Building our Castle: Randall Renovation 2015

My husband (Chris) and I have made an unfortunate discovery about ourselves: we actually enjoy home renovation projects. You can read about our first house-flip here.  As newbies, it was a reasonable project for us. We successfully purchased, renovated and sold a 700 square foot condo, which required mostly cosmetic upgrades.

Well, our current project is a bit larger, both in scale and scope. I plan to blog about the progress, the ups and downs, the lessons learned and of course, post lots of pictures. So stay tuned!

It all began with a search on Zillow one November evening. We had an interested buyer for the 700-footer, which we were currently living in. Our rental property around the corner was occupied with a tenant. Well damn, we needed a place to live!

House Hunters: Huntsville, Alabama edition was not fun, whatsoever. With our pre-approval letter in our back pockets, I made the grave assumption that finding a home would be easy and exciting. The first Zillow search produced hundreds of results, and right before our eyes glazed over, we found our dream house: a foreclosed, abandoned beauty.

We made two offers to Fannie Mae, but she was holding the reins with a firm grip, unwilling to budge much on the price. You see, the house needed so much work that the purchase price had to be MUCH less, in order to justify renovation expenses, and still make this a wise investment. After accepting the reality that Fannie Mae wasn’t bending anytime soon, we dropped our heads and reluctantly began the house hunt again.

NOTHING was right. We almost gave up. Maybe we’ll rent an apartment for a while until we find something. Maybe we’ll build a house from scratch. All we could think about was the foreclosure that held our hearts.

Chris loves modern architecture, perhaps it’s his Chicago roots. Think Frank Lloyd Wright. I’m an Oregon Girl and have always loved the stylish, rustic homes of the Pacific Northwest. This house was an uncanny fusion of both styles. The bold angles of Frank Llloyd, rugged cedar siding like a Northwest chalet, a plethora of large windows offering gorgeous natural light, and a soaring 30 foot ceiling at its peak.

On Christmas Eve, with almost all hope gone, we took a peek at our dream house on Zillow one more time. The price had dropped $40,000 from the original asking price. It was a Christmas Miracle (Fannie Mae was quite the Scrooge). We made our third offer, one that Scrooge couldn’t resist.

Three days later, on the way to Kevin Hart ‘s Comedy Show, we got a phone call. The house was ours! We can’t say enough good things about our Realtor: David Trueb. Thank you Dave!

Pictured: Chris and I celebrating with our Realtor, David Trueb on Feb 6th, when we officially got the keys to our new home.

Soooo, we got the keys on Feb 6th. On Feb 9th, with a renovation loan approved, a general contractor in place and countless Pinterest images, we hit the ground running. On DAY 1 as the new homeowners, we encountered a gas leak outside and a broken mainline water pipe at the street. A home that was abandoned for two years comes with a few surprises. Have you seen the movie Money Pit?

We have chosen to do a TOTAL renovation in 4 months. Needless to say, we are not living in the construction zone. I can’t even imagine. So, while we rent a temporary spot for a couple months, we make daily trips to the house, (AND Home Depot) to make sure all is flowing smoothly…one can wish.

Here are a few highlights exactly one month after purchasing our perfect fixer-upper:

• Chris went to check on the house one evening and discovered the upstairs toilet leaking onto the hardwood floors downstairs. A perfect cold night to figure out where the shut-off valve was outside 🙂

• Discovered our HVAC system is older than the hills.

• Demolition began. Bathrooms gutted. Kitchen gutted. Back deck stripped of old wood.

• Bye bye popcorn ceilings!

• We had our first “fight” regarding window trim size. Fun times.

• Learned how expensive replacing ALL the windows in your home can be. More fun times.

• Went to Home Depot. Spent 45 minutes trying to get the right recessed lights. Went back to Home Depot to return recessed lights (wrong kind).

• Designed our master closet to accommodate Mr. Tall and Mrs. Short, and both of their shoe addictions.

• Designed our kitchen cabinets. Got the measurements wrong. Went back and re-designed them. Changed our minds about having a seated bar area. Went back and changed them again. Thank you for being patient, Michael, the cabinet guy.

• Chris built an exact replica of the mailbox I wanted from Etsy. Major points.

• A guy showed up with tile samples in the back of his car.

• Picked out our shiny new appliances. There will be some serious eating going on in this kitchen.

• To date, Chris and I still like each other, the house is still standing, and there is a high-probability the work will be finished by Summer.

Without further ado…here are the “Before” pictures. Thanks to our dear friends Antoinette and Breanna Pelt for the awesome photography.