Millie: Bedrooms Reveal!

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. After yesterday's dramatic kitchen reveal, I decided to take a bit of a slower pace today and check out the transformation of the upstairs hall and bedrooms.  Tomorrow we'll visit the new master suite, Thursday the living rooms and dining room, and Friday the family bathroom, exterior and any misc that I want to show off.

So, how about that upstairs?  The hallway and bedrooms didn't go through a hugely dramatic make-over: plaster repair, skim coating the walls, closet repairs, new lighting... but most dramatically they were made over with paint and a bit of staging.  The interior designer side of me always wants to totally design the rooms, however the flipper side needs to reign me in so I stage enough to feel homey without going overboard.

Remember this gorgeous pink room with layers upon layers of pink wallpaper (which had then been painted over)?

It is now a delightful, sunny bedroom.

The original pink room was complete with pink louvered bi-fold closet doors which I got much satisfaction throwing in the dumpster.

Heading out to the hallway- it wasn't terrible before, but needed cosmetics and 50+ years of paint scraped off of the beautiful woodwork

A bit cleaner and brighter as we head down to the other 2 bedrooms

What I'm calling the 'boys room' needed the most plaster repair which was again hidden under layers of painted wallpaper (oh joy).

It wasn't until I started placing furniture that I realized how large this room actually was.

It also is the home of one of my favorite staging vignette's in the entire house:

The trunk came with the house (love it!) and fits perfectly between these 2 beds.  What boys room staging would be complete, however, without a stack of Calvin and Hobbes books?  Courtesy of Hubby's personal collection.

Right next door we find the room that used to be the master:

Thankfully this room needed the least amount of work in the entire house- just skim coating and paint.  The dreaded wallpaper had already been removed here.

All the closets got a fresh coat of paint including the large closet that the previous owner used as his office- I even framed the picture that I showed last Friday and put it in the closet/office.

Which bedroom is your favorite?  Personally I think the former master would make a stellar play room or den- plenty of closets to stash all the toys.

I hope you're enjoying the reveals!  Tomorrow we'll visit the last bedroom- the new first floor master suite.

Millie: Kitchen Reveal!

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. Yesterday's open house was a crowded success with at least one second showing already scheduled!!  I'm cautiously optimistic that this house will move FAST!  I know several of you also made your way over to the open and I'd love to hear what you thought in person!

If you didn't sneak a peek on the real estate listing or at the open, congrats on your patience and sticking with me all the way until reveal week!  The wait is totally worth it, I promise.

So without further ado, I figured why not start with my absolute favorite room in the house.... which started out as not my favorite room... Let's take a drive down memory lane, shall we?

Remember the welcoming kitchen entrance?  Complete with crowding appliances, an offplaced sink, painted laminate countertop, and peeling wallpaper above the windows.

Oh that floor still gives me nightmares- sheet vinyl over plywood over 3 layers of vinyl tile all hiding the original hard wood floors.

Why do people do this to houses??

Long story short in this kitchen- there was lots of space, but it was not even close to a functional kitchen....

Until now.  How's this for the new kitchen entrance?  Not walking into any misplaced appliances and instead you get a gorgeous view of the window framed farmhouse sink.

But, Karen, where did the stove and the fridge go???  I gave them real homes and created a proper kitchen triangle.  The fridge is now found on the opposite wall in between the sink and stove.  If you drew a line between the fridge, stove, and sink it would be a nice triangle- which is optimum for a workable kitchen.

For better or worse, I could talk about this kitchen for days.  In addition to the reconfiguration of appliances, I modified a 100 year old cabinet to give the fridge a home, installed new lower cabinets and countertops, modified another non-original cabinet (next to the fridge) to look original, installed open shelves, and tiled the walls with the sexiest wall tile ever.

The ceiling got all new drywall over the cracking plaster and is now the ONLY textured wall or ceiling in the house.  Even though it's new, going over the old ceiling gave it some lumps and ridges that would have been glaringly obvious if this ceiling was smooth.  Now, with the least amount of texture possible, you see no blemishes, just a clean ceiling.

What's a good before and after post without some old and news side by side?

And that floor

Come back tomorrow for another space revealed!

Millie: Week 34

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  This flip, Millie is the most challenging and most exciting yet! You can find more about this house and about my 3 previous flip houses here. I.  Am.  Spent.

This entire past week has been a blur.  I don't think I've ever worked more in my life.  But, Millie is LISTED!!!  It would be pretty long and boring to list out everything that got accomplished this past week, but the quick of it is that the house went from a construction mess to a liveable gem (in my humble opinion).  I'm still working through my to do list before the big open house on Sunday, but she's looking pretty darn sexy!

All the major items are completed, the house is mostly staged (a bit more accessorizing to come), and Monday will be the start of the big before and after reveals!  I do feel a little bad keeping you waiting, but I need time to pull together blog-worthy before and afters and right now all my energy is going into wowing potential buyers.  And I hope they will be wowed.

Per my usual, for staging I stole a lot of items from my own house, craigslisted and thrifted most of the furniture and supplemented with a few new accessories.

House hunters will be in for a cheeky surprise as they go through the house.  I've noticed that almost every single person who comes through is compelled to open this little dining room nook.  So I felt compelled to catch them in the act.

The little art has found it's way into all of my flips so far.

It wasn't all the cherry on top this week, I still had some messy stuff like tiling to do.  Nothing like waiting until the eleventh hour!  The back entry way (visible from the kitchen) got black penny tile that has been patiently waiting for oh about 6 months.

And can we talk about the new shower curtain for a sec?  Ever since I painted the tub green....

I've been hunting for a shower curtain with navy and green.  I stumbled on this one on amazon.  With the nautical secret in the basement, I couldn't stop myself.  And it's perfect.  I hope the future buyers negotiate it into the deal.  It belongs in this bathroom.

I'm crossing my fingers and whatever other extremities in hopes that this house moves fast.  While I'm beyond ready to move on to another adventure, I'm also excited to pass the house on to someone who will continue it's story.  Sorry so cheesy- Millie and I have apparently bonded.  I did get a visit this week from one of the women who grew up in the house.  It was so neat walking through and hearing someone else's stories about the house- like how the large, glass-doored dining room built-in used to be a gun cabinet and how her dad used the large closet in the former master as an office- see??

How cool is that pic? Old houses rock, huh?

I don't want to spoil next week's before and afters by sharing the real estate listing, but if you're an interested buyer (for this gorgeous craftsman bungalow located in Worcester, MA), e-mail me and I'll pass along all the info!

Come back MONDAY to see the amazing transformation that the kitchen as been through!  Have a wonderful weekend!