Final Renovation

Flip #5 Finale: DIY Renovation Complete!

 

Sometimes when we are in the thick of a DIY renovation (aka house flip), we do not feel like we will ever be done! If you are feeling this way in the midst of your project, you are not alone! So many times we felt we would NEVER finish this flip. House renovation is not for the faint of heart….especially if you are doing it as a ‘side hustle’.

We coordinate full time jobs, flipping houses, and raising our 6 kids and we would not trade any of it!

So who is ready to see how DIY renovation Flip #5 turned out??

Kitchen

We learned SO much from this mismatched kitchen! The demolition was extensive as we took absolutely everything out….even the kitchen sink! We started out with three different kinds of cabinets, ceramic tile countertops, lopsided peninsulas, and an odd pocket door just to name a few things.

DIY kitchen renovation before 100th DIY kitchen renovation before 100th

DIY kitchen renovation before 100th DIY kitchen renovation before 100th

This is the kitchen of your dreams that you see in magazines, right!?

No?? Well just have some family and friends over…

Related: Kitchen Demo Complete

Tearing a kitchen apart…not so hard…putting it back together….hard.

We did manage to replace the sagging barn wood beam  with a huge header…we had to jack it up slowly since we needed to get it back to level. The center was probably about 4 inches lower than the sides! Not anymore!!

kitchen beam

This is the first kitchen that we needed to design from scratch. On our previous 4 flips, we were able to reuse the kitchen cabinets, so I found myself in new territory. We both learned A LOT!!

My advice:

  • Make a drawing of your space
    • Measure the lengths of walls
    • Know where your appliances will go
    • Measure to ‘obstacles’ (ie: how far from the corner of your wall is a window)
    • Research what sizes cabinets come in!
  • Design on line!
    • kitchen online design
      • Want to know how you can do this? Check out the related link below!

Related: How to Design Your Dream Kitchen

Tall Helpers are GREAT to have!

We were fortunate to have my brother (6’8) and my dad (6’3) to help us install cabinets. We assembled them at our primary home and transported them the morning of install. I used my ‘map’ of the space to place all of the cabinets in the correct spot so that the guys could just hang them.

DIY kitchen hanging cabinets DIY kitchen hanging cabinets DIY kitchen hanging cabinets

Finishing Touches

Who doesn’t love some subway tile as part of their DIY renovation!? White glass subway tile, stainless steel appliances, solid surface gray countertops (with some sparkle) and black hardware. A LOT of brain power and sweat went into this kitchen!!

It turned out awesome!!

DIY kitchen renovation before 100th      DIY renovation kitchen reveal 100th

                        DIY renovation kitchen reveal 100th

Related: Final Kitchen Reveal Details

Bathroom & Random Space to Master Bath and Full Bath

Every single bathroom we have ever done has required extensive work!!! Why are bathrooms always so dirty and outdated?? Bleh!! This house was no exception to our previous four. One of the firsts it provided was a wood grain toilet seat. Never had I seen one, nor would I keep one. LOL.

Bathroom 100th before Bathroom 100th before

We gutted the heck out of this thing. SO many disgusting layers. Demo went on and on and on and on!!

This was the view walking in from the back door….straight on toilet view. 🙂

Extensive Demo Requires NEW TOOLS!

The amount of brain power into these bathrooms was just as much as that kitchen!! In trying to plot out a new layout, NOTHING worked!! It was just too narrow. I really wanted to be able to get a double vanity in the one bathroom. Well, since the walls were down and the remaining boards sucked anyway…. might as well move the wall over 15 inches, seal off the current entrance and create a master bath, and full bath right??

Moving the wall over that 15 inches gave us enough space to fit a double vanity in the one bath and move the door to the other wall to make it a master suite. In the full bath we could get the shower and vanity on the same wall to allow enough space for the door to swing open on the wall where the toilet was going. BOOM! Bathroom puzzle solved.

IMPORTANT TIP: When laying out a new bathroom, do it WITH you plumber!!!!! They know the standard sizes of fixtures and how much clearance you need between them.

These bathrooms seemed endless at times! But after gutting both areas, they turned out fantastic!!

disgusting 100th bathroom before DIY bathroom renovation- master

farmhouse lighting 100th DIY renovation bathroom

It is not a huge master, but it is still a master with double vanity! Our vanities are a dark gray with marble tops. They are heavy!!!

Here is the other full bath!
full bathroom renovation

Related: Bathroom Layout

Living Room

The living room is a great size room in this house. When we first looked at the house, it was FULL of stuff as they were sorting through everything from the man who had lived there. It had 2 different types of floor and the entrance into the kitchen was a pocket door. Who wants to go through a pocket door from the living room to the kitchen? Not me!

Bring on the sledge!

living room clutter 100th

In this picture, I am standing in the pocket door.

We really wanted this room to have some sort of feature and that bump out where the jukebox is was the ticket. We decided to try our hand at a pallet wall and it turned out stunning. All we did to the living room was open up that pocket door, paint, trim, and new flooring.

Check out the related link below for step by step how to!

living room renovation, pallet wall living room renovation

living room renovation, mohawk flooringpallet wall

Related: Build Your Own Pallet Wall!!

Dining Room

Our DIY renovation walk through of the main floor takes us next to the dining room. From the third picture above, we are sitting on the couch looking to the front of the house. The front room was actually used as a second living room, but makes more sense as a dining room. We ran the same floor the entire length of the house to make it flow cohesively. In standing in one spot of the house when we bought it, I could see 7 different kinds of flooring!

dining room disaster

This is the dining room on the other side of the peninsula. I guess we didn’t get a great picture of this space prior to renovating….we were quite possibly too distracted by the kitchen. 🙂

Renovating the second living room into a dining room was not terribly hard… mostly cosmetics. We replaced the warped barn wood beam, took down the lopsided peninsulas separating the spaces, took all of the plastic trim off and replaced with real trim, and then paint, flooring, and chandelier.

TA-DAH!!!

And yes….we always find somewhere to place our ‘VH’ letters when staging our houses! 🙂

Baffling Bedrooms

Related: Which is the Craziest Bedroom of All?

Back when we asked you which was the craziest bedroom design of them all, the sailboat bedroom won!

In my opinion, bedrooms are really not that difficult. All you need to do is strip away the decades of crazy décor and make them classic. Each bedroom presented us with a unique challenge whether it was industrially glued down laminate squares, a wall covered with an etched mural of a sailboat, sewn together carpet remnants, or mirrors around the entire room—they were all removed.

In the upstairs bedrooms, we were able to save the original floors, however in the master bedroom, we opted to do carpet. Either way, with new light fixtures and a classic gray paint they all turned out great.

Triangle Carpet Room

triangle carpet room

birdie room after birdie room after

Birdie Room

birdie room birdie room after

Sailboat Room

sailboat room sailboat demo sailboat master reveal

Exterior DIY Renovation

The biggest exterior problem that we encountered was the three season porch that was put up incorrectly. It leaked in multiple places and although it added square footage, it would have been too much to try to fix. What did we do with it? Sold it on Craig’s list!!! The people who bought it even disassembled and hauled away every square inch of it. Our ‘crew’ took out all of the flooring in about 10 minutes flat!! Getting rid of that eye sore completely changed the exterior of the house…not to mention laying a couple hundred bricks, adding some plants and mulch, power washing the house and painting the shutters! It would have been great to do more, but we ran into this little problem called winter (and budget).

3 season porch demo day crew

3 season porch gone new deck

So there she is!!! What is your favorite part of Flip #5??

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