Day 32- Open house!

What a great open house! Nice weather, the house was sparkling, and we had a lot of visitors. I'm guessing we had 15-20 people/groups come through. Many first-time home buyers. We haven't even posted interior pictures on the MLS yet, so that was really a good turn out. Now we just have to sit back and wait to see how it goes.

My friend and photographer, Jenn Dworek came to get some "after" shots that turned out amazing. You can check out her blog at http://www.jenniferdworek.blogspot.com/

Let those contracts start rolling in!

Day 31

Ok, so here's one thing I always forget about our houses. The last week becomes a crazy, mad rush to get everything done before open house! Our house (at home) is a mess, we've all been eating fast food because no one has time to get groceries, and I have a huge mountain of laundry waiting for me. But.... such a good feeling because we ARE ready for the open house tomorrow!

The kitchen looks amazing, the wood floors cleaned up beautifully, and it's going to be a perfect home for someone. Suzanne (our realtor) has had some calls about the house, and we haven't allowed any showings until tomorrow, because the place was still a work zone. We're hoping to have a nice turn out. Randy and I always stay for the first open house. We invite the neighbors and our friends to come in and see what we've done. It's nice too, because by this time, we know the house inside and out and can answer any questions that may come up.

People often ask us why we use a realtor instead of trying to sell it ourselves. We have never really considered that as an option. We are so glad when we're done with a project, and we're ready to step back and let Suzanne do her job. Our new listing immediately goes into the MLS system and is automatically sent out to buyers as well as other realtors. Another reason is that as soon as we finish a house, we are out searching for another one, and we're able to concentrate on that house. I think we've become smart enough to do the things we do best, and call in the professionals when we need to.

I took these pictures at 10:00 tonight, so they're not great, but I wanted to get some posted. My friend and photographer, Jenn Dworek is coming Monday for the real photo-shoot.

Off to bed now..... wish us luck!

Day 26

So here's our new kitchen floor. It didn't go quite as smooth as we had hoped, but we were able to figure it out as we went along. First problem was we realized that if we put the floor down, we wouldn't be able to open the back door! There was about 8 layers of old linoleum and sub-floor already down. We attempted to get it up, but it was so glued and nailed down we gave up pretty quickly. Normally we would just cut the bottom of the door to fit, but this is a metal door. After calling my dad and brother-in-law for advice, we decided to take the door off and put the floor in and then decide what to do. Worst case, we'd have to buy a new wooden door and cut that down.

The floor is a laminate and comes in planks about a foot wide. It snapped together, but it took awhile to get the hang of it. My dad ended up bringing a saw blade that would cut metal and after a lot of sparks and smoke, he got the bottom of the door cut. We brought the kitchen cabinets in today, but will actually install them and the counter-tops tomorrow.

The guys from Lakefront Flooring came today and got the padding for the carpet put in. Tomorrow they'll be back to install the carpet. Then I'll spend a good part of the day touching up paint on all the trim upstairs. I also need to start moving all the extra tools, ladders, and paint out of the house and either take them home or put them in the garage. Because we have such a huge garage this time, we've been putting all the trash out there and we'll have someone come and haul it away. Usually we rent a dumpster, but they're not cheap and we always seem to fill it too quickly.

Day 24

We listed our house today! Suzanne said that if we wanted to have the open house on the 17th, we needed to get it listed right away. The only picture I would let her take was an outside picture- the inside is not quite "photo ready" yet. As soon as I hung up the phone with her, I raced outside and painted the front steps for the picture ( we'd been waiting because the steps always get dirty if we paint too soon). We decided to list it at $79,900. It has 3 beds, 1 bath, and a house up the street just sold for $89,900, but we wanted to price it to sell right away, no haggling about the price. We would really like to start another one while the weather is nice, so hopefully this one will sell quickly. Suzanne has been really busy with first-time home buyers, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. One of our houses sold to the first people at the first open house, while another one took 3 months, so you can never be sure.










Here's the bathroom before and after pics of the ceramic tile Randy put down. The vinyl that was in here was in pretty good shape, we just wanted it to look a little more updated.









New windows came today!!! What a difference that makes. I love the idea of the big, wooden original windows, but the vinyl ones are much more energy efficient, and just look so clean! The guys from Window World did a great job and were in and out quickly.





So, here's how the kitchen looks today. Basically a week before the open house. The walls and ceiling are primered. Next, everything will get painted, and then we start on the floor. This last week is always the time that we rush around trying to get it all together, but we always manage to pull it off.

Now....... we just need to put in kitchen floor, paint and install cabinets, paint dining room, hang all light fixtures, finish wood floors, carpet, and stage- is that all?!

Day 21

Although I spent the weekend working at a staging job in Harborcreek, work continued at the house on Cascade.

The guys from Syracuse Glass came and put four new glass block windows in the basement. They make such a difference in the amount of light in the basement, and they have these cute little vents in them!

Randy ended up doing the bathroom ceramic tile all on his own. I had hoped to help, but he didn't need me- he did a great job. I'll put after pictures in the next post when the toilet is back in.

My dad has been patching the kitchen and getting it ready to paint for Friday so we can get in their over the weekend and put in the kitchen floor. We're going to try a laminate flooring that looks like ceramic tile, but shouldn't be as cold on bare feet. You can lay it in one day and be done and not have to wait to come back and grout. We put in a wood laminate floor in one of our other houses, but it was much thinner and harder to get in. We're hoping this one will go much better.

Today I did a lot of little jobs. I painted the hallway going up to the attic, painted the linen closet, and ripped the yucky "fake grass" carpet off the back steps. Tomorrow if it's not raining, I'm going to work on sanding the glue off these steps and painting them.

Day 17

What a week!

Everything seems to be going as scheduled. Upstairs, the bedrooms have all been painted. We're just waiting for the new windows (this week) and carpet (next week). For some reason, none of the rooms had trim around the doors, so Randy's been adding trim.

I am helping a couple in Harborcreek get their home ready to put up for sale, so I will be at their house painting and staging all weekend. Randy is going to start working on the ceramic tile in the bathroom at the "flip house".

Adam, our plumber, has the kitchen all plumbed in, so we'll go next week to get kitchen cabinets. We left the upper cabinets on the wall and painted them, so we're going to buy unfinished base cabinets so we can paint them to match.

This is always the time in a project where I start to get really anxious- I can't wait to see the finished product! In my head, I already know what it will look like, but now that it's starting to transform, I want it done!

Have a good weekend!

Day 13

So here we are, tomorrow is the half-way point (if everything goes as planned!) With the nice weather, we've been trying to get some outside work done. I put down some grass patch, some mulch, and we've re-painted all the white trim and columns on the porch. We haven't painted the porch floor or steps yet. As a Home Stager, I'm always thinking about "curb appeal", but I've learned from experience to make painting the porch one of the very last steps, or you'll end up re-painting.







I had a Home Staging consult last night with a really nice couple planning to put their house up for sale. They called me to see what suggestions I may have to help their home sell quickly and for a good price. Of course, all the "big ticket" items need to be in good shape: roof, furnace/air, windows, siding, plumbing, electric. After that, the home needs some cosmetic touches. What do I recommend will give you the most "bang for your buck"? Color, light fixtures, and flooring. All white walls are no longer desirable to buyers. You want to create a warm and inviting feeling when buyers enter your home. Color is a great way to do that. Of course, choose something neutral that will be able to go with most furniture and accessories , so the new owners can move right in.






Nothing screams out-dated in a home like light fixtures. In our area, the bright brass/gold light fixtures (as well as faucets and cabinet hardware) have fallen out of favor. Bronze, chrome and brushed nickel fixtures can create an updated look without too much of an expense.





Finally, flooring is a very important cosmetic element that may need to be addressed. The home's price point will dictate the type of flooring you may want to install. If the present floor covering is not in good shape, or can't be cleaned effectively, you may want to replace it before listing your home.



Not much left in the budget? Furniture and accessory placement can be a no-cost way to emphasize focal points and create a smooth traffic flow.

Day 10

We're moving along on the kitchen. This is the framing for the half wall we're adding between the kitchen and dining room. The stove will fit in that corner looking out into the dining room. I really thought we'd be able to use the column somewhere in here, perhaps as an end-post to this new wall, but it really breaks up the opening between the two rooms. What to do with that column!

We had some great news yesterday. I don't think I've mentioned that this house has a HUGE three car garage. When we bought the house, the whole garage roof was covered with a blue tarp, so we just assumed we'd be re-roofing it. With the nice weather yesterday, Randy got up there and realized that they had put a new roof on (rolled roofing) but they just hadn't put any tar on it to seal it. So Randy will be up there today tarring, but not nearly the time and expense that we thought. Usually with a flip, these unexpected surprises are not good ones!

I think Tina's coming back over this weekend to finish painting the upstairs bedrooms and hallway. Then the only thing left to do upstairs is have the carpet installed. Oh, and the bathroom. We have enough ceramic tile left over from other houses that we're going to use it to tile the bathroom. Now, we've never actually done tile ourselves. I've done tons of mosaics, and we both took the tile class at Home Depot, so we know how to do it, we just haven't actually done one. The bathroom floor area is only about 30 sq. ft. so we really can't mess up...right?! When we start on that I'll do a whole separate post and do a step-by-step.

Can't wait to get out there today and enjoy that sunshine!

Day 6

Here's the living room with the new wall color- it looks so much brighter already.

Tina came over to help me paint today. We spent most of the day working on the bedrooms. One of the best things about painting in a flip house is that we're planning to carpet the bedrooms. So it really doesn't matter if we get a little paint on the floor- SO much different than painting in your own home. The walls in this house are mostly plaster, so there are cracks everywhere. My dad has really gotten good with the joint compound! Then a coat of primer, and finally the paint can go on. We're using Sherwin Wiiliams "Killim Beige" for the bedrooms.

I mentioned the carpet. We are planning on carpeting the steps, the hall, and the bedrooms. We always go through Lowe's because they have a whole-house install for just $139. Our "floor guys" Lakefront Flooring installs for Lowe's, so we get the best of both worlds. We chose a neutral colored "frise" ( short shag) to use throughout. The downstairs dining room and living room hardwood is in great shape, so we'll keep that.

Adam Frano from Affordable Plumbing (he's the plumber I met on Myspace!) came today, and it's a good thing he did. Alot of times the homes we buy have sat vacant for awhile, and they will have the pipes winterized. We've learned from experience that just because the pipes have been winterized, it doesn't mean you won't run into problems. Sure enough, when Adam turned the water on, we had 3 places in the basement where the pipes burst. He quickly fixed them and explained that it is common for copper pipes to do that if water sits in them and freezes. It seems that the lines had not been completely drained. The good news is that the pipes in the walls seemed to be fine- no leaks. For some reason, there was no water to the toilet, so we made it another day with no potty. Adam's coming back tomorrow to take care of that.

We're thinking that we'd like to have our first open house on May 17th, we'll see what surprises this house may have for us. The first house we did took us four weeks, another one took us eleven, so it really just depends on what the house needs. With the weather getting nice, we'd like to get this on the market as soon as we can, and hopefully start another one as soon as this sells.

Day 5

We woke up to a wind storm this morning, so the plans to paint the front porch had to wait. We painted the kitchen cabinets instead. We always try to save or re-use as much as we can on the homes we work on. We were able to save the wall cabinets and we painted them with Sherwin Williams "Navajo White". The base cabinets were too worn and damaged to keep in the kitchen( shown here before we ripped them out) , but we were able to move them to the laundry area in the basement. We will put new cabinets and a new countertop in the kitchen.




I think one of the hardest things when re-habbing a house is not over-doing it. It is so easy to just keep adding extras. There is such a fine line between creating "selling points" in a house and adding something because you know it would look good (or be really fun to do!) The decorator in me wants to add glass tile backsplashes, and built-in window seats, but the flipper in me is counting every penny we are spending, keeping an eye on the profits.



After painting all day in a house that was only 50 degrees, Kindle came in to put in our new furnace! So nice to have heat. The old furnace was so huge they had to break it up and throw pieces out the basement window.





We were fortunate enough to inherit this giant column when we bought the house. It's just standing in the dining room, not attached to anything. Too big for the front porch, we wonder what the previous owner had in mind for it. We really want to incorporate it into the house somewhere. We're planning on putting a 1/2 wall, counter between the kitchen and dining room, so we may use it as the end post there.





Tomorrow we should have running water and a working toilet - Life is good!!

Day 2

Beautiful weather, so today we attacked the ginormous rhododendron-

or judging from the picture ,the rhododendron attacked my dad! They are very hard to cut down, but it couldn't stay as big as it was, it was hiding the whole house.

We now have gas, water, and electric turned on, but no furnace until next week. The water was completely shut off- the water company had to come and turn it on from the street. My "Myspace Plumber" can't come until next week, so we don't want to actually turn on the water until he's there to check for burst pipes. (Yes, we've had that before, too). I really did meet my plumber on Myspace, I'll talk more about him later. It's always a good day when the plumber comes and gives us a working toilet!

I started painting the living room, but I've been having problems with my rotator cuff, so my friend Tina is coming this weekend to help. The living room and the dining room will be painted "Ivoire" by Sherwin Williams. It's a light, creamy tan/ yellow. I've been using deeper colors recently, but this house has such an open feel to it, I wanted to keep it bright. The floors and all the woodwork are a warm oak, so the gold in this color shows it off.


Our dilemma today is the lighting in the kitchen. Whoever had the house before us had started to remodel, so the ceiling is raised and there's a lot of can lighting, but in the center of the room there are three pendant lights. Well, actually right now they look like little flying saucers, but I found some really cool shades at Lowe's to go on them. So we'll see how they look as the rest of the room comes together.

We had the nicest thing happen today. Our new neighbor Nancy stopped over to introduce herself and bring us some zucchini bread. Isn't Erie a great place to live?!

Day 1

We finally had our closing yesterday, the waiting drives me crazy! As soon as our offer is accepted, I want to get in there and get to work. The man from HUD who was at the closing said "oh, closing on tax day- I guess you won't forget that day!"

I'm going to back up a little bit to give you some idea of what we look for in a home to flip. First off, price. The less you pay up front, the more you make in the end. Seems simple, right? The problem is everything that falls in between the beginning and the end. Too many big ticket items needed: roof, furnace, windows, siding, if the price is good, it may be a great buy for the adventurous new home owner, but as a flipper you're going to be putting too much money in to get enough out for a profit. And there is always the unknown. No matter how good the budget looks on paper, if something comes up, you have to take care of it, in the budget or not. One example- the house comes back positive for Radon, looks like you as the seller will have to have it mitigated. The homes we buy are sold "as is". Usually they were a foreclosure, or a bank-owned property, so they come with no background history. It can be a guessing game. These houses usually have no seller's disclosure, no utilities on, and often some major problems. When we walk in to the right house, we know it, it's just a feeling.

Houses talk to me! They usually are saying "help me" or "thank you". Another huge reward for what we do is having the neighbors come out and say "thank you". By fixing up a house on their street and selling it, it's helping to increase their property value and making it a safer neighborhood.

These are some pictures of the new house. It's at 2908 Cascade St. The woodwork in the house is beautiful, and we plan to keep the wood floors and trim intact. It appears that someone before us had started a remodel. The kitchen ceiling has been vaulted and has an open, airy feel. I spent the day knocking out the closet that was put in the dining room. A closet? In the dining room? That's what we thought! And since there was already an entry closet, another one wasn't needed. So I had fun using the hammer, pry bar, and finally crowbar to get the closet down. The nails they used were at least 6 in!

My dad started tearing out the kitchen. The base cabinets were in bad shape, and we plan to change the layout of the appliances, so we'll replace the lower cabinets but reuse the wall cabinets.

Every time we work on a house, I'm always hoping to find money. Maybe tucked away in a wall, or in an old bottle. Well, leave it to my dad to find money today! Of course, it was only $5- but it's the first money we've found!

The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow, so we're planning to work outside. Trimming down the ginormous Rhododendren. Cleaning out leaves, and coming up with a new paint color for the front porch.

Creative Spaces- "Flipping" house no. 4

Hi my name is Gretchen Wheeler and I live in Erie, Pa. Almost 3 years ago, my husband and I got tired of just watching the "house flipping" shows, and decided it was our turn to try it. With many years of owning our own businesses, we were pretty confident that we could do it. Of course, after being a hairstylist for more than 15 years, I'd never used a drill, and had NO idea what plaster and lathe even was. And Randy, although he knew how to use a drill, he wasn't exactly "Mr. Fix-it". Fortunately, my dad, Jerry Funk ,had been living in and "flipping" every home we've ever lived in. He was always working on some project or another around the house, and we knew he'd be up for a challenge. My good friend and realtor, Suzanne St. John, has shown us many a house filled with dog pee and poop, ancient carpet, no heat or electric, and many other scary encounters. We have loved every minute of it!- the worse the house smells, the more we say "it smells of money"! Don't get me wrong, we have NOT seen the huge profits that you see on the TV shows. Our housing market never really experienced the inflated prices that were seen in other parts of the country, so we haven't had nearly the hardship the housing markets in other areas have seen lately. They also don't show you on TV how much these poor flippers pay in taxes (plus utilities while working, realtor fees, etc). As we start our 4th house, I thought it would be fun to do a blog on it, updating our progress as we move along. If you have any questions about flipping houses, home staging, or interior decorating, check out my website and you may email me at http://www.creativespaceserie.com/.