Sunday, January 12, 2014

Re Flip...5...We Are Done...The Before and Afters



Hi everyone.  It has been a crazy end of the week and weekend for us but the house is 99% finished and it will be listed for sale today.

Here are some pictures of what we had to finish up.



Mike trimmed some of the bushes up front and is bagging up the debris:





Mike makes a final touch up round in the house.  Painting some of the nail holes we missed:




I am cleaning the wood floor in the kitchen.  There was some old paint splatter on it(not from us, lol).  Thankfully I was able to get it up:




Mike helping me with the rocks in the garden:



I continued to work on the rocks while Mike tore down a rotted piece of wood from the eaves:




I loaded up about 35 five gallon buckets of rock and brought them back to our current house and dumped them into the dumpster.  What a waste.



I got the front garden finished now I am up to this one:




I have half of it done:)




After I get the gardens finished I pressure wash the garage and the driveway.  I tried pressure washing the front of the house and ended up with mulch all over...ugh!!!  Now I know why I don't like mulch.  With rocks you can blow out gardens and clean houses and windows with pressure washers and never worry about making a mess.


Mike is up on the roof repairing the small hole that he found.  This is what caused the leak and the wood to rot.  Such an easy fix.  It took Mike less than 5 minutes to seal it.  All that damage and it could have easily been avoided:



The pool is clearing up....finally:




Mike has all of the new wood up.  Now he caulks it and I will paint it after the rain:



On Sunday we met with our Realtor at the house.  While her and Mike were talking I went out and painted the new eaves that Mike installed.


Here are some final pictures of this house after two weeks of work.  We did it:)


The before and afters

I am having trouble with my camera today.  It seems my lens has some spots on it.   I didn't realize this until after I loaded the pictures onto my computer but I was still able to get you some pictures:)


The smaller back bedroom before:


After:



The front spare bedroom before:


After:




The second bathroom before:


After:




The Master bedroom before:



After:




Before in the dining area off the kitchen before:



After:




The back den before:


Another before shot:



After:






And some random "after" shots.


The master bathroom:




Front looking back:




The Living room:




An old shot of the kitchen the first time around which is the same:




The front of the house:




We did it.  Mike and I got the re flip done in 2 weeks.  Now we can take a day off and then get back to the original flip house for this year:)  I hope you enjoyed this side show.

Have a great week and I will write again on Thursday.

Lisa:)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Re Flip...4 The Carpet Install



Good morning everyone.  I hope you all stayed warm this week.  It even got cold down here by Florida standards, lol.

Monday we took a break.  Mike got a cold and needed a day of rest.

Tuesday


I left Niki bundled up the day we went to meet the carpet installers:




Hmm...I remember cleaning these blinds once before:




The carpet and installers are here.  They have a crew of four and they are ready to get it done:)  


Here is one of the installers drilling into the concrete foundation.  The tack strips needed to be screwed down:




The carpet cut out for the main living room:





Getting ready to seam together two pieces in the back room:





Looks good:



These guys were good.  Not only were the seams done well but they cleaned up after themselves and vacuumed.  Some carpet installers don't do that.


While I was cleaning Mike had to deal with the AC/Heating man.  The unit was hooked up wrong and had to be done correctly.  A few hours and $250.00 later we now have heat.  The system was installed by another AC/Heating company.  Mike figured since this new system was installed in the summer...the guy in the attic just got the AC going and didn't do the heat because it was too hot up there.  We now know who not to call back.


Our new thermostat since the old one was also wrong.  Just a little touch up needed:





The carpet in the patio area room.  This is like an indoor outdoor carpet and was glued down.  Here is one of the installers rolling the carpet onto the glue so there is no buckling:




I washed and dried all of the curtains that were left in the house.  Now I get to iron.  I think curtains are the only thing I iron, lol:




Carpet going into the main room up front:





Wednesday


Back to Home Depot and the pool supply.  HD for mulch, plumbing, and lights and then the pool supply for shock.  Mike is having a heck of a time getting the pool clear.


Back at the house Mike works on the bathtub faucet that was missing while I start working in the gardens.

In this house Mike and I put rock in the gardens for maintenance free clean up.  With rocks the gardens can be blown out and nothing ends up all over the driveway.  Well the tenants wanted mulch so they added it right on top of the rock.  Grr!!!  Pure laziness.  So now I am in the process of cleaning out the entire gardens.  The brown mulch and rocks are all mixed together...what a mess. Once they are cleaned out I will add red mulch to spruce them up and also trim the plants:




I got this small portion almost cleaned out:




This is going to take awhile to do it right:






After I filled my four buckets with rock to take back to our dumpster I went back in the house to check on Mike.  He is having one heck of a time with the shower handle.  We bought three different ones for him to try.  While he was working in the second bathroom I went into the master bath to clean the shower,  Uh oh...this faucet is also broken.  Not good.  What did these people do to the water here?  The dishwasher was broken and both bathroom faucets were broken.  Geez.  Thankfully there is a third  bathroom with a shower in the garage that works.  Mike was able to see exactly how the faucet is supposed to work and he got both bathrooms inside the house fixed.:)  Now another trip to HD for the third bathroom faucet.



We called our Realtor to list the house.  She will be meeting with us on Saturday so we have two days to get it completed.  Then we can get back to work on this house.  Niki will be so happy that we will be home with her:)


I hope you enjoyed this short recap.  I will write again on Monday for the final story of this re flip.  Have a great weekend.

Lisa:)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Re Flip 3...Ordering Carpet, Buying Pool Supplies, Pressure Washing and more Painting



Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Mike and I worked, lol.



Thursday

Today we had to do a lot of running around again.  First we stopped at the carpet place and we got a quote of $5000.00...no way.  And that was using our padding which would also make the warranty on the carpet void.  Mike and I went back to a place we used many years ago.  We didn't go back because we had problems with their installer using one of our houses as his and his girlfriend's playground.  Anyway we walked in and found a carpet on a big roll that looks really nice.  They will be installing it tomorrow and it was $2200.00 and they don't have that installer anymore, lol.  That is a huge price difference and we are getting a nicer carpet.


Next we stopped at a local pool and spa supply.  Mike "thought" the prices were high so we went back to the pool place we stopped at a few days ago.  She was even higher but she was very helpful and keeps an extremely clean store.  We did buy the filter from her.  Then we had to go to the house to meet the new carpet man for measuring.  He was in and out and Mike and I left again.

We went back to the local pool and spa supply and got stuck there for a bit because of a heavy downpour.  Once it cleared we left with a new pump.

Then it was off to get more paint and buy a new dishwasher. All the running around is so time consuming.  Now you know why Mike and I hate shopping, lol.


Finally we can do some work.


My bucket of switch plate and outlet covers.  I'm taking them home to clean:





Mike has to get the old pool pump and filter off so he can install the new one.  Here he is cutting the old pipes:



Unscrewing the screws on the old pump:





Friday

Our new dishwasher will be here today so we need to take the 3 year old one out....grr.  Mike getting ready to take it out:



It is out:



What timing.  We carried the old dishwasher out to the street just as the delivery men showed up with the new one.  Mike will install that later.  First he has to go outside and install the new pool pump and filter:





Gluing the pipes together:





Adding a pipe to the filter:




Doing the electrical for the pump:




That's a lot of crazy looking pipe but Mike got it done and no leaks:):)




While Mike worked outside I got to do some of the small time consuming things.  I took down all the ceiling lights, cleaned them and changed bulbs.  I changed the air filters in the house and painted all the closets.  I also changed the toilet seats.  I have never seen this and this is only three years old.  I think the tenant thought by using the blue thing in the tank you didn't have to clean.  It was gross:




Saturday

More painting and touch ups.



Sunday

It is supposed to be a beautiful day so we have to get some outside work done before the cold comes in.  Mike starts on the left side pressure washing.  The concrete is filthy:



What a mess:




Looking better:



Inside I broke open the semi gloss paint and painted the inside doors and trim.  I also painted the inside of the front door and the garage door.


After painting I took out all the drawers and shelves in the refrigerator.  I washed everything.  This is the time I really hate double sinks.  It is so much easier to wash big things in a single sink:




Mike made his way down to the seawall:




I took over pressure washing for him and finished the seawall, did the pool area and the other side of the house.  We will do the garage and driveway once all the carpeting is gone.



That's all for now.  We have a busy week ahead of us.  We are very close to listing this house for sale.


Have a great week and stay safe and warm.  Don't forget to leave your faucets dripping if you have very cold weather.  This will help keep your water pipes from freezing.

I will write again on Thursday.

Lisa:)