Flipping A House – Family Style

The electrician (my husband, Howard) and I “flipped” a house Ala Chip & Joanna style. Sort of. Howard is pretty darn handy, even beyond doing all things electrical. We, and by we, I mean Howard, and our sons Kyle and Ian took the entire house down to the studs. I was the design consultant and head furniture painter.

The house was built in the 1930s. We bought it from the original owner’s son when she passed away. It was absolutely astounding to me that a family of 6 once lived in this house.

Kitchen Remodel

Unfortunately, I didn’t think of taking pictures until the kitchen was already being remodeled. This is the kitchen once it was almost done. There was no room for a table at all, so I had Howard add this “snack counter”. I thought it would be nice to have so little ones could have a snack or color while mom is in the kitchen.

While Howard was doing a remodel of someone else’s kitchen, that homeowner was selling these white cabinets that they were replacing. I had Howard buy them before they could put them on Craigslist. They were in excellent condition and of nice quality. The only change we made was the hardware.

I found it disturbing that the toilet was in full view of the dining room table. I had Howard reconfigure the bathroom so this was no longer the case. There was no linen closet at all. The bathroom was so tiny, that I had him add a large closet here. In addition to having room for towels and such, I wanted it to be large enough for table linens, too.

Creating Closets

Again, no coat closet in the house at all. I’m wondering where this poor woman who lived in the house for 70 years put her vacuum? Anyway, I had Howard add a closet here by the front door.

The hardwood floors are original to the house. They were throughout the entire house. A lot of the flooring had buckled though and was not in the best shape. The guys tore out every board. Ian and Kyle removed all of the nails from the pieces that were still in good shape. We had enough of the floor to put back in most of the house. We sanded it and re-stained it a nice medium amber color.

The house has 3 small bedrooms. We did not have enough floor left to do these rooms, so we put down new carpeting. All new doors and hardware, too. Pictured below is one of those bedrooms.

Finishing the Attic

Lastly, we finished the unfinished attic. This is what Howard and I both do in real life. It was fun and rewarding for us and the boys to combine our talents and work on this together.

If you hear of anyone selling a house that needs a “little updating”, let me know that, too. Me and the guys are anxious to do another house.