Happy Chic

I had some great pictures to show you today (treasure hunting was good to me this weekend), then I left my camera at Clark yesterday with the pictures still on it.  Oh well, I guess I know what I'm posting here Wednesday! With this flip, people keep asking me "how do you know how to do all this stuff?"  Wanna know a secret?

I don't.

But I figure it out or make it up.  That's why I absolutely loved this quote when I came across it on Pinterest.

passionatel curious

In other news, did you know that Jonathan Adler now has a budget line for J C Penney??  I've swooned over his collections for a while, but that's all that my wallet would let me do.  Like the amazing non-budget-friendly vignette below.  I think I could die happy with that light in my dining room.  It's only $395.  Very reasonable considering.....

jadler_GodfreySwivel

But now my wallet can be happy too!  I still won't be getting that light (sadface), but I have my choice of amazingly budget-friendly Jonathan Adler "Happy Chic" pieces.

jadler background_living

My office might need these curtains.  It might need to happen in the near future too.

jadler curtains

This lamp is kind of amazing.  If my nephew didn't already have an awesome lamp, I'd require this in his room.

jadler lamp

But, thanks to my darling sister, and my impending 29th birthday tomorrow (yes, actual 29th birthday), I am now the proud owner of these Jonathan Adler book ends!

book ends

I was originally thinking my office would be their permanent home, but I'm rethinking it.  The white looks so good in the dining room!

images: 1/2/3/4/5

Clark: Week 10

If you’re new to my weekly progress posts, Clark is my first ever flip house (named for the street that he’s on). Check out my previous posts here. Excuse me, how did week 10 happen?? Big things are happening, just not as quick as I want (of course). We were originally scrambling to get the house listed for Monday (then put the finishing touches on that week before the open house), but we're further away than we had hoped and it's not worth killing ourselves over. One more week won't bust our budget, but it will give me a few moments to breathe between paint touch-ups, landscaping, and finishing touches.

It's become standard out at Clark for each week to start with some unexpected challenges. This week, it was the deck. again.

deck before

I know I mentioned the deterioration that I discovered last week, but it got worse when my contractors came to fix it. The more they took apart, the more wood rot they found. Naturally this also quadrupled the cost I was anticipating spending on the deck.

deck rot before

Lucky for me (and Clark), I picked some good contractors and they repaired/rebuilt this guy in just a day. One day people! And under budget to boot!

deck accomplished

Now I can give a huge sigh of relief that I don't have to worry about this little porch anymore. If this is the worst surprise expense on this flip, I'm considering it a win!

As the porch was happening on one side of the house, other things were happening on the other sides. House painting!! and it's almost done! The painters are hopefully finishing up by the end of the week and Clark will no longer look like an ugly step-sister. It's so amazing what some paint can do!

clark paint

Back on the inside, I've been busy. Very busy. But since the end is near, I'm not going to show you all the full room transformations until they're all done, just little snippets. I have to tease you a little, right?

The kitchen backsplash got installed and grouted. And I discovered how tiring leaning over a countertop for several hours can be. Totally worth it though. The best compliment I've heard about this kitchen is from Hubby- he said he's jealous that this kitchen isn't in our house (as in the house we live in, although Clark is technically our house too).

w10 backsplash

The living room got a second coat on the ceiling, 2 coats on the walls, and an almost complete wood floor. Almost because I ran out of usable wood and need to go buy a few more boxes.

w10 living room

Last week, Hubby left this gift on the floor, so I had to make sure to document it before I covered it with the new wood floor.

floor face

I finally got started on the bedrooms too. Bedroom #1 has a painted ceiling, closet, trim & walls. The radiator still needs to get painted and the carpet needs a good cleaning.

w10 painted room

Bedroom #2, the "master", got painted trim, ceiling and the start of the walls.

w10 painted master

We also got a lot of help this week. My parents and Hubby's mom kindly chipped in some of their painting skills (THANKS!!). None of them would win the award of "cutest helper," though (sorry Dad). That award goes to my nephew Eli.

eli paint

He knew exactly what to do with that brush. He was wiping it on the wall and then fake dipping it into paint. The kid's very smart for a 1 year old. Cutest. Nephew. Ever.

And if you ever wondered what to get a flipper for her birthday, tools are always a good bet (or if you're married to me, jewelry or something pretty for our house.... just sayin...). My mother-in-law knew just what I needed (to remove an old lock box that no one knew the origin of).

bday gift

Now I just have a lot of finishing to do. A lot. Paint touch ups, clean ups, recycling boxes, minor landscaping, final plumbing and electrical fixes... you get the idea.

The end is in sight and I'm so excited!!

Mirror Mirror

Clark's pieces are all coming into place- He'll probably be at 95% at this week's update Friday, and I anticipate ONE HUNDRED PERCENT by next week's update.(!!!!) Last week, I mentioned the medicine cabinet was a bit of a headache.

med cabinet 1

I had hopes of putting a new, more modern styled medicine cabinet in, however my plans were foiled by the hole in the wall.  The hole was a very non-standard size and I realized it was impossible to find a new recessed cabinet the same size.  I toyed with the idea of just covering it with a flat mirror, but this is the only storage in the bathroom.

med cabinet hole

I bought a medicine cabinet, but soon realized that to open up the hole further would be a HUGE undertaking.  poo.  Unless I wanted to totally open the wall (hint: I didn't), my only option was to revamp the existing medicine cabinet.

She needed some love, but wasn't beyond help.  The worst problem was the mirrors themselves.  The mirror finish on the back was peeling and scraping off at all the edges.  Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a deteriorating mirror?  Let's just say, you'll have to take my word for it.  The rest of the cabinet needed some cleaning and serious de-rust-ification (technical term, I promise) to make it like new.

med cabinet 2

med cabinet 3

After a quick Google search, I found a glass store 5 min from the house that would be able to replace the mirrors and transfer the sliding hardware to the new mirrors for $100 (less than a new medicine cabinet= win).  The silver frame wasn't irreparable, but I thought it might look like a clash of styles in this bathroom, so you can probably guess what I did.

med cabinet 4

Both the inside and frame got primed, then sprayed a nice, clean semi-glosss white.

I already had both cans of spray paint, so the only cost for this project was the new mirrors.

med cabinet 5

The glass shelves inside were also in good shape and only needed a whipe-down.  I also attempted to preserve a little bit of this cabinet's history by taping off the sticker/logo before painting so it would still be visible.  This is clearly the original medicine cabinet to the house (which was built in 1957), and I'm a sucker for stuff like that.

med cabinet 7

Even though I was intent on replacing it, I'm very pleased with the end result of Clark's medicine cabinet.

med cabinet 6

Now that the bathroom is almost all back together, you'll have to wait until the final reveals to see the full space.  (spoiler alert: it's awesome)