North Church Takeover

I remember the day that we looked at our little house on Fourth Avenue. It was a HUD foreclosure. It stunk. Literally everything was disgusting. Pretty sure my mom shed a few tears when she came into it the first time before we did any renovations. I will admit, it was a total disgust-fest. But, I saw the diamond underneath. This was not the first, third or even fifth house we had bought, but it would definitely be the biggest renovation to date. Still, my excitement was overwhelming.

When we were fixing up that house, our dream was to buy as many of the houses on the street as we could and fix them up, too. I could just imagine the neighborhood sprinkled with these cute cottages we had put our touch on. We earnestly tried to get as many houses as we could. We mailed letters. We asked homeowners face to face. Every time a "for rent" sign went up, we would call the owners and ask if they would let us buy it. We really wanted this.

<Although we did end up buying ONE house and renovating it, it was far cry from what we had hoped for.>

Shortly after we finished the Fourth Avenue house, a vacant lot came open on North Church Street, right off the square. We bought it with the dream to build our home. (Our current home, so yay.) One month later, a house went up for rent across the street, which we sweet-talked the owner into letting us buy. (The white house we finished about 16 months ago.)

Wait, this is starting to sound like what I hope its starting to sound like...

A few months later, we got the opportunity to buy the house next door. (Which we are in the thick of renovating now and is our biggest project to date)  Then, just a couple of weeks ago an opportunity came up to buy the house one block down.

Okay, its really happening.

That means, *drumroll* that we are currently on our FOURTH house not only on North Church Street, but within two blocks.

Our little renovated downtown dreamland is finally coming to fruition and its such an exciting time. 

We love North Church. We have been on this street in some capacity for two years now. We know every neighbor. Most of them have our cell phone numbers.  My brother and sister-in-law live on North Church. Two of my old co-workers live on North Church. They bring us goodies. They wave at us when they walk their dogs. It really is the greatest place we have ever lived and helping it improve even more is just such a labor of love.

Without further ado, I am SO excited to show some nasty before pictures of the most recent home we are working on at 900 North Church. 

We are going to replace the windows, paint the brick, new landscaping, new column, shutters, new front door and put some cool hardi siding to replace and update the vinyl.

This is such a large living room for an old home! New windows, redone hardwoods, paint throughout and new lighting is going to really amp this room up.

I am proud to announce that after a long weekend with lots of blood blisters, this kitchen is already gone. It will have all new cabinets, appliances and hardwoods. Luckily, we discovered the original hardwoods under FOUR layers of other flooring. Yay. We really think they can be saved, which is super exciting!

This is a flex space off the back of the house. We will be relocating the back door to go out onto a concrete patio, new flooring, new lighting, new paint, etc.

The bathroom was quite the bear to demo, but Im even prouder to announce that its fully demoed at this point. Yehaw. New tile, vanity, lighting, shower, the works.

Two bedrooms that will both get a face-lift with new lighting, flooring windows, paint, etc.

900 N Church Street is going to be such a cutie. I am super excited about it.  We are shooting to have it done in early April and can guarantee it will be a showstopper. I cant wait to keep you guys updated!

Cheers to an exciting 2018.

The Fun Part

Hello, friends!

You guys have heard enough about the not-so-fun parts of flipping (especially this flip, considering all of our delays), but now it starting to get to the fun part. Picking out the finishes is my favorite part. Tile, paint, flooring and colors is where all the fun begins!

In this flip we are really trying to bring out the cool old features of the house by bringing out the character and still giving the house an updated and new feel. I am really trying to reflect this in my tile choices. I want the new homeowner to feel like they live in an old house, but with all the modern features of a new construction. Since this house in the downtown district, homebuyers in that area will love the old/new feel.

For the tile selections, I tried to go with something clean and classic with a fun and modern look. The white subway tile below will be in both of the showers and the below gray colored tile will be on the floor in both bathrooms as well as the floor in the kitchen. <We wanted to go with hardwood in the kitchen, however, the current hardwood is the old, small planks-- matching this can be very difficult and costly, so the tile turned out to be the best choice.> 

Now for the front door selection. Again, I want to keep this house to be a little bit funky. I was originally planning on going with a cool blue color for the front door. I found several blue colors that I liked, but when I put them up against the grey exterior of the house, it just didn't feel right. It seemed too plain and just wasn't giving me the vibe I was looking for.

So, I decided to get funky. I know this green color is a little out there, but I really think the finished product will yield the vibe we are going for. <I am really diggin' Jalapeno Jelly (upper right).

Now for the best part yet.... drumroll, please........

SHIPLAP.

I could not be happier with how this old shiplap has turned out. We have decided to paint it white (an offset of the grey wall color). I love the way you can see the spaces between the slats. I just can't get enough of it. There will be four shiplap accent walls. <Even though I would have opted for about double that amount.>

And just like that, the tile has been partially completed. Can I just say, I totally swooned when I went into this bathroom. Seeing the tile in your hand and envisoining it in your head is nothing compared to seeing it up. I couldn't be happier and cannot wait to see it after it has been grouted/completed.

This is definitely my favorite part of the ride. This is when all of the hard work and labor finally pays off. It makes all of those long days and tiresome weekends worth it. The next few weeks are going to be so exciting and I can't wait to share it with you guys!

Enjoy this hot and sticky weekend! 

When the Dream Comes Slowly

We all have dreams. Regardless of their magnitude, we all have things we wish we could do or pursue in our lives. Sometimes these dreams may involve "giving" something up like a job, person or lifestyle. Other dreams may involve "taking" something up like a new activity, passion or person. No matter what the dream may be, it is easy to have set expectations in our minds as to how these dreams will play out in real life-- what these things will look like once we have scratched the surface.

When we started our business of house flipping, I pretty much expected to turn into Joanna Gaines. I thought my days would be filled with lattes, paint color swatches and job site visits. Working a full time job on top of that business means that most days look the same as they did before. In fact, some days are even longer with job site visits in between other appointments for work or after hours.

I also expected the transition of a house flip to be like it is on TV., timewise. Wrong again. In fact, as you can tell from my blog update, the house we are currently working on is anything but that. When we initially purchased this house it had a pesky renter that didn't want to vacate. A few months later, once we were finally able to begin work, our Escape Experience Chattanooga business needed expansion. Although this was a good problem to have, it took us away from our house flip project for several months. Months later, we began again only to be pulled away for Escape Experience Nashville. Again, a good problem to have, but postponing the project once again.

Needless to say, the last few months have made me fidgety. I like to be hands on, involved and into something all of the time.

I feel confident that you can take whatever situation you may be experiencing in your life and insert it into my description above.

We decide on a dream.
We start to go for it.

Then, maybe it doesn't go exactly according to our plan or timing.

Maybe our version of success or fulfillment is put off or takes longer to reach than expected.

Maybe it just doesn't look exactly how we wanted it to.

Whatever that dream may be, stay the course. Your results may come more slowly than expected, but they certainly won't come if you are not on the course.

Maybe your business doesn't take off as quickly as you want it to. Maybe you're putting in more hours and things are not as glamorous as you expected.

Maybe your weight loss journey is annoying. It's fun to look at peoples pictures on Instagram of their health shakes and running shoes and fun workout hair. I don't know about you, but my hair is usually plastered to my head with dry shampoo and I'm wearing some old highschool T-shirts. Stay the course.

Maybe you are on a journey for adoption or trying to get pregnant. You hear a birth announcement once a week and everyone around you seems to be fertile Myrtle. Why not you? Stay the course.

It's not always easy, but it is worth it. If we do not pursue these dreams and desires put into our hearts, then who will? We will never get there if we don't stay the course. No matter how long, no matter how hard. Because we WILL get there.

Happy Weekend, Friends!

Stay the course. Your results definitely will not be reached if you are not on the course at all.