Florida Flip 2...Tearing Up The Yard And Starting Inside

Part 2 Good morning. Since I had so many good responses I decided to post another story to whet your appetite for more. My husband, Mike and I went down to Florida to work on our other house in October of 2009. We had no plans of working on this house at all until we finished the first house....but of course plans change Our tree guys finished up at the first house and while we had them working we decided to let them start on this house. He went over before us to start cutting. This is what Mike and I saw when we got to the house. The overgrowth. and One of the things Mike and I hate most about a lot of the homes we do is the total lack of maintenance on the landscaping. These houses are just too small to have jungles in the front and back yards. We always have the trees and overgrowth cleared away when they are too close to the house. Our tree man cutting and clearing: Almost done in the back. And the pretty pineapple palm the way it should be. While the guys were outside Mike and I went inside. We don't have time to work on this right now but of course Mike just "has" to do something, lol. The master bedroom...Eww!!!! and somebody lived here. Mike starting to tear up the carpet....which has to go before we can move over to this house when the first one is finished. The tree guys finished and that's all we had time for. We told the workers they could take "anything" out of the house they wanted except for the refrigerator. The only thing he wanted was the laminate flooring that was in the living area. That was one less job for Mike and I We didn't make it back to the house until November 30, 2009. The men showed up to do the curbing at our other house and then came here to do the curbing here. There are a few very important things that Mike and I do when we remodel. 1. We fix anything that is broken and can't be used. 2. We make sure the place is clean and move in ready. 3. We get rid of all the junk. On the outside of the house we always have curbs done along the entire perimeter of the house. Then we fill those curbs with rock and eventually some plants. The whole idea behind this is to keep things as maintenance free as possible. The curbing and the rocks keep the dirt away from the house...therefore keeping possible termites away. Dirt at the bottom of your house and sitting water is never a good thing. It also helps when you mow and weed eat. Your house paint can never get dirty or chipped away. So here are the steps for something I think is pretty cool. First the curbing guys have to cut out where the curbing will be poured. On the truck they have to mix the concrete and then pour it into wheel barrels. Next one of the guys will bring the wheel barrel over to the curbing location. Once there, they shovel the concrete into the hopper of the machine. Then it shoots out in the form of a curb. So cool Once the machine is empty, the men smooth out the curbs and put expansion joints in. This will keep it from cracking. Smoothing it out by hand. And the curbing around the pineapple palm. While the curbing is being done we brought a couple of our other contractors inside to see if they wanted anything. They started in the kitchen while I got my first real pictures of the inside of the house. This is the spare bathroom. and The front small bedroom. And the back bedroom. It looks like these carpets haven't been cleaned in decades. I feel bad because it was an old man who lived here and I guess no one cared about him enough to help. There was also some water spots on the ceiling which is the reason why the roof was replaced. Back to the kitchen. Mike and ones of the guys taking out the dishwasher. While they did that, I started to tear up the green indoor outdoor carpet on the back patio. Taking out the kitchen sink. I took up the last of the laminate flooring. While the guys took the things they wanted, I went to take some more pictures. The master bath. and As much as we would like to dig in and do demo, we just don't have the time right now. Although Mike couldn't resist starting on there kitchen cabinets The cabinets in the kitchen could not be salvaged. Things were just too rotted away so we will tear it all out and start fresh. Oh yeah...we will also be moving the kitchen That is all of the pictures for today. My next story will be about some real work and some real demo.....our favorite

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