#1847 the latest fixer then and now

MT has spent this year fixing up a house we bought at the end of November. His goal was to have the house on the market by the middle of March. He hired a guy, Dave, who helped him tremendously and they were able to fix the house up beautifully. We put it up for sale on Friday March 17 and we accepted a full price offer on Tuesday March 21.

Compared to the first flip that MT did, this house was in much better shape to begin with which is probably one of the reasons he was able to turn it around so quickly. Another reason is that MT had help from Dave; T and a couple of his friends helped out a lot also. The third reason is that MT is getting really good at the work and is developing a style that he can use on each house. He likes a certain color scheme, keeps it simple and puts in some extra-nice touches on the things that he does really well, like tile and trim.

Here are some before and after photos of six rooms. NOTE: The before photos were taken at night and the after photos were taken in the day, so that explains why the before photos all look dark.

FRONT ROOM - BEFORE

 FRONT ROOM - AFTER

Before there was brown paint, carpet, an iron rail and a very dated hanging lamp (that you can't really see in the before photo, just the glare). MT put in wood laminate floor, like Pergo, painted the room a nice gray color, made custom trim for the baseboards and windows, made a wooden rail for the stairs and installed a new hanging lamp.

KITCHEN - BEFORE

KITCHEN - AFTER 

In the kitchen, MT used the existing cabinets but installed handles on the upper set of cabinets. He used white subway tile for the backsplash between the upper cabinets and the counters. The countertops are now granite and there is a new tile floor. He built custom trim for the windows and put in all new stainless steel appliances. I think the kitchen is gorgeous.

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM - BEFORE

UPSTAIRS BATHROOM - AFTER

The upstairs bathroom featured a dark purple wall and a generic tub surround. The vanity and mirror and lights were all pretty generic too. MT painted the bathroom gray, (he carried gray throughout the house), installed a new vanity, mirror and lighting and did an amazing job on the tile surrounding the tub/shower. It's hard to get a good photo of a bathroom, so I focused on the pretty tile work.

MASTER BEDROOM - BEFORE

MASTER BEDROOM - AFTER

The master bedroom had a black accent wall and dark purple paint on the other three walls. MT painted in the soft gray he used in the other rooms, put in white custom-made trim and crown molding. He also had new carpet installed in all the bedrooms.

DOWNSTAIRS BATH - BEFORE

DOWNSTAIRS BATH - AFTER

Actually, there wasn't a downstairs bathroom before MT got the house. There was some rough framing and a drain, but that was it. MT and Dave built a new bathroom (and another bedroom) downstairs. The vanity, mirror and lights you see in the after photo are exactly the same as in the upstairs bathroom. The downstairs bathroom has a shower with more beautiful tile work.

T and his friends did a lot of work in the front and back yard to make it ready for the new owners to create their own landscaping. The backyard was a jumble of branches and garbage. In fact, one of the neighbors came over and said, "Oh! There is some grass under all that! We hadn't seen the ground for awhile." MT also had a new deck built off the kitchen (replacing the existing crumbling deck) and it is really nice, too.

Overall, I think the house turned out really nice and I know that MT is proud of it, too. We expect to close on the sale around the end of April.

Don't worry about MT not keeping busy! He has already started work on the next fixer upper project and this one is going to test his skills. It is a mess.