To stage the Fanchon Flip house, we spent a total of $650. And $200 of those dollars were spent on pillows…. not kidding! We knew that in order to keep our expenses low when staging this flip house, we’d need to be very resourceful.

Here our my tips on staging an entire empty home for sale on an extreme budget.

Buy (Almost) Nothing New

New things cost way too much money. When you consider that used or thrifted items can be 5-20% of the price of new, it’s really a no-brainer. Buying one couch new, even from the cheapest of stores, would have blown our entire $650 budget.

There was one item that we did decide to buy new, however. And that was pillows. Have you ever tried to find trendy, cute pillows at the Goodwill? It’s just not very feasible in my opinion. Nobody likes a crusty, outdated looking pillow. Our strategy was to buy nice used furniture that we could dress up with fresh new pillows.

So, you may decide to buy new to help supplement and make sure your place doesn’t look “thrifted”. If you do that, I’d suggest you pick one or two affordable items that will help polish the space. And know that they will be taking up a significant chunk of your budget.

We shopped our pillows at Home Goods and Ross, but they still ate up over 35% of our spending budget at $250.

When you’re shopping secondhand, there are lots of options to find what you are looking for. To stage this house, I shopped many Goodwills in our area, Salvation Army, and other local thrift stores. I also frequently searched Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

I like to challenge myself in everything I buy second hand. I try to buy low enough that I could sell the item for more than I purchased it for. Sometimes all it takes is a nicer picture and you can make money on a furniture flip. In this way, you could stage a whole home, resell all the items, and actually MAKE money.

FREE is Your Friend

I don’t know about you, but when I shop second-hand to furnish my own house, I tend to shy away from anything that’s free. The reason being, I would rather pay $20 for something that I definitely find value in. Free things tend to be free for a reason.

But, you should ignore that principle for staging, and here’s why: this furniture is for looks only. It does not have to pass all the tests that it would to enter your home forever. Does it have to look stylish and add to the space? Yes!

Does it have to be free of cigarette butt burns, creepy stains, and rips? Surprisingly… No! When we staged this flip house, I found a gray leather sofa and chair set on Facebook Marketplace for free. And let me tell you, they had all of the above listed issues. But…. They had great modern lines, and neutral color.

And you know what, we threw some throw blankets over the rips and stains, and covered the burns with pillows. And no one is the wiser!!! All that to say, free is the EASIEST way to stretch your budget.

After the house sold, we just dropped the free stuff off at goodwill and called it a day! I will caveat… one thing you do need to avoid is odors. Make sure you don’t buy something that will give your house a smoke or animal smell.

Use what you Already Have

This one may seem like a no-brainer. But we saved a lot of money staging by taking items from our own home. We had several rugs in our basement that we used, the wood stool tables were from our living room. I brought a lot of our own home decor items in to supplement. And we had friends and family lend their extra decor as well.

So I guess this ties in with the point above, free things that you (or your friends/family) already have REALLY stretch your budget. When we bought this flip house, it came with an old turquoise dining table. So that’s what we used in the dining room with a table cloth.

Sometimes, what you have is just better. It may not be perfect… I would have loved to do an open leg dining table. It would have looked more modern and inviting. But, this dining table illustrated the space without detracting from it. So it fit the bill and eliminated another expense.

Don’t Fill Every Space

The purpose of staging is to make a house feel like a home and to demonstrate to the buyer the feel and function of a space. It’s not essential that every single space in the home is filled. You know how stagers always encourage homeowners to remove personal items and pictures when they sell their home? The same principle goes here. It’s the idea that there should be open space for the buyer to imagine their own items in the home.

How do you know which areas to leave and which to stage? I believe that the main living areas and the master bedroom should be staged. That’s enough to give the buyer a true feel for the space furnished. So living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and one bedroom.

In this flip house we had additional rooms that where we added nothing: the rest of the bedrooms, the laundry/mudroom, the entire basement. And it goes without saying, that choosing not to stage these areas saves a lot of money. Can you image how much more it would have cost to buy beds for each of the 3 additional bedrooms?

Visual Illusions are OK

I hate moving mattresses. For me, the idea of bringing a mattress into this house to stage and then having to transport it back home sounded like pure torture. So we didn’t!

We bought an air mattress and placed it on top of some boxes, and dressed it like a bed. It may sound hokey… but think about the purpose of staging. It’s not for someone to take a nap on the bed. The purpose of that bed is first to illustrate how a bed fits in the space, and second to help the buyer visualize themselves sleeping there. It’s all about the visual.

So, give yourself permission to hack some things. Don’t have a nightstand? Stack some decorative boxes on top of each other. You could cover them with some fabric. Get creative and remember, it’s more about looks than function in this case.

Do Sweat the Small Stuff

Yeah, you gotta have furniture to make a space feel furnished. But it’s the little decor accents that take a space from furnished to homey. Think art, blankets, pillows, tchotchkes, lamps, books, flowers. Lets look at some pictures and how these extras make the space.

We added a neutral art installation to the fireplace mantle. This draws attention to a positive feature of the home. Then we framed it with a standing floor lamp on one side and a faux plant on the other. A basket with a blanket spilling out is a nice touch. It makes a person feel like they could cozy up in the space.

In this corner, I added an art easel with a framed print. This is a great way to get art in a home without making holes in the walls. Plus it fills a corner visually and add height to the room. I found this easel for less than $5 at Goodwill.

In the bedroom, we tried to create an inviting look with layering and texture. You can see there is an assortment of pillows on the bed, and layered blankets to add interest and warmth.

There is a DIY art piece over the headboard, and framed painting leaning on the nightstand. Note the several items that I’ll call ‘tchotchkes’ on the nightstand. I believe a few of these items can make an empty space feel more lived in.

And finally, you can see a stack of books. I truly believe that books are your very best tool when it comes to staging. Look for hardcover books with neutral spines. A stack of books can decorate just about every space in the home. They are a neutral decor choice that appeals to everyone.

Again, you can see the power of books! Baskets are another winner when you are a staging a home. They can be empty even, but they provide a nice neutral decor piece that helps the home feel lived in.

And last point, flowers! Do use fresh flowers when staging the home. Have you ever noticed that in every magazine spread of a home, they always have some type of flowers or greenery on display? Always! That’s because there is no comparison when it comes to nature, so bring a little natural life to the indoors by incorporating greens/flowers.

Don’t Forget the Bathrooms

And for my last point, I want to encourage you not to neglect the bathrooms. It may seem like they don’t really need staging since furnishings are necessary in bathrooms. But, remember that kitchens and baths sell homes! So you want to be putting your best foot forward in all those spaces.

Use attractive hand and bath towels. White is always a good choice. Make sure you have nice looking soap on display. Bathrooms are a great place to display some of that greenery.

You can even create some vignettes if you have the space. Our master bath had a freestanding tub and we wanted to feature that as a relaxing place. So we added a footstool with books, candles, and spa items.

I hope you find this guide helpful when you are staging an empty home. Just keep in mind the main goals:

• make the space feel functional
• give the buyer a picture of what life in this house looks like
• leave some room for them imagine themselves there

Check out more about how we bought and renovated this flip house here: Fanchon Flip.

The post Staging an Empty House on a Budget appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

This flip house was a great learning experience because I had to make tons of decisions in a very short time window for an entire house. To streamline things, we kept the bathrooms in a similar style. Some elements that echo through all of them: marble countertops, white walls, gray accents, wood-look floors, and a mixture of black and stainless finishes.

Master Bathroom

Ok, we should always start with a good before picture or two, right? So here is what we started with…

We pretty much ripped out the entire bathroom. The layout changed slightly, but not drastically though. But I think the overall effect is pretty drastically different thought…

I shared the design idea for the master in this post. I think we stuck pretty close to that for nearly everything. The only item left out was the wall molding, simply because we ran out of steam at the end.

The whole bathroom was inspired by the Allen + Roth floating vanities that I found on a super sale at Lowes. Floating anything, just feels more sophisticated, right? We got the 60″ double vanity for the master bath. The stainless steel widespread faucets helped the look lean more ‘modern/spa’. They are super affordably priced and feel like great quality. The only bummer was that the water lines included weren’t long enough, so we got different ones to install.

Also, we used my very favorite toilet paper holder from Amazon. Super affordable and super modern!!

The wood-look tile floor was a clearance find at Floor and Decor. I’ve never done a wood-look tile before, but I have to say, they look quite nice! To add a luxury feel, we replaced the built-in jacuzzi tub with this free-standing tub. I was very impressed with the quality and affordability of this tub.

We paired the tub with a matte black free standing tub faucet in the same brand. It is truly gorgeous. I just wish I had read about gpm before buying. The Gallons per Minute dictate how fast the tub will fill, and this faucet is a little on the slow side. No one wants their bath to get cold before they finish filling it! Oh well, I’m always learning

In the shower, we used the Clementine Kira ceramic tile from Home Depot. It’s the same tile I used on our kitchen peninsula. We had some issues with a lot of tiles coming broken, so definitely open the box before you leave the store. Overall, my biggest regret in this bathroom is not making the shower area bigger. I’m not sure if the tub would still have fitted in the same spot, but I think the 36″ shower just felt too tight for a luxurious master bath.

Like I said, I learned a lot through this. And while I don’t think it’s perfect, I think it’s still a very nice and pretty bathroom for the new owners.

The mirrors were a Kirkland’s find. They seem to have the most affordable prices for mirrors. Home Goods is almost as good, but they don’t have online shopping, so for that reason, Kirkland wins.

Those gorgeous black and white sconces over the mirror are on Amazon. I think they really make a statement and are a unique touch for this bathroom. (And who spotted the missing ceiling fan cover in that photo??)

And now for a few more fun master bathroom photos before we move on to the other baths…

Main Hall Bathroom

In this bathroom the layout remained the same, but everything got replaced, including the tub and vanity.

The Fanchon Flip house had a second bathroom upstairs for the other three bedrooms. We used some of the same elements as the other bathrooms, but the Allen + Roth vanities were sold out in the 48″ size we needed. So we ended up buying the vanity at Menards as well as the marble top.

The mirror was Kirkland’s again, it’s such a fun shape! This bathroom took on some more traditional lines, with the curve of the mirror, the vanity fronts, and the pretty chrome faucet.

We used the same tub from our own bathroom, it’s really nice and spacious. And instead of tile, we opted to install a subway tile look wall surround. I think it’s pretty convincing, don’t you?

Half Bathroom

This little space looks quite different now from the before picture… much more clean and calming:

This tiny little half bath had an adorable pocket door. We used the gorgeous floating vanity from Lowes again. with the same widespread faucet. The circle mirror was from (you guessed it!) Kirkland’s. And I just love the wall light above the circle window. There is something about pairing a linear light, with a circular mirror, and a floating vanity that feels so chic!

If you’re wondering where the third full bath is…. Sadly I never took pictures of it. The basement bath was more of a facelift than a full remodel, and we didn’t picture it the listing. So sorry I have no pictures to share!

And here are the all the sources in one place:

Master Bathroom
Allen + Roth floating double vanity
Stainless steel widespread faucet
Free-standing tub
Free-standing tub faucet
Black and white wall sconce lights
Clementine Kira ceramic tile
Toilet paper holder

Hall Bathroom
Marble vanity top
Gray 48″ vanity
Chrome faucet
Bathtub
Subway-tile-look wall surround

Hall Bathroom
Allen + Roth floating vanity
Stainless steel widespread faucet
Sconce wall light

The post Fanchon Flip Bathrooms appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

When I started designing this kitchen, I had no idea what direction it was going to go… only that we were without a doubt using the new IKEA white shaker door: Axstad.

If you are an IKEA nerd, like me, you know that the world has been waiting FOREVER for IKEA to finally come out with a true white shaker door. What about Grimslov, you say? Well, I like that door, and we even used it in our first kitchen. But most people would not consider it to be a true shaker style for a couple of reasons. Mainly because the rails are so thick, the corners are a little rounded, the lines in the rails that make it look a little less convincing. And, it’s not a true white, more off-white.

So, when IKEA finally came out with the Axstad, I was chomping at the bit to try it out… A couple things that makes the Axstad door unique:

• It’s a matte finish – this is more modern, in my opinion. And it still seems to clean nicely
• It’s a true white – this isn’t the warm off-white of Hittarp or Grimslov, so plan accordingly for your finishes. It’s like, super bright white.
• It has a stepped detail around the frame. Some people would say that this means its not a ‘real’ shaker. I say phewy. It’s a detailed, sophisticated shaker.

After choosing the door / drawer fronts in this kitchen, the other finishes followed. We chose a white quartz countertop, mainly because it’s popular and our fabricator had it in stock (this is a flip house after all). Once we chose white cabinets and white counter, the kitchen suddenly became ultra white… So we needed a way to ground it and give it depth.

We needed some legs to support the counter, so we made some out of 3×3 poplar at Lowes connected by 1×3 poplar. I stained them in black to start adding some non-white elements. After that, it was clear we were shooting for a modern take on the black and white kitchen.

I am obsessed with finger pulls and found these kind of hybrid black pulls for the cabinets. I used a shorter size for the upper doors and long black pulls for the drawers. Putting these in straight turned out to be much harder than anticipated….

So you can see a theme forming here…. pick everything else in black to try and bring some balance in this kitchen… The next element I picked out was the lighting. The island is ridiculously long (9 feet) and I was trying to pick out the perfect pendants to go over it. I had decided we needed to do three. But just before the electrician came, I fell in love with these white and black fabric shade linear pendants from West Elm. They were on super clearance for around $75 each and I snapped them up!

Check out the West Elm pendants we chose for the kitchen in our hoarder house, I am just such a big fan!

Every kitchen needs something that helps take it from typical-nice-updated-kitchen to wow-this-kitchen-knocks-my-socks-off. And in this case, while it’s a combination of things, I really believe this lighting takes the look to a new level. It’s just a little bit unexpected, a little bit oversized, and a little bit softer of a finish.

We did almost all black finished throughout the house, so I went with a black faucet for the kitchen sink as well. I like the clean modern lines, and it feels like a high end faucet for a good price.

The sink is the IKEA double bowl sink. We used their original sink in our first kitchen and it had the draining area in the back. I do agree with others that I miss this. It’s a nice sink, just not sure I’d pick it again. (Plus we broke one during install and had to buy another… so that just left a bad taste)

I asked you guys on my Instagram stories if I should be bold and go with a black backsplash for this flip kitchen.. Not gonna lie, it felt like a scary move. People just love white and this is supposed to appeal to the masses, after all. I am so glad you guys voted overwhelming “yes” to the black because I think it added that last bit of depth that this kitchen needed.

All white kitchens will never go out of style, it’s just the finishing touches that make or break them. In this case, I think all of the black grounded the white kitchen.

Another big design decision you all helped me out with was whether or not to take down the railing between the kitchen and living room area. This ended up being SUCH a no-brainer that I can’t believe we weren’t always planning to remove it. Thanks again to everyone who said TEAR IT DOWN. You were absolutely right.

When we were deciding how to build the legs for the island, I felt that it was important to bring the material around the whole island. I think it helps it look cohesive, custom, and not choppy. The extra legs are on the end of the island and around the back. This design element was really fun (and a little) stressful to plan out because it gave a true custom look.

So what do you guys think of this modern take on a black-and-white kitchen? Would you ever do black subway tile backsplash?

I learned a lot through this kitchen remodel. But, I do think that I would use the IKEA axstad cabinet fronts again. They are very pretty and clean. Maybe next time I would mix them with wood or darker painted cabinets.

The IKEA axstad drawer fronts are so nice too… I am drooling over the little subtle detail in this shot… On one hand that extra reveal on the Axstad cabinet fronts makes it look more formal, I think you could still take it to a laid back vibe with the right hardware. The hardware totally sets the tone.

I also learned that I’m pretty ok at tiling backsplash. Filing that skill away in the “can do again” pile. There are few things in our renovations that I can say I did by myself, so this one feels good. I also grouted the entire master bath shower… not so sure I would do that again… Ha!

Kitchen Sources

• Kitchen Faucet
• Pendants Lights – West Elm, no longer available
• Light over sink
• Subway Tile
• Farmhouse Sink
• Hardware
• Oven
• Fridge

The post Axstad Black and White IKEA Kitchen appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

Here is a little glimpse into what our life has looked like for the past 4 months…

Each week day we get around for work, pack our breakfast, lunch and dinner, and pack our work clothes. We drive to work together (since Jake’s new job is in my office building!), eat our lunch together, then after work we drive to the Fanchon Flip house. We eat dinner there, change into our work clothes and then work around 3 hours on the house.  Most Saturdays we spend the entire day at the flip house, and we take Sunday’s off.  Crazy, right?!

Sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it. Because this is not really what I want my life to be like… no room for others, little space for creativity and fun. But, I know that we are doing this now so that someday we will have even more of those things I crave in our lives.

Ups and downs…

There have been so many highs and lows throughout the weeks that we’ve been working on the flip. But, in retrospect, none of them have actually been too bad thankfully. Let’s just list some of the hiccups for fun:

• We installed the wrong thickness of cement board for the shower, so we had to remove it and put in beefier stuff. It takes longer than you think…
• Our tile floor failed (aka the cement did not properly secure the tiles to the subfloor) – emotionally it was too much for us to fix, so we hired someone to retile the bathrooms.
• We broke the porcelain apron front kitchen sink while installing it… so yeah, had to buy a new one.

Wow, actually that’s like all I can think of… so really, not too bad in the grand scheme of things. But, in the moment as you face the various trials, it just feels so defeating. I think it’s because we are working on such a small margin of life right now.

So far we are on budget and *almost* on time…

We created a budget when we initially bought the house, then multiplied it by 10% to be our final budget of around $60,000 for renovations. Right now we are projected to come in 4% under that budget, which is pretty exciting!

And we aren’t too far off on our timeline. Initially when we bought the house we planned for it to take 5 months from purchase to sale. Since you should assume at least 30 days after you finish renovation to find a buyer and close, that’s 4 months for renovation. We bought the house at the start of April, so end of July was the 4 month mark. At this time we are projected to take 3 weeks beyond that. Which, considering everything really isn’t too bad!

My biggest concern is the seasonal timing. Ideally we wanted to be on the market before school started. We’ll miss that window and so the new goal is to be listed as far ahead of Labor Day as possible. The fear is that the housing market declines after Labor Day as people settle into the school year and gear up for the holidays…

What’s left to be done…

We are getting so close to the finish line, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Below is the tick list of what still needs to be finished in the next 3 weeks.

• Kitchen
  • Fix the exhaust vent
  • Install crown molding
  • Install toe kick
  • Secure dishwasher
  • Electrical inspection
  • Hang pendant lights
  • Patch drywall and paint
  • Finish grouting backsplash
• Dining room – Swag chandelier (turns out it’s off center and looks weird)
• Living Room – Swap recessed lighting trim
• Stairway – Install hand rail and fix wiring on pendant lighting
• Mudroom – Install laundry sink
• Closets – cut and install shelves and rods
• Master Bathroom
  • Grout shower
  • Install shower door
  • Install vanity, toilet, mirror, and accessories
  • Install freestanding tub and faucet
• Hall Bathroom
  • Install toilet, mirror, and accessories
  • Install shower surround
• Half Bath
  • Install vanity, mirror and accessories
• Basement Bath (why are there so many baths???)
  • Paint second coat
  • Install baseboard
  • Install toilet, vanity, mirror and accessories
• Deck – we’re going to hire someone to replace the top boards
• Landscaping – we’re hoping to hire someone to complete this
• Carpet – this will be installed in the 2^nd floor and basement

I really just can’t wait to clean up in here. It kills me to have all that dust on the floor. But I’m so happy with how it’s all coming together. I think it will be a very modern beautiful kitchen for someone.

The pendant lights should really pull it all together too, but we can’t install them until the electrical inspection has been completed. (Really crossing my fingers that that goes smoothly…)

I’ve started buying some staging accessories (at my favorite places.. Goodwill and Salvation Army). And I’m still on the look out for the right stools to go under the island…

I’m excited to see it all staged because I think the accessories will do a lot to soften the harsh black & white look that it has now.

We got the bathrooms all painted (Palais White by Behr). It’s definitely a lot warmer than the other walls which are Site White by Sherwin Williams. I like the warmer white in the bathrooms, just hope that it plays nice with the cooler tones outside.

Picking out lights is hands down my favorite part of flipping… Ha! But how neat are these black and white pendants? I’ll have to get a better close up of them later.

The shower is tiled finally!! It still needs to be grouted and get a door installed. I think a light toned grout will soften the contrast of this fun tile and pull it all together.

I’m super happy with how the floors look in this picture too. I think the long wood-look plank tile was a fun spa-like choice for this master bath.

These are a couple finds I got on my Goodwill trip… The metal display shelf I’m going to use in the master as a modern towel rack. And the baskets will be a fun warm accessory to put blankets and pillows in. 

Last week I stumbled upon these dining room chairs for $7 each. When I got home I looked them up and they are going for around $600 a pair on Wayfair!!! I was definitely on a deal-find high that day J They do have a smoke odor which I’m hoping to remove before using them.

I do still want to find a couch to use in the living room, but will probably wait until the last minute on that. At this point, I think we’ll skip staging the bedrooms and just try to do the best we can in the kitchen, baths, and living area.

I just can’t wait to have everything finalized and to get those pictures taken. Living for that before and after!!! I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of the current state of the house..

The post Week 17 – Fanchon Flip appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

From the moment I first saw the new IKEA Axstad cabinet face, I knew I would need to use it in a kitchen as soon as humanly possible.  IKEA has been stubborn and until now, hasn’t had a true white shaker style door. They’ve had some wood shaker styles. And some shaker-esque off white doors (grimslov – we actually used these in our first kitchen).

But now, they have finally done it! Axstad is truly the perfect white shaker. And to all you purists out there, no… it is not a “true” shaker door in that it has a minor decorative detail. As you can see it has a slight step-down profile. But I find that this actually elevates and differentiates the look, while still maintaining the clean straight lines of the shaker style.

In comparison to the Grimslov door, the Axstad is whiter and more matte. The Grimslov has a slight sheen to the finish (which probable aids in long-term durability) while the Axstad is a truer matte. This does give me some concerns about how it will hold up, but only time will tell. After the great disaster of the light gray Lerhytten door, I’m just praying that this won’t happen to my beloved Axstad.

I shared a little bit about the kitchen layout and design here. We opted to do a long island into the former eat-in kitchen area. And the rest of the footprint of the kitchen remained the same. I used the IKEA kitchen planner to plan out the different cabinets needed, and the process was super smooth. Ideally, we would like to get the IKEA kitchen sale discount on these cabinets. We’ve heard from an associate that the sale should be starting end of June.

HOT TIP: if you buy your cabinets before the sale with your IKEA family card, you can go back and get the sale price if it happens within 90 days after you purchase. OR: if the sale is now and you aren’t ready to buy, order the IKEA measuring service (which is credited towards the future purchase) and this will lock in your sale pricing.

We plan to go back and get the sale price retroactively when it happens (hopefully end of June). Although doing this way is a bit of a gamble, because who knows if there will even be a sale or for how much, it made it much more pleasant to order when there aren’t hundreds of people clamoring in to get their kitchen on sale.

Putting together the base cabinets was a breeze. We finished assembling them all in one afternoon. So, we got cocky… Actually hanging them and installing the doors, cover panels, and drawers still took a decent amount of time. You have to double check all your measurements, check for level, and then cut around any obstructions such as gas and water lines, or exhaust vents.

Nevertheless, I would say that we got this kitchen together relatively painlessly. This is our third kitchen renovation, and I definitely think it is getting easier each time.

We are waiting for the flooring to go down before we install the cover panels, so they can sit flush on the ground. Next we will be adding the hardware. It just came in the mail and I am ecstatically excited to see how they turn out!!!

I went with a very modern sleek pull that has a finger ledge. It’s called the Hickory Hardware Streamline Flat Onyx Cabinet Door/Drawer Pull. I chose some shorter ones for the wall cabinets, medium for the lower doors, and longer ones for the island drawers.

The appliances were all ordered during the Memorial Day sales, and are ready to go in after the flooring. And we went countertop shopping this week as well, we are close to deciding and ordering. Right now we are thinking of going with this white quartz with delicate gray veining. I would consider a more dramatic veining, but none of those have quite fit the budget yet… So for now, I’m pretty happy with this one. It’s $45 a square foot right now at our favorite countertop supplier: Factory Plaza.

Our electrician should be coming in next week to install the can lights and position the pendants. I also got the pendant lights in the mail this week, and I am equally pumped to see them go up. They were on a phenomenal sale at West Elm.

I feel like they are going to add some class and sophistication and play well with the ‘white-grounded-with-black’ look I am going for. Plus they are HUGE, which I feel like will add some oomph to the grandeur of the island (wow I am using some crazy words today!!).

And then finally, in an unexpected turn of events…. Someone planted the idea that we should consider removing the railing between the kitchen and family room.

Honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought and chalked it up to safety concerns. But for fun, I did a poll on Instagram to see if any of you would prefer to have it or remove it…. And holy moly, 90% of you said remove it!!! I was shocked at the overwhelming consensus. After talking to a few more people about it and finding no one who had safety concerns, so last night we followed your advice and took that sucker down!

I do think the space feels a lot more open now and easier to navigate. I’m excited to check it out in the day time though…

See the full kitchen reveal here!

The post Fanchon Flip Kitchen Progress appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

Two weeks ago, we were racing to get everything prepped for the painters. Jake added a closet into one of the bedrooms that was missing one. And we went through the house removing all the light fixtures and electrical covers, and doing general clean-up of walls and floors.

The paint should be finished up this week and it is just so very rewarding to see how a simple paint job seriously transforms a space. I mean, just take a look at the difference…

As I shared in the design plans post, we went with a slightly off-white for all the walls and a true-white for the trim. And then to add some interest and depth, we did the doors and fireplace in a dark gray color.

• Walls – SW Site White
• Trim – SW Extra White
• Doors – SW Iron Ore

I know a lot of people say, why would you ever get a painter? It’s something any DIY-er can do…. I am seriously glad we did hire it out. The time it would have taken us to finish the house to the level that they did would be astronomical.

We just simply are not very fast at drywall prep and painting. It could have taken us a month or more to paint this house from top to bottom given that we only have select week nights and weekends to devote to this flip. And a month of holding costs is around half the cost we are paying to have professionals do it. That alone is reason enough for me.

Beyond that, they are significantly more talented than us at this type of work. They sprayed all the ceiling, doors, and trim. I’m not sure how it would turn out if I tried to do that….

I’ve heard before that the biggest mistake you can make flipping is trying to do it all yourself. I still don’t know how I feel about that, since we are true DIY-ers at heart. But I do feel like we are learning what tasks are better uses of our time than others. I just want to go on record, that demo is not a great use of my time… So, please spare me next time, Jake!!!

In the coming weeks we hope to start putting together the master bath and kids’ bath. We are waiting on permits to start the kitchen electric work. And soon the windows will be replaced.

It’s challenging to always be looking ahead. I have to order materials enough in advance so that they are here when we need them. But not so much in advance that they create a cash-flow issue….

Pretty soon we’ll be ready to order the kitchen cabinets and the 1st level flooring!

The post Week 6 Flip Report appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

Master Bath

The nice thing about this bathroom is that is has plenty of space. Once we removed the giant built-in tub, the room really opened up. Originally, there was a single vanity (even though these is space for a double), and the toilet awkwardly faced the vanity. So we plan to install a double vanity and turn the toilet to back up to the same wall as the vanity.

The foot print of the shower will stay the same. And we are going to install a freestanding tub on the back wall adjacent to the shower. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together… in my head it looks pretty amazing! So here’s to hoping it translates…

I picked a wood-look tile for the floor. I’ve never done wood tile before, and I don’t like when it butts up to real wood flooring. But the bedroom connecting to the bath will be carpet, so this is the perfect scenario for it. I think it will have a kind of ‘elevated rustic spa’ feel? This tile was on clearance at Floor & Décor for just $.99 a square foot.

I’m pretty pumped about the vanity for this bathroom. It’s from Lowes and they have a great special on it right now, so I want to use this style in all the baths. I love that it’s floating!!! (I may have an obsession with floating vanities) And over the vanity, we plan to have two separate mirrors and lights.

In the shower, we’re adding a little pattern with my favorite ever tile (used in our kitchen). I’ve seen other bathrooms with this tile on the walls, and I didn’t find it overwhelming. So I’m hoping that is the case in this one as well.

And as a last little design feature, I plan to do some picture frame molding on the walls. I think this is a great way to elevate a room on the cheap. It will definitely be some extra work, but I feel strongly that it’s the details like these that really make a house special. (And hopefully convince a buyer to pay top dollar for it!) Besides, it’s way cheaper and easier than tiling the walls

Kid’s Bath

We’re keeping this design fairly simple. The floorplan will stay the same. But we’ll install a new tub and tile the surround. I’ve picked out a larger subway-esque tile that I think will be clean, but also easier to install.

I plan to get the same vanity but in 48” for this bathroom, and carry the floating look throughout the house. We’ll also use the same wood-look tile on the floors. Beyond that, we’ll just need a new toilet, mirror and light fixture.

Half Bath

We actually haven’t demoed this bathroom out yet because we use it when we are working at the house. I really like that this half bath has a pocket door that is super cute. We’ll be extending the main floor wood flooring into this room. We’ve done it before, and I think wood in a half bath is totally fine.

Then, I’m planning on using the 36” Allen & Roth floating vanity in this room as well. Plop in a new mirror, light, and toilet, and this room is good to go!

Kitchen

The kitchen design was an interesting predicament. The current U-shaped layout made it feel small and closed off. Some people would just remove the top cabinets above the peninsula and go with that layout. But I really felt like we should expand the footprint of the kitchen if at all possible.

The basic layout of the appliances had to stay because it would be too costly to reshuffle everything. But that meant the cabinets on the sink wall could only go to the sliding glass door. And we can’t move that either for cost reasons (you get into re-siding the exterior and it’s just a mess).

Scrolling on FB one day, I saw this kitchen layout plan by Adair Rox Interiors. And I thought, YES! That is what this kitchen needs. An island that extends into the eat-in kitchen and serves as a breakfast bar as well. This would effectively double the kitchen footprint, significantly increase prep space, and add back some more storage.

A few months back, I saw that IKEA finally came out with a white shaker style cabinet door. Hallelujah!!!! So, I am super pumped to try that out. I’m still working out the rest of the details, but I’m feeling like black handles, pendants and faucet, and white quartz counters with a herringbone mosaic backsplash.

General Design

Overall, I plan to have all the walls painted a slightly off-white and have the trim in a semi-gloss true-white. The doors will provide an accent in a very dark grey color. I’ve actually already picked the colors:

• Walls – SW Site White
• Trim – SW Extra White
• Doors – SW Iron Ore

We’re going to have the painters spray the fireplace as well, in the same dark gray as the doors. I think that will look so chic!!

All the outlets, switches, and their trim will be replaced with new white ones. All the lights will be updated as well. And we’ll swap out the door hardware. Nickel is always a safe choice, but right now I’m actually leaning towards black door handles and hinges (or oil-rubbed bronze technically).

We’ll be carpeting the whole second floor and basement. I know carpet is really hated-on from everyone on HGTV, but in reality it’s a practical solution for bedrooms and second stories. And although it may not be the most preferred option, it’s the most cost effective and practical one. And the market bears it. Most comparables in our area still have carpeting, so to upgrade everything to wood would be pricing us out of the neighborhood.

And finally, we’ll be doing an engineered hardwood floor on the main level which is yet to be determined. Overall, I’m so excited just to get paint on the walls because it will finally start coming to life! A lot of rooms only need paint and flooring, so they will come together nice and quickly.

The post Fanchon Flip Design Plans appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

We have owned it for 3 weeks now, and have almost completed the demo. I know that sounds so long for demo, but this house came with a TON of junk left in it. Not as much as our hoarder house, and mainly garbage, but still that takes time to haul out. Also, these last three weeks have been some of the craziest we’ve had in years. Both of us have come down with the flu, Jake had work travel, we had several Easter-related church obligations, a funeral, our full-time jobs, and this house.  So it has taken longer than anticipated…

Ideally we would have had contractors coming to quote everything within the first week of buying. But due to above-stated craziness, we are just getting all the final quotes in this week. Here is the scope of work for our next 4 weeks:

• Plumbers – in the master bathroom: move toilet, rough in for a double vanity, move tub supply/drain for freestanding bath
• Electrician – add can lights and pendants to the kitchen, and an additional sconce and outlet in the master bath (for the double vanity)
• Drywallers – replace the bottom 4ft of drywall in the basement
• Us – prep for the painters, build a closest into the 4^th bedroom, remove wallpaper, start the kid’s bath
• Painters – paint all ceiling, walls, trim and doors
• Windows – replace all windows

I feel like we’ve already learned a mammoth amount of information, and I feel pretty excited to know that the learning curve will continue. It’s so fun to be learning new things!

Demo Overview

Man, I do not love the demo process. It’s fun for like 2 hours, and after that it gets old to me real fast. The first weekend was spent entirely on emptying the junk from the house. The basement and garage were very full, and the other rooms had a decent amount of garbage to clear as well.

Then we focused on ripping out the kitchen and bathrooms. I am constantly impressed at how adept Jake is at this kind of stuff. Like, I know that as a kid he used to help a flipper demo over summer break. But still, he is a true wizard of demolition! I think once you understand how things are installed, it’s easier to remove them.

I actually helped smash out the tile in the bathrooms. I totally felt like a boss, until Jake came in and did double what I had accomplished in half the time. Like I said, he is amazing at this stuff. Next, we removed all the carpeting upstairs and the flooring on the main floor. Although the first floor was partially covered in engineered wood, it was not salvageable so we are going to replace it all with new stuff.

Finally, this week we have been ripping out drywall in the basement. There had been previous water damage, so we feel like the best move is to completely replace the affected drywall. That was a rough night, but in one evening we removed the bottom 4 feet of drywall from the whole basement.

In total so far, we’ve filled two 30 yard dumpsters. But, the sad news is we will likely need a third to finish removing everything. There is a whole shed full of junk in the backyard and lots of rotted wood from an old deck that we need to dispose of. They cost $450, so we were really hoping not to have to get a third, but we have accepted it at this point.

Getting Contractor Quotes

So, a major part of my contribution in the last few weeks has been calling dozens of contractors to get pricing on windows, painting, plumbing and electric. I seriously can’t stress enough the importance of getting multiple quotes. And sometimes 3 isn’t even enough!

We decided we are going to get the painting hired out. This is for several reasons: first Jake hates painting, secondly it would take us a ridiculously long time to paint the whole house (with doors and trim) and the longer we hold this house the more it costs. Finally, they are going to be able to spray everything, so it will just be the best use of our time and money to have professionals do it.

We had 5 painters come out and quote us for the whole house and 3 of them came in at the $7,000 range… We started to worry because we had only budgeted 4 grand. The fourth painter quoted $5,800 and we were so relieved and about to sign with him! But, we had one last guy scheduled to quote the work and we waited for his quote… he came back at $3,200. Can you believe that variance?? And the last guy has a great online presence with lots of positive reviews, so clearly we are going with him.

Overall, we are planning to hire out the following things: windows, painting, electric, plumbing, drywall, carpet installation, and HVAC/furnace replacement. And the rest of the work that we will do ourselves is mainly flooring, and kitchen and bath installation.

It’s exciting to realize we will soon start the rebuilding phase, which I much prefer to demo. Also, I’m drafting a post to share with you soon on all the design choices for the Fanchon Flip!!

The post Our First 3 Weeks as Flippers appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

The house was built in the late 80’s and actually has new siding and roof. So some major pluses there. Old houses are beautiful and full of character, but it’s very nice to renovate new(er) houses because you can expect certain standards to already be met. We will still need to update the Furnace/HVAC system though.

The exterior mainly needs a junk pickup and minor landscaping. Otherwise, we’re thinking of repainting the maroon window trim white and doing the door in a bright, fun color. Oh, and we did decide that the windows will need replacing. We would have loved to keep the current ones, but after deeper inspection many are past repair and new windows will communicate that we are doing the upgrades right.

Inside is ready for an overhaul. The previous owner did smoke inside, so that will need to be remediated. (Maybe I’ll do a post on how to remove smoke smell with Kilz Primer… because right now my post on removing cat urine odor with Kilz is my most visited post…. HA! Just call me the cat pee lady….) And some of the rooms are missing flooring, while the rest are in need of an upgrade.

Otherwise we plan to redo all the baths, redo the kitchen, and rip out the basement drywall and replace due to moisture damage. Beyond that, it’s just those smaller cosmetic items that make all the difference: paint all the trim and doors, replace all the hardware, update all the electrical covers, and put in new lighting.

Sounds simple right??? Hahaha….

Since Jake is now working a full time job, we plan to hire out as many of these things as we can and only do the finishing work ourselves. I’m so excited to see how fast things move when we pay other people to do them.

The post The Flip House Tour appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

We had 2 months to plan for this moment, but somehow I still feel unprepared for what is coming next. Closing was successful though, and that is the first step. I know this whole thing will have a huge learning curve, so every success is a big deal.

Actually, we came dangerously close to not closing… I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say there was a minor financial crisis. It was caused by me. I sent our money to an account that doesn’t exist, so our funds were floating in bank la-la-land with less than 24 hours to close. Thank the Lord, the funds came through just in time and we were still able to close as scheduled.  Phew… I think I lost a few years of my life after the stress of that 24 hour period.

OH! And I totally forgot to mention… I hadn’t even seen the house yet up until the final walkthrough!!!!! Yes… I’m not kidding. Just let that sink in… Jake had done the inspection and viewings, and all I’d seen were a few pictures. Now that, my friends, is a leap of faith. And let it never be said that I do not trust my husband.

THE DAY OF CLOSING

The 24 hours leading up to closing were pure chaos, I was franticly calling banks during my layovers as I was flying back home from New York. My uber didn’t pick me up from the airport.. (sidnote: I have never had an uber actually pick me up… they always accept then never come!!! Gahhh, I am never trying that again) So, Jake had to leave work to come pick me up at the airport. And by the time he arrived, the banks were all closed, so we weren’t able to get the money. Our closing was the next day at noon….

So I took off work that morning to perform the walk through and do my best to get our money from the bank. Both went fine…. *sweet relief*

We closed on Tuesday at noon and Jake had to go back to work. Later that evening, Jake was running a fever, but we still went over to walk through our new house.

We quickly discovered that the key we were given did not unlock the front door… Which is when we noticed that there were fresh footprints under every window. And screens were ripped off…

We walked around to the side of the house and the sliding door had been pushed out of alignment (but it was still wedged closed). Then we saw in the window well to the basement that the basement bathroom window was busted…. *cue panic and paranoia* We saw lights on downstairs.

Like, what in the world is going on? This is merely hours after we had closed the house and none of these things were there during the walk through. I just never in my life thought that this would happen.

Oh, and did I mention that Jake had come home with a fever that night?? So here we were locked out of our new (pretty gross) house, with one of us sick, and a possible intruder inside….

We contemplated calling the seller, as likely this break in was someone who knew about the sale based on the timing. It could’ve been an estranged relative who wanted to get something out the house?? But, Jake thought better of it, and decided to call the police just in case there was someone inside, it wouldn’t be safe for us to try and get in on our own.

The police arrived, but the window was our only point of entry since the key didn’t work. And the police officer couldn’t fit through it. So, Jake had to crawl down *amongst the glass shards* and shimmy through. The policeman gave him a stick thing just in case… Ha!

Just before he entered the basement, Jake yelled, “I’m coming in!!” I guess he wanted to announce his presence to anyone who might have been down there. A few minutes later he opened the front door and the police did a search of the house to confirm there was no one in it.

Thankfully it was clear, but somehow that still did not put me at ease. Not knowing why it happened is very unsettling. But, Jake seemed confident that the person probably got what they wanted and it shouldn’t happen again.

It’s really impossible to know what they were looking for because the house has a lot of stuff left in it. (But nowhere as much as our hoarder house, thank goodness!!)

After our nerves settled a bit, we found some plywood and nails in the garage and boarded up the windows. Then we did a sweep of the house to make double sure it was locked up tight. I’ve never been a security-conscious type, but this may change me.

Hopefully we can visit the house again soon with clear heads and a little more light out and begin making some progress on the clean out. (And then I’ll be able to share some better pictures!)

The post A Dramatic Closing Day appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.