WE'RE BACK! Larch, before and after.

I know.


It's been a long time. A very long time.



I wish that I had a better reason for why we stopped keeping up with this blog, but I don't.  It would be great if I had some sort of exciting explanation like, "We were traveling the world and didn't have internet access while we were riding elephants in Thailand or exploring ancient ruins in Rome."  Who am I kidding - the ancient ruins probably have wi-fi.  In any case, I don't have a good excuse.

Life just got busy. Really busy. And I promise I'll do a catch up blog (for those of you that actually read this and care), but for now...we're back!

To kick things off, let me fill you in on what we (and when I say "we" I mostly mean Vern) have been doing for the last five-ish months.

Last year Vern and I successfully flipped our first house, the "503" house, which you can see here.

It was a tremendous amount of work, but ultimately paid off when we received a full price offer within three days of listing.

Still high on the success of selling 503, Vern partnered with his friend John and purchased the "Larch" house.  I was not ready to take on another project, so I agreed to help with the design, do the staging, and just generally help when needed.

Although I was a tiny part of this - John and Vern did the major work in order to get this back on the market.

I certainly have to give credit where credit is due - which is to my amazing husband. For the last five months he has poured himself into this house.  Not only does he have a full-time job as a teacher, but he's managed to keep working on projects at our own house, as well as finish up Larch.  Working so much has not been easy for him, or for us, but once again the final product is really something to be proud of.  Now, hopefully, he can go back to doing things like climbing and staying out of my hair.

There's not a lot of explanation that needs to go along with this house, so prepare yourself for picture overload!

EXTERIOR

Pretty huh. 

As you can see, this house sat neglected for awhile.  Vern and I actually looked at it once, but determined the asking price was WAY too much for the amount of work that would need to be done. 

Months later the price dropped and that's when Vern and John snagged it.  

The windows were fairly new, but other than that there was quite a bit of work that needed to be done outside.  

New paint, new front door, new front door windows, new railings, new garage doors (we added the second garage back in) and landscaping. 

Exterior - before

Exterior - after

Exterior - before

Exterior - after

Exterior - before

Exterior - after

EXTERIOR - BACK YARD

The back part of the house needed quite a bit of work also.  The entire deck of the side of the house needed to be ripped off and angled properly so that water wouldn't collect over the garage.  The shed needed some work, as well as the irrigation and general landscaping.  Lucky for us, this house came with central air, so we didn't have to add an air conditioner or deal with a bunch of duct work. 

Back - before

Back - after

Back - before

Back - after

Back - before

Back - after

Back - before

Back - after

INTERIOR - UPSTAIRS

Oh man.  Upstairs.  It was a mess - as you will shortly see.  The expansive list of things that needed to be done could easily span multiple blog posts, but to sum it up - walls were taken down, drywall work, new flooring, new trim, fireplace work, all new paint, new cabinets, counters, lighting, appliances.  Vern and John closed up a window in the kitchen (where the washer and dryer used to be!)  The house was previously used as a duplex - so the upstairs was meant to be separate from the downstairs.  From day one, we knew it was going to be converted back into a single family home.  

Stairs - before

Stairs - after

Living Room - before

Living Room - 

Fireplace - before

Fireplace - after

Living Room - before

Living Room - after

Living Room - before

Living Room - after

Dining Room - before

Dining Room - after

Kitchen - before

Kitchen - after

Kitchen - before

Kitchen - after

Kitchen - before

Kitchen - after

Hall - before

Hall - after

Bathroom - before

Bathroom - after

Bathroom - before

Bathroom - after

Bedroom 1 - before

Bedroom 1 - after

"Master" - before

"Master" - after

Bedroom 3 - before

Bedroom 3 - after

INTERIOR - DOWNSTAIRS

The same needed to be done to the downstairs - but the garage also needed to be converted back into a two car garage.  The previous owners had turned one of the garages into the living room for the lower duplex.  That was quickly ripped out and turned back into a garage.  The downstairs drywall was patched and painted.  Carpet installed, new doors, new hardware, and new flooring and vanity in the bathroom.

Stairs - before

Stairs - after

Downstairs bath - before

Downstairs bath - after

Bedroom 4 - before

Bedroom 4 - after

Bedroom 5 - before

Bedroom 5 - after

This was the downstairs duplex "kitchen." 

It was converted back into a living room. 

Vern is pretty relieved that this project is finally over.  I think I've convinced him that we need a break from real estate projects for awhile, but that could easily change the next time a good deal comes up.  For now, maybe he'll let himself relax for a bit. 

                                       

Wait, who am I kidding....have you met my husband? 

What are your thoughts on our big project? We'd love to know!