So I finally got a flippin house! (pic heavy)

[pyrocasto]

Flippin with a double meaning, as I'm also planing to fix it up for resale in a few years. I'm going to be doing a hell of a lot to this house so I'll keep this thread going with improvements as I go. Got the house for $165k, appraised at $187k, shooting for between $250-300k value at the end. The house is in decent shape but it's going to be a long haul to get the value up that much, but doable.

The house is about 3500sq/ft, 4 bed, 3 bath. Main level is 2 master bedrooms with private baths, 2 other bedrooms, 1 guest bath, diningroom/living room, den w/fireplace, laundry, kitchen with dinette, and a front entry sunroom. Basement has open main room, office, spare misc room, and theater room with kitchenette area, and 2 car garage. There's a 500sq/ft deck on the rear, and a small building with a hot tub from the deck.

I'm doing almost all the work myself after work or on weekends, so I'll be pretty tired for the next few years.

The outside is gray vinyl siding, with the front and back additions being cheap wood paneling. Landscaping is pretty good in places, but overgrown.





Heres the main master bedroom. ~300sq/ft w/fireplace, vaulted ceiling, and hardwood floors.






Main master bath, needs glass in shower, half walls need tiled, backsplash, mirror and light fixtures.



2nd master bath, 3rd & 4th bedrooms






Den with door to laundry room


Kitchen, needs complete overhall. Has the cheapest possible cabinets, brush painted over, with cheap linoleum tiles that are duck taped down in places. Fluorescent lights need to be gone, island is too big for the size of the kitchen.




Garage



Basement main room, spare room, and office.





Theater room and kitchette. I'm buying the projector and surround sound next week, as I want it before anything else! I'll start another thread on home theater for anyone interested.



Deck and hot tub room. And yes the pictures are warped, not the house.






Dont you just love the fencing they used for deck railing? This deck is mostly the expensive composite stuff, and they couldnt have done a worse job on it overall. This will be a complete overhall project as well.

Current foreseeable plans:
hardwood floors in dining room and kitchen.
new kitchen cabinets and appliances.
new deck, probably add a gabled covered section over it.
new cabinets and built ins everywhere, since that's one of my expertise.
finished theater room, add the missing kitchenette
replace and finish office
replace interior doors with solid wood.
trim and crown molding, not sure yet.
siding on house, some replacement, not sure yet.
paint garage and epoxy floor.
rain catch under deck making the space underneath dry space. it's already concrete underneath.
landscape the heck out of it, maybe add a firepit patio.

Those are the larger things I can think about right now, but the list will be nearly infinite with small items. My guesstimated budget goal is about $35k, but it will vary on a few things I may decided to do or not to do. That may sound low but remember I am doing all the work myself, I have a cabinet shop, and I have a sawmill. Wish me luck, as I'm gonna need it!

[Faust]

Right on! Looks like you got an incredible deal and exactly what you've been looking for!

I might suggest first doing the things that obviously have to be completed... siding, kitchenette, theater room, etc, and see where you stand at that point. I tried doing something somewhat similar, although not at that scale, fixing up a house all on my own everyday after work and on weekends, and I was pretty burnt out after just a month.

[kartman]

looks like a great start! my first house was a pile of crap, and we lost our asses on it and i will never buy a house to fix up again...but i guess you live and learn. hope everything works out for you!

[pyrocasto]

[jt09]

looks like she's got great bones and excellent potential! congrats pyro!

[churchy]

Congrats!

I am in the middle of building another house. I forgot what a pain in the a$$ it is.

[ohsix]

I'm just starting to build a house. I should make a thread to put pictures on as well.

[Okie Boarder]

Looks like a good house that has a lot of potential. Congrats!

[vette74]

Nice! I like the potential. As a bonus you can bury at least 7-8 hookers in the woods behind the house from my experience.

[eeven73]

Craig James^???

[jgriffith]

eeven73, Craig James had a slightly smaller wooded area behind his house while he was at SMU, it could only fit the bodies of 5 hookers.

[eeven73]

jgriffith, As far as you know

[arof]

why is the hot-tub inside a little house?

[Faust]

[Okie Boarder]

Faust, sounds about like what I did when I was doing the boat rebuild.

[E.J.]

EXCELLENT, Congrats! Look forward to hearing about your progress.

[pyrocasto]

8 hours after closing I was tearing out drywall. The 2nd master bedroom neighbors the kitchen, and for some reason it has 3 closets. 2 side by side on one wall, then another lone one. It's unneeded and awkward for bed placement, and takes up room that could be extra kitchen space. Next to it is another "closet" in the living room that is actually just some redneck engineered cold air return, so it's gone too. Also, they built in the pantry and fridge with drywall, taking up WAY to much kitchen space. All in all, it looked very discouraging at first as the kitchen just seemed too small for a house this size.

All in all I'm extremely happy with the outcome. Now the kitchen feels just right in size, and I'll have room to design something very nice and to code too, as the walkways were not wide enough to pass before.








Just look at the before and after pictures:



I just needed to get the closet sealed back up, and the oven cabinet out to make room for a free standing oven for now, as we're moving in this weekend.

[pyrocasto]

[pyrocasto]

So the first room to work on was the theater room as I posted in the other thread. There's been quite the transformation so far, but I am building the AV cabinet this week, and wont touch the kitchenette for a good while I think.

Before:


Testing equipment


Painting


Mounting screen


projector mounted, tested, and adjusted


So far the bill on this room:
projector $1000
surround $600
Paint $75
HDMI Splitter $25
PS3 for 3d blu ray player $130(nearly new)
Wire, HDMI, and misc $50

I still need couches($1400), and maybe some stools for a mini bar behind the second row of seating. I usually dont include things like tvs and sound on costs, but being a dedicated room I may leave it with the house at sell or rent.

I'll have finish pictures this week, maybe weekend if everything goes smoothly, with only the current loveseat seating though(gotta save for the new set still).

[pyrocasto]

Cleaned and organized.

[Bambamski]

cool how wide is the room and how deep?

We have our games room that we rarely use. I was thinking about building a room over the garage and making that into a theater room but I don't know if I can justify the cost of that project. The games room where the pool table would probably be a pretty good spot. basement ceiling is 9 feet which would be good

[pyrocasto]

The room is 11ft by 22ft, so it has enough room for 2 rows of seating. After getting one I know 2 things; 1. you could put one in a smaller room than I thought. A 10 by 12 room with 7-8ft ceilings could work. 2. I will always have a projector setup now. It's just a total different experience, and everything seems to be more enjoyable on it. Maybe tone it down to a 100" screen if I move though.

[pyrocasto]

So this isnt really part of the house, but I thought it would go best here. I finally built and finished my bed frame. I slept on a mattress on the ground for 2.5 years so this feels nice!

[Faust]

Whoa that's really cool

Be sure to keep extensive records/receipts for every expense and bill you are incurring during this time... it will come in handy at tax time, and also let you know if you are digging a huge financial hole for yourself