Flip House 1...Part 10

Chapter 10....Time To Finish This House Hello everyone. I hope you all had a great week. Today's story will be the next to last story. Next week I will do a whole chapter of the before and afters. So now let's go back to where we left off. 12-14 Today Mike worked on finishing the small bathroom while I worked on stripping, cleaning, and painting the back patio. First I started to take down all of the vertical blinds so I could clean them. We looked into other window treatments but decided to keep these because they are in good shape and the windows are an odd size. Prepping the patio room. Taping off the windows and ledges so I can paint. Cleaning the blinds...yuck!!! Mike starts to hang the bathroom light fixture. The light is done. Then Mike installs the floor trim. We went with a wider trim because that is the newer trend. I don't like it because it reminds me of the thick rubber commercial floor trim. Later on Mike and I take off the back patio door to re hang it. Since the cool deck was put around the pool area the door just started to hit the ground. Mike fixing it. 12-15 Today Mark showed up to start patching the house so he could paint it. While he was doing that, Mike and I went over to the other house to get ready to move in. We painted the master bedroom closet, bedroom ceiling and walls. Mark painted the first side of the house. We went with the same color that is on the band on our driveway. 12-16 Mark showed up to paint the house while Mike and I worked inside. Mike grouted out front foyer tile. Next Mike caulked around the skylights for some added protection. 12-17 Mark and Rick showed up to finish painting the house. While they did that, Mike and I went over to the other house and painted the concrete floor in the master bedroom so we could move in. The front of the house is painted. The back seawall is painted. Oops...the color on our back pool deck and the house are too close. We will have to paint it a little darker. While Mark had his truck there I emptied out the refrigerator so the men could move it to the other house. 12-18 Today is moving day and it is rainy and gray out. Mike and I have been together since 1998 and this will be the 11th time we have moved into another place. We are used to it. We get moved over and set up. Mike has his TV and I have the Internet. All is good. 12-20 Now that we are moved out of the house it's time to work on the master bedroom and bathroom. Thankfully the master bathroom has a neutral shower in good shape and a new toilet. We only have to change out the vanity, do new plumbing, flooring, fixtures, and the lighting. Mike starts to tear out the vanity. He un does the plumbing. 12-21 Mark shows up to repaint the deck. Mike and I start painting the master bedroom ceiling, closet, and walls. After we paint, Mike patches the bathroom walls. After Mark finished he asked Mike if we had any extra work for him. We really didn't but Mike told him he could paint the garage if he wanted the work. He said yes. 12-22 Mark and Rick showed up to paint the garage. The guys start out by taking everything out of the garage. Then they start painting all the holes in the walls from the previous owner. Mike already patched a lot of them. While they do that, mike and I go to Home Depot to pick up some more plants. Here we are loaded up. Just call us "Sanford and Son" We get back home and Mike checks in with Mark. I am about to start the first garden. We hit some roots so Mike has to get the saws all out. The walls are painted in the garage. The garden on first side of the house is done. Me digging out the second side. Mike hanging a blind in the bathroom. And the garage floor is painted. What a day. We all did great. We will let the garage dry out over night and then Mike and I will put the washer and dryer back. 12-23 That morning we order our first dumpster for the second house. I'm sure the neighbors were thinking "the new people moved in and now they are going to have a dumpster in front of their house for the Holidays". They don't know us yet Mike and I filled that 15 yard dumpster in less than 2 hours and it was gone an hour later. We got a really good price this time. Back to the other house. Mike and I sanded and cleaned up the master bath. Then we painted. 12-24 Today we tiled the master bathroom floor. Then I painted the mailbox post a nice clean white and Mike installed the new mailbox. 12-26 Mike grouted the bathroom and I cleaned after him. 12-27 We worked on the plumbing for the vanity and put it in the bathroom. After that we cleaned up and cleared everything out of the house. The carpet installers are coming tomorrow. Woo hoo. 12-28 Today is the first day for the carpet installers. They will be here 2 days. First they install all of the new tack strip. Then they unload the carpet. they have to run back and pick up the rest of the carpet. 12-29 They are back and they are starting to install the main living area. Here they are stretching the carpet out. While they install the carpet Mike works on installing new shower bars and a new shower head in the master bathroom. And The installers did an outstanding job and they were very professional. I could tell you some horror stories about FL carpet installers. These guys were great. We got their number. The carpet is done and vacuumed. Now that the carpet is in we just have a few finishing touches. We took all of the closet doors to the other house to be cut down and painted. 1-2 Mike installs both of the new mirrors in the master bath. While I iron all of the curtains. 1-4 Here we are in the garage prepping the closet doors. Mike cuts them down. And I sand and clean them so they can be painted. Then we bring the doors into the spare bedroom and Mike hooks up the paint sprayer and paints them. The next day the doors are ready to be moved back to the other house. We carefully load the doors into the van and take them back to the other house. Mike and I hang them. Woo hoo. We did it. It's happy dance time. House #1 is done and now we are ready to call our Realtor. It took us just over 3 months to finish but it is done. Yay. Next week I will post all of the before and after photo's. Those are my favorite to see. Lisa