, it takes a while....Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of patience (already mentioned that earlier) when it comes to projects...I have watched too much HGTV where they can renovate an entire house in 30 minutes....

I am working on the master bathroom....It is painted dark blue from around waist down with wains coating on top...It has a baby blue bathtub that can't be moved so the color wheel needs to match that....I am wanting to do a "spa" like bath....I down loaded four tropical black and white pictures and I am going to frame them in black frames.....

I found the shower curtain at Ross for $3.99!! I had to call Jim.....I have to call Jim every time I find something for the house....You should have seen when I painted that blue wall and walked back in to see bright white walls.....I called him.....he is so great he just reinforces my excitement.....

Oh, I want to put it all together and stage....I need a small round table......for the kitchen.....I have looked everywhere...online, garage sales, thrift shop (BTW, they are not cheap) we even looked in to making one....that's what we need another project!!! Oh well, in pursuit of table.......

The House is Mine!!!

2008-11-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

Monday~ 11-3-08

The furniture is gone and the house is now mine.....

I went over today and cleaned...The owner had not lived there for over a year, so needless to say, it needed some cleaning....

It felt so good...I know that sounds really strange....I usually don't like cleaning up someone else's mess, for that matter, I don't even like cleaning up my own mess, but it really was fun cleaning....

Now, I have a clean slate to work from.....

Here we go....

OCTOBER 3, 2008 Today is closing day

2008-11-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

The house I was writing about earlier, is now ours.....we closed on it today. We signed the papers, got to eat some fabulous cookies, and left....I gotta tell you, I AM SCARED!!! Can I really do this? Yes, I have said for many years flipping houses is what I really want to do...Now, it's mine and I am scared....

We have to wait three weeks for the furniture to be moved out.....

Until then...it's more waiting!!! That is not what I am known for...patience!!!