There are certainly different seasons in our lives when
we decide to do something different.
Right now this is what we have been doing.
We meaning my husband Dana and I.
Since August 2014, we have been discussing
new plans with our son Jeremiah, of working on buying and selling
houses. So I started looking for cheap houses in our area to
purchase and flip. It is a very difficult market where we live,
we even had several homes we put offers in on,
But things just were not working out for us in our home state.
Jeremiah started looking for houses in other areas of the U.S.,
and alas, our partnership formulated and we started buying
houses together. Two houses to date, we have purchased together.
Jer found 3 houses, one house he bought for a rental,
and 2 houses we purchased together
in the south and our adventure began.
It took a little time to get there, trying to get our schedules together,
and April of 2015 began the trek to our newly purchased houses.
As we were planning this, Jer was sent to Germany for 6 months with
his job, and thus we were able to work together for only one week,
and then Dana and I were on our own to finish the houses.
The first day we were introduced to a contractor, whom we
really like, and we have been working as a team to finish the houses
we purchased. A note here, our contractor was the best thing
we ever found! He is worth his weight in gold!
It took about a month and a half to finish this house, we will name as
the Woodsman house, and get it on the market.
2 weeks later accepted an offer and we are up and ready
to finish our first flip, and let the new owner take over.
Well, that was the first buyer, we found out
2 months later that the buyer did not qualify for the loan
and the house went back on the market.
Then 7 weeks later after that we accepted an offer
lower that we had anticipated, and the house
finally sold.
We were able to make a $18,000 profit which was split with our son.
It has been a challenge but at the same time very enjoyable.
I love to decorate, but I also love to work.
Some days we work so hard I get back to the house and crash
Not even thinking there could be anything else to do but stop!
But as a whole we are enjoying this new chapter in our lives.
Here are picture of Woodsman Flip.
Outside of House
This house originally had green shudders and pink pillars!
We also added the arch over the front window
purchased at Habitat for Humanity.
Living room
I know these pictures aren't that great, our next few flips are better,
and I will tell you about that experience also as time goes on.
The living area didn't have the arch window or the open doorways,
even though there were doorways there, they were much smaller,
the floors were vinyl, and the kitchen and living area
had 2 separate types of vinyl.
This room turned out awesome, love the floors, and we also had
a contractor come in and scrape the popcorn ceilings and paint for us.
Where the 2 hanging lights over the island now are, there was a
shop light, and none of the lights in the house had boxes in the
wall or ceiling to attach the fixtures to,
so Dana needed to install these for code.
Kitchen
This kitchen looks so awesome now! It originally was completely wallpapered
in floral/fruit wall paper, as were both bathrooms, laundry room, and closets wallpapered too, but in
different wallpapers. I spent 3 days just stripping wallpaper!
We used Mindful Grey from Sherwin Williams to paint the walls in the house,
We also had all new cupboard doors made for the kitchen and
new drawer pulls and knobs for the entire kitchen.
New black granite countertops, and a subway tile backsplash were added
to the kitchen as well.
The house flows really well with the laminate flooring that flows
from the front door through the living room to the kitchen and
all the way to the back door.
We also added the island to the kitchen with granite.
The island is made from 3 white cabinets from Home Depot.
Both bathrooms got new vanity tops and fixtures.
I love how the house turned out.
I will see if I can find some original photos of the inside of the house.
Our first house is a great success!
Here are the before pictures of the house.
The Kitchen, and both bathrooms, laundry room,
and pantry closets were all wall papered.
I have become a wall paper removal expert!!!!
The easiest way to remove wall paper is to buy fabric softener,
add it to water in a bucket, and with a sponge wipe the
water/fabric softener mixture on the wall paper.
Then let it soak in. Sometimes you have to pull off the original
layer of wall paper, then put the mixture on the underneath
part of the wall paper to wet it then remove with a scrapper.
This room the wall paper pulled right off, but not so in the
bathrooms. I spent 2-3 days removing wall paper from this house.
tearing out arch in kitchen wall
Kitchen
This is the wall we opened up and made an
arch between the living area and the kitchen.
Inside living room looking towards kitchen
Here it is in process.
Inside kitchen looking into living room
House number one finished and sold!
Yeah!!! Success!!
I will share each house as we go!
Robin
I just found some more before pictures!
Kitchen
Kids bathroom
Kitchen looking into laundry, pantry, master bedroom
living room where ladder is
Kitchen
Living room
Master bath
