Flip Finding Frustrations

We closed on selling Clark last week, so we can now officially call ourselves house flippers!  (commence happy dances!)  Now we need to find the next, no pressure.  I won't lie, although getting a nice check from the sale was kind of awesome, the buying and selling and the house hunting and negotiating is my least fave part about flipping.  Luckily it's Hubby's favorite part, though, so I guess that's why we make a good team.

The owner of the house I mentioned last week that we want to rescue is stupid stubborn and is holding on to the house, convinced she can get an illogical price for it.  poo.  It's not going to sell at that price, just rot into the ground, which makes us very very sadface, but what else can we do.  Maybe she'll come to her senses in a few months, but until then, we have to move on.

We also have been waiting to hear on a short sale for quite a while and neither of us are holding our breath. It just needs some love and reviving (and new paint!).

Even our agent isn't optimistic of the bank ever coming to a conclusion on this short sale, though, which means it's back to house-hunting for me!

The pickings are slim right now for flips in our price range.  Most of the houses I've seen are just ridiculous.  And I'm not talking about ridiculous with ugly tile or stinky carpet- I'm talking ridiculous like I can put my hand flat on the ceiling (and I'm only 5'6") or an in-law suite addition that's only accessible through the bathroom/laundry room with no way to change it.  Silly people with their silly houses, bad renovations, and illogical additions.  If I can't make sense of a house, a buyer won't be able to either- and if I can't sell it, it's not worth flipping.

This house has potential, even with the glitter all over the ceilings(!), but some structural wonkiness worries me (yes, wonkiness is a totally technical term)- this one would be a can of worms, ya know, after you peel back the dozens of wallpapers throughout the house (5 in the living room alone!!!) and I'm not sold on the location.  It's not off my list entirely, but it's not a front-runner.

I'll be off checking out some more (hopefully) diamonds in the rough tomorrow and I'm crossing my figures we'll  find our next flip SOON!

I'm getting antsy to play with more power tools here!

Nice Knobs

I'm starting to get very excited about our impending new kitchen cabinets.  I got a superly duperly amazing deal on Kraftmaid semi-custom cabinets at Home Depot ($2000 off!), making them the same price as IKEA cabinets (and making me giddy).  I'm a little excited to finally work on the one room in this house that I've been ignoring for the past 2.5 years.  The new cabinets will effectively double the storage space in the kitchen and I'm so ready to get them organized.  In just over 2 weeks, they'll be delivered! (excuse the blurry iphone pic- I took this pic originally to text Hubby for his approval on the colors)

Inquiring minds want to know: DIY vs. Full install.  That's the million dollar question.

Because the cabinets will arrive all put together, but our floors are FAR FAR FAR from level, I opted to get the cabinets and the vent hood ducting that will be running through one run of cabinets installed by the pros.  I am able to save a TON of money, though, by doing the demo, floor protection, and all the other prep myself, so that's exactly what I plan to do.  By the time the kitchen installers arrive, the walls will be cabinet free, freshly painted, and ready for the cabinets to go up.  I'm hoping that even with all this work, the kitchen will only be out of commission for just over a week... 2 tops.  We're planning on lots of grilling and sucking up to our friends to have dinner at their places (hear that my wonderful friends?).

Until then I'm trying to get all the details ironed out so that once the cabinets arrive on Aug 7th, we'll be able to get it all installed in one fell swoop.  Which means that I need to make a decision on the hardware!

I'm leaning toward antique brass to add a little vintage pizazz (and I do have a thing for the cup pulls)

or do I do something a little more modern and traditional (that might be better for resale when we eventually move) with all chrome pulls and no knobs?

Very different options, but both could look absolutely amazing.  I'm torn- the brass are more stylized and what I'm kind of obsessing about digging right now, although the chrome might have a bit more lasting appeal.

Should I go with my gut and go brass?

Hardware sources: 1/2/3

Down to Business

I don't know about you, but this heat wave is really having an effect on me.  We aren't lucky enough to have central air (at least not yet), so we only have AC in the bedroom.  It's tough to stay productive when you're melting, let me tell you. Now that the new site's been up for a few months, I've been itching to get new blog business cards made, and with a groupon to Vistaprint burning a hole in my pocket, it was time!  My old blog business cards were printed on my computer, had nothing to do with the new site style, and had out-of-date social media info.  It was time.

I created the design in photoshop, then sent it off to get printed just over a week ago.  I was so excited when they came in yesterday's mail!  Aren't they pretty?

It's on the front and back of recycled matte cardstock and I love the simplicity!

With my pretty new cards, I naturally felt the need to zazz up the simple leather business card case that I already had.

With some frogtape, paint, and sandpaper, this:

became this is no time:

I taped off the area to paint, painted, then roughed the whole thing up a bit once it was dry for a more worn look.  Much sassier than when it started, don't you think?

Now I just need to go to a blog conference and put these to good use!!  I'm thinking I might go out on a limb and go to Alt Summit this winter- who's in??