A few years ago, my son wanted to be a homeowner. He and I went shopping for a home, and he found the one he thought he loved the most. It was a repo; in a historic area. A little blue house with a great front porch, original 1942 wood floors in several rooms, and a huge master bedroom added on with a fireplace, and another half bath, laundry and a den. It had 1420 sq ft, a deck out back with a fort for kids, two storage buildings, but as most repos are, there were issues.
I bought the house as a flip, did all the work, added a lot of special things to say "Bachelor Man who Loves sports". He was out of town on a job for two months, and when he came back, he got to see it for the first time fixed up. The biggest surprise was a whole wall mural of the Thunder basketball teams logo which I had painted on it. I had done chrome as a back splash in the kitchen and hung a chrome light where the table should go. He had picked out all the colors: living room and back rooms (which had a lot of paneling) icy waterfall (a soft white blue). His bedroom which was the front room a turquoise on bottom and white on top. The second bedroom screaming mint green, and the bathroom that color. The kitchen was a bright turquoise blue. I refinished the wood floors in the living room and kitchen but left carpet every where else. It had older central heat and air and a working floor furnace. This house had character. It was a couple blocks from the expensive older plantation style homes, so I was able to get it really cheap and then sell it to my son for what I had in it.
He moved in, got an exchange student and lived there a year. At the end of the year, his student went back to Germany and he moved to a small town north of our home town to start coaching and teaching at a school there, where his girlfriend lived and taught. Later that year they married. He tried to sell the house, but the market wasn't good at that time, so he ended up renting it. We had wonderful renters that year, but they got transferred up north the next year and we had to get more renters. I won't say much about them, but now that they are out, I'm remodeling the house I remodeled 3 years ago. During the rental period my son put on a new roof (black, love it) and replaced the HVAC. He'd had a major leak in sewer under deck fixed, which made the house settle, and the deck. So now I'm flipping this house for him, so he and his wife can get the down payment for a house where they just moved to a new coaching and teaching position, and where she can work on getting her doctorate degree, which should take 4 years since she teaches fulltime.
So I plan to chronicle the life of a flipper for this house. A Tale of One Flipper doing it Twice.
I was in San Antonio remodeling a large 1820 1960's home, and finished it and put it on the market. I left on Sunday to come home to start this flip. MONDAY: Tired from the 9 hr trip, I slept in, called the utility company to get water in my name, and then I went to see the little blue house. I did a quick walk through to get some idea of what I was facing and called my son with a report. We made a few plans. We decided getting the foundation done first was the most important thing, because once you get it leveled again, you will probably get new cracks in walls and ceilings from moving it. So I called a man I knew who had lifted my house a few years earlier at a really good price, and made an appointment for him to come over the next day. I also met my plumber who helps me on my rentals, and he made sure we had no plumbing issues. I decided to stick to Icy Waterfall for the walls, as that's what was already there and would be easier to cover than the gray I brought back from my flip in San Antonio. (Funny side on water, they told me that there hadn't been a meter in the house for 9 months, and when it was it was in the first renters' name. For the life of me I can't figure out how the second renters had water!!)
TUESDAY: I got up early and went to Walmart and bought Icy Waterfall. I goofed and got Satin, which is what I use usually except in kitchens and baths, and when I got to house, I realize I'd used semi gloss because we were covering gloss and stain on a rough texture. So I kept it and decided to cover the two back rooms in satin and the front bedroom. Before I do the living room, I'll buy semi gloss Icy Waterfall. I then also bought some painting supplies I'd not brought from San Antonio (although my van is completely filled with flip equipment), things such as goof off, tape, etc. Then I went to the house and painted the two back rooms. I had to do a bunch of cleaning first, because the renters little 2 year old had decorated the walls with crayon and chalk. Chalk came off the paneling easily but had to use the goof off on the crayons, and then paint them with Kilz spray so they wouldn't bleed through the paint. My foundation man came and gave me a bid and said he'd start the next day. I had sent my hubby to Dollar Tree (he went to Family Dollar) to get a bunch of cleaning supplies, but I found some super clean in my van and a few things I'd bought at Walmart like sponges and blue rolls of wipes. I also scrubbed every inch of the kitchen because it was nasty, all walls, all counters and all appliances and counters. there were rodent pills there too, and as it turned out my foundation man was a licensed pest man, so he said he'd deal with that after the foundation was level. I was having trouble with the locks on the doors, so he said he'd get new ones and fix the doors. Sounded like a match made in heaven. I had to leave doors unlocked that night since I couldn't get them to work.
WEDNESDAY: The foundation guys were everywhere, in and under the house. They felt I was in the way, so I left. I went to Lowes and picked out the carpet I wanted to use, which is the same Cornerstone legendary I always use, but was getting a light beige rather than the gray I normally use. I paid the $35 to get the house measured. At this point I wasn't sure how much we'd carpet. I got back to the house later in the day and they were about through with the foundation and one of the men was changing the locks. He ran into a problem and said he'd work late until he got too tired. So I left again and went shopping for art supplies because I love art, and the grandkids were coming, and I wanted to do some samples to show them.
THURSDAY: The foundation man said the doors were too old to fix. He suggested I get new ones. So I went shopping for doors. I went to four or five places. I decided on fiberglass for the front door and metal for the back. I bought the doors at the last Lowes I went too late that evening and borrowed my husbands pick up and Jose at Lowes loaded them for me. I took them to my second garage and parked them for the night. I also started painting the white uppers on the front bedroom. I swept all wood floors. I used plastic to cover the floors of the front bedroom to protect the floors, as I'd had the foundation men remove all carpet in the front two bedrooms. Also the man from Lowes came to measure the house for carpet. I had him measure the front two bedrooms separate from the two large back rooms, as I wasn't sure what part of the front would be left wood at that point.
I will stop here for the timebeing and when I come back to writing next time, I'll have pictures to show you. it should get more interesting from this point on. But I felt that if you watch HGTV, all you hear on the first days is "Today is demo day." I don't demo. I maintain the integrity of the home, its historical assets the best I can. If it isn't broken, I don't fix it. Walls stay in place. Cabinets too unless eaten by rodents like one house was. Usually I repaint them if they are ugly and always get new hardware. I usually get appliances, but this house doesn't need them. So this is going to be a much cheaper flip than normal. Usually I spend from $20,000 to $35,000 on repairs. I'm hoping to keep this one under $10,000.
So until next time, have a good time.
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