How to choose the right color!

I made the title of this post seem like I knew the answer to choosing colors. Well, I don't.

We knew we wanted to paint the outside of the house, but we weren't exactly sure what color. Our guru Realtor said "White House - Black Trim"! She's pretty savvy, so we thought those would be our colors. Well, some of our windows have wood trim and some have plastic; that's normal, right? I started getting nervous about painting plastic trim and then the Husband was all "...but what about the door?". So now we have to decide a door color, BUT we have 2 doors on the front of the house, 2 on the back and 1 on the side (great escape plans in the case of a fire or crazy Bainbridge Island serial killer).

Red! A red front door would pop against a white house with black trim. Well, according to our Realtor, red is out. No more red doors people, no more! What she told us next hit us in stages. First stage was judgement (of her, not the color suggestion), second stage was appall, third stage was Google, fourth stage was acceptance, fifth and final stage was love. Emerald green! Yes, that is a thing! 

I did, however, make the executive decision to forget the black trim and paint everything white. This may seem like it would be too much white, but this ranch style house needs as much light as possible.

These pictures are the stages and the last one is not the final final final result, but you get the general idea. Emerald green. Thanks, Cassie!

How will we ever choose INTERIOR colors? Oy vey!

My advice:
1) Go nuts on Pinterest/Houzz to find cool paint color combinations. Something might look awesome on a 2-story colonial, but on your ranch might look awful. As long as you have a little time, take it to find the right combo. 

Master Bedroom

OK - so when we were first walking the house and making our big flip plans the Husband and I had two very different ideas about what to do with a master bedroom. There is a large room upstairs that the Husband wanted to make into the master, which would involve adding an additional bathroom into the room...NIGHTMARE!! I personally think I had the better idea of making one of the rooms in the basement into a master. We were already taking out a kitchen in the basement...which has plumbing...so it made sense to make that into a master bedroom with a bathroom. I was clearly overruled...or so I thought. With all the walls in the basement out and the kitchen gone, it was clear to see that the master bedroom would be huge, but would have a tiny window. I'm okay with a tiny window...here's the deal, how much time do you really spend in your bedroom?..like actual awake hours hanging out? It would definitely make sleeping in super easy, which is always a win in my book.

So, one whole wall in the basement has a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and laundry room on it (in that order). One night...after my plan had finally been agreed upon as the superior idea...I had a genius epiphany (I only have a few of these a year so I ran with it). Why put another bathroom in that kitchen area? Why not move the wall in the current bathroom to make it a little bigger and move the bathroom door to inside the master bedroom...boom, en suite.

But Brooke, now the basement doesn't have its own bathroom! There is another bedroom and a living room down there, that seems dumb, will people have to go upstairs to use the bathroom or god-forbid walk through the master bedroom to use the bathroom?! Well, I thought of that, thanks! The laundry room is enormous, already has a sink and can easily have a toilet added to the wall (the toilet in the current basement bathroom was plumbed through the wall, not the floor), which is already open and already has exposed plumbing. WIN - WIN!! So the laundry room will now be the downstairs half bathroom that happens to have a washer/dryer in it. I hope my explanation makes sense. I'm attaching some photos, although this is all still a concept more than a reality, but it is THE plan.

I think we're having fun now! It is definitely less stressful now that things are happening!

My advice:
1) Play with lots of ideas...check with your realtor about trends and ask their advice...think way outside the box.

2) Tape the floor where walls are going. That way you get a sense of how big (or small) a room will actually be when you stand inside the taped area. 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

This post is going to be short, but sweet. It's been a long couple days (at work) and I'm too tired to try to be witty. Although it's only primer, it's pretty freakin rad! Can't wait to see the final result.

Oh, and if you're on Bainbridge Island tomorrow please come to the Pumpkin Walk and say hello.

Before

After (primer only, but it will be white)

YES!!!!!!! 

Demolition

First, let me give a shout out to the Husband's friends...Kes, Mike, Dylan and Chris...you guys are bad ass and the Husband could not have gotten as much done in 2 days without your help. Second, I would like to apologize that he thought you'd enjoy a girly hard cider to wash down all the dirt and dust in your throat. Thank god he also bought Rainier...this serves as the official apology! :)

If you choose to take on a flip, one of the many pieces of unsolicited advice I will freely offer up is DO YOUR OWN DEMO! This saves so much money, both on the project and therapy. When is the last time you got to break shit with a sledgehammer? When is the last time you got to tie one end of a rope to an awful laurel bush and the other to your car and slam on the gas? When is the last time you got a bust through a wall with a chainsaw like a crazy maniac? I suppose this may sound like torturous work to some of you...to which I roll my eyes...it's really fucking fun!

We got 2 dumpsters delivered, which are both nearly full. We budgeted for 4 so we'll see how that goes.

The painter came and pressure washed the house to prep it for painting, which is supposed to happen on Thursday (weather dependent). While pressure washing, he noticed how dirty all the concrete was around the house and took it upon himself to pressure wash most of that, too, at no added cost. Score! It pays to have a house that is in such terrible shape that once you see it you just get the itch to clean or paint or tear stuff out or pressure wash or landscape or or or. Yes, it's that bad.

I know I keep saying how terrible the house is and for that I feel a little bad. Maybe we should name her seeing as we're spending our hard earned money on her and giving her the makeover she's only ever dreamed of. I am now taking house name suggestions.

Here are some demolition pictures, in no particular order.

Kitchen (those last cabinets just need to be pulled out)

Goodbye soffits (what is the point of THOSE?)

This will be open to the Dining Room

Kitchen (view from Family Room)

Goodbye weird basement Kitchen

Opposite view from the photo above

Remember that non-conforming 4th bedroom, it's going to be huge!

Basement Bedroom #3

Basement bathroom (WHY would they drop the ceiling in the shower?)

Upstairs Bathroom (these damn tiles...seriously, these are going to kill us)

Bathroom (that giant cabinet is gone...and they made the shower area smaller! What?)

OK - now give us house name suggestions!

My advice:
1) If you rent a dumpster...fill it. Fill it like crazy and as fast as possible. You typically get a dumpster for a week and although that may sound like a long time it is heart-breaking when they take a half full dumpster.

2) Have a Demo-Party. Invite friends over, buy beer and pizza and go at it. People seem to really like the idea of breaking stuff.

Before the Storm

Here is a little info about the newest little addition to our family.

Year built: 1967
Sq ft: 2,880
Bedrooms: 3 (4th bedroom is non-conforming)
Bathrooms: 2 (soon to be 2.5)
Lot size: .59 acres

The photos:

Galley Kitchen (view from Family Room)

Kitchen eating area (looking into Dining Room/Entrance)

Family Room (view from Kitchen)

Family Room

Dining Room

Dining Room

Upstairs Bathroom (enormous cabinet)

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Bedroom #1

Upstairs Bedroom #2

Upstairs Bedroom #2 (goodbye french doors)

Basement Living Room

Basement Kitchen area

Basement Bathroom

Basement Laundry Room

Bedroom #3 (basement)

Non-conforming Bedroom #4 (basement)

Side view of backyard (notice the crazy shed and retro hot tub!)

So, who thinks we're crazy? Wish us luck!

My advice:
1) Take a lot of before photos so you have something to compare your progress to. Hey, it might even be cool to have a before/after binder for any prospective buyers to look at.

Tomorrow's post...DEMO!!

Here we go...

The Husband and I bought a house to flip on Bainbridge Island. If things don't end up going our way and we aren't able to sell it we'll keep it as a rental, but that is NOT the plan. I don't want to be anyone's landlord.

Let me first start by saying that finding and buying a piece of shit house is hard, like really hard. We've been looking for about a year and a half and finally found the "diamond in the rough". Luckily, our realtor kicks ass and has more patience than a virgin. If you want to buy a house to flip and don't have a patient, funny, cut-to-the-chase-already realtor, go find one. So, this bank-owned beauty was a bit of a hassle. Bank-owned homes suck because the bank owns it...so they don't really give a shit about you, the house, the timeline, your budget...super fun, right?

Something that us "newbies" didn't know was that when you get a home loan with a construction loan wrapped in it with the same lender you have to have a detailed construction bid BEFORE they can do an appraisal. The appraiser brings the bid and gives an appraisal of what it WILL be worth once the work is done. This information is extremely useful in deciding if the entire project will even be worth it financially, but at this point everyone has already worked so hard. You've already written a bid, you're already in mutual acceptance, you've already paid for an inspection, your lender and realtor have killed themselves running comps and numbers for you, you've already been in touch with a contractor and they've already brought in all their subs to give estimates...and they work weekdays so you've probably taken time off work for these things to happen. You're in it already, it would be silly to back out now! Thankfully, our appraisal came in over what we needed it to for this to make sense and we found a contractor that is almost as patient as our realtor...almost.

This blog will follow all of our ups and downs. The next post will be all the before pictures. Enjoy the ride.

So, now the house!

Sunrise House (before)

 

Sunrise House (after a little yard demo)