There IS a light at the end of the tunnel!

Will we actually be done with this house by the end of December? I feel like it's a real possibility...I mean, we might squeak a little into January, but I'd say we stuck to a pretty tight timeline.

So, what is done:
Exterior Paint
Interior Paint (minus my brick in the sunken living room, which I'm going today to work on)
Kitchen Tile
Kitchen Cabinets
Trim
Upstairs bathroom shower tile and floor tile
Downstairs bathroom shower tile and floor tile
Downstairs carpet
Downstairs laundry room utility sink & floor tile
Crazy giant, ivy covered monster tree removed from front
Hot tub GONE
Concrete pressure washer
Roof pressure washer
Bark spread
80% landscaping done

What do we still need to do:
Electricians need to finish installing lights and switching outlets
Plumber needs to install laundry room toilet
Home Depot needs to install all new appliances (including washer/dryer)
Paint brick wall
Put hardware on cabinets in kitchen
Install bathroom mirror and trim it out
Mop hardwoods and apply wood oil
Paint stair trim & hand rail
20% more landscaping

I know our list seems long, but if you break it down it really isn't that much! What do YOU think?

Painting the fireplace brick white

Painting the dingy brick wall white

Soft-close cabinets and new back door

Larger opening into kitchen from dining room (granite slab will create a bar)

Our "transition" tile (see, we need to clean the hardwoods)

Large upstairs room (minus random french doors leading to a window well)

Downstairs room with a real window and carpet

Downstairs double shower...I love this shower!!

My flipping advice:
1) Try to make it nice, but not super expensive. I'd like to think we made some really great, but super affordable choices. We didn't cut corners, we either found a cheaper option, did it ourselves or took money from somewhere else to make things happen. I guess this goes back to my previous advice of looking for your own subs...if you don't like the price, keep looking.
2) Know your end plan at the beginning. Me and the Husband are having a rent or sell battle on a daily basis.

Calling in the troops

I've been on a bit of a blog-hiatus, sorry about that. I've been busy and there isn't a lot of useful information I can give you at this point about flipping a house other than patience patience patience.

Most of the framing is done, as is most of the electrical work, but we have to wait for an electrical inspection before insulation or sheet-rock. So now we wait. Wait. Waiting. Waiter.

SO...my dad, the amazing handyman, said he'd come help out with tiling the bathroom. He is the "troops" I'm referring to if you didn't pick up on that. This is awesome because the quote we got for flooring, which only included labor (not materials) was $12,000. Yes, $12,000. WTF! Our first call was to Empire, our second call was to my dad. With both of those calls we saved around $6,000 AND that includes materials. What what?

In order for my dad to tile the bathroom we had to remove the awful ceramic tile that was in there. Luckily, this little island has a pretty bad ass tool rental place and we rented an electric tile remover. While we had the rental tool, we decided to take up the kitchen tile and basement bathroom tile, too. I forgot to take a picture of the Husband removing the tile so you'll have to settle with this stock photo. This beast of a tool was heavy...and the tile was a pain in the ass, but we got it done.

The bathroom is really coming along. The new tub is installed (we removed the nasty jetted tub - do people know how gross and dirty jetted tubs are? eww! Remove your jetted tub immediately), the floor tile is done as well as the grout. Below are the stages. We decided to go white on white on white. White floor tiles, white shower tiles, white tub/sink/toilet. We're going to paint the walls navy blue to add a nice, sophisticated contrast.

Gutted and tile removed

My dad with my favorite floor tile (we used this in W. Seattle, too)

Tiled

Grouted (white grout - always)

What we've learned about tile/bathrooms:
1) Get an epoxy grout - you won't have to seal it and it won't stain. It's pricey, but worth it.

2) If you can, buy all of your tile at the same time. We needed 7 boxes of the white subway tile sheets for the shower, but they only had 4 boxes and a couple misc. sheets. We noticed at the register that the misc. sheets were a slightly, barely noticeable different shade of pure white. I about lost my OCD mind. We put the misc. sheets back and we're crossing our fingers that when we go back the new shipment will be the same pure white.

My advice about tile/bathrooms:
1) Throw your personal preference out the window if you're flipping. Don't get accent tile in Seafoam Green because you love that it reminds you of the seaglass you used to collect as a kid. Someone out there HATES Seafoam Green and that someone might be the person who is looking to buy. Oh, if you're going to say "...but Brooke, you're painting the walls Navy Blue, what if someone hates that color?" I would respond by telling you "it's paint...way easier to change than TILE".

2) Spend a little extra money to get sound absorbing insulation on the bathroom. I mean, if your walls are already open, why not? This particular bathroom shares a wall with the dining room...even with a fan on there could be some sounds that you don't want your dinner guests to hear while they're eating. :)

Any advice for me?