Flip Thy House

So Many Houses, So Little Time

The last few weeks have been pretty insane on the work front, even for me, a reasonably accomplished juggler of many simultaneous balls. I’ve managed to only drop a few of them, but yesterday was sort of bad, as I was telecommuting at the day job and completely spaced out on a mandatory meeting that I was supposed to come in for (which unfortunately was a small enough group that my absence was noted.)

Working on the Wee House also made it pretty apparent that things run 1000% smoother (and faster) the more I’m on the job site. Aside from various decisions to be made about the actual rehab itself, contractor and crew obviously don’t drag ass as much when I’m there, especially when I’m there getting my hands equally dirty.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I’m hoping the Creek House may be a springboard towards doing the real estate stuff full-time, if everything falls into place as hoped. This is the first deal I’ve picked up with serious profit potential for a short-term flip (in the neighborhood of $40,000 net profit), and I don’t want to squander the opportunity, as that’d give me enough of a cushion to bid adieu to the day job, and split my time between working on houses and my other freelancing work.

Pictures of the Wee House coming as soon as we get the mountain of trash out of the front yard (today, hopefully) and the last bit of cleaning in the interior done.

No hitches yesterday with closing on the Creek House, and we got the roll-off dumpster delivered late in the afternoon and are ready to roll. Poked and prodded a bit more and discovered that the massive living room not only has original beadboard ceilings, but the same original beadboard under the sheetrock on the walls, as well. It’s odd, as that’s the only room in the house with beadboard, but I won’t complain, as it’ll save some time that we’d otherwise have spent on repairing and texturing the old sheetrock in there.

We also found the old stove exhaust vent under the sheetrock in the living room, likely for a pot belly stove, and I’m seriously considering turning back the page and adding a stone veneer hearth and fireplace, with a pot belly stove (very similar to this, but likely with a natural stone look instead of brick).

As far as work on the Creek House, this week we’re basically tackling all of the demo and about half of the framing work on the interior, as well as replacing a bit of exterior trim and window sills that are damaged and rotting and getting the exterior power-washed and prepped for paint. I’m still scrambling to finalize plans for the master bath addition and trying to cram in a laundry room, so I don’t yet have the grand budget and timeline finalized, but hopefully will by the weekend.