NORGA 11/01/08 Flip Update #2

Well, it's been a month since the last post and boy have we been busy! Things are really starting to come along and it's so enjoyable to watch the transformation as it happens. I really love working on stuff like this. Taking something that's just a mess and making it something worthwhile and nice looking.

Here's a rundown of what we've done since the last post:

• Kurt took the old rails off of the back porch and added new ones. He braced up some areas that were a little loose to make them nice and sturdy. He and Kevin painted/stained the entire back porch and added copper tops to the posts.
• Kurt cleaned out the remaining bushes down in the cove area - and had the poison ivy to prove it. For a good two weeks! He's still got a little bit of it, but it's much better now than it was before.
• Our new windows were finally made and the guys came out last weekend to start putting them in. Just finished things up a couple of days ago. They look SO MUCH BETTER than the old ones! And, they open!!! What a concept! Not to mention, no more piece of plywood in the front window.
• Donna and I have finished painting all of the walls and trimwork inside the house that we could for now. We are waiting for the contractor, who's working in there now, to finish up some of his tasks before we can paint anymore. Basically, all we have left to paint is the master bedroom, master bathroom, and closet; the small upstairs bathroom once they finished getting the walls fixed from the mess that was left after stripping the wallpaper; the half bath downstairs once the contractors finish in there; and, some touch-ups in the den where the contractors are working to get rid of some silly 1"x6" plywood that the previous owner had nailed to the wall. Won't take us long once they finish up.
• We painted all the interior doors. Kurt and Kevin rehung them with new hinges. They look brand new.
• Kurt and Kevin (well actually all of us - don't ask!) hung up a new chandelier in the dining room. Thank God the electrician was there to fix it all up when we were done. ha ha!
• Speaking of the electrician, Marty Ditto, a friend from church has been over several times. He's rewiring and replacing all the electrical plugs and switches. Most of them were old and outdated.
• Kurt and Kevin have been replacing lights in other places in the house - just inside the front door on the ceiling, at the top of the stairs in the hall, and in the Jack & Jill bath. They are really becoming quite the handy men (or so they think!).
• Kurt and Kevin replaced all the exterior door knobs and locks.
• Donna and I also painted the mantle for the fireplace. It looks brand new again. Now, once Chris, our contractor, gets the bricks replaced that are missing on the corner of the hearth, we will paint the fireplace. I also have to repair some cracks on the inside of the firebox. Will be painting the firebox black once it's done.
• Today, Kurt, Kevin, and I worked our butts off (almost literally) building a terrace wall in the front yard where it dropped off coming down toward the porch. It really looks wonderful! We are so pleased with how it turned out. We also smoothed out a lot of the area where the tree stumps used to be that we had ground up. Now, we have to get bushes, trees, mulch, flowers, and whatever else we figure will look good in there to spruce things up. We had toyed around with hiring a professional landscaper, but the one we met with never came back with a quote. So, we just got creative and decided to do this on our own. Will probably save a lot of money in the long run anyway.
• The painters are coming this week to start on the outside of the house. They have to pressure wash it, caulk it, prime it, then paint it. Maybe within the next week or so, it'll be done. Can't wait to see how it looks!!!
• New gutters and downspouts will be added in the front sometime in the next couple of weeks.
• New garage doors will be installed in the next couple of weeks as well.

That's about it for now. Or at least all that I can remember. If I'm forgetting something, I'm sure Kurt will catch it when he reads over this. ha! I'll include it in the next post. Hopefully it won't be so long until the next one since there are more things getting done now.

Keep praying for us. Things are going so well (knock wood) and we are so pleased with how it is all looking. Still have new granite countertops to be installed, hardwoods need to be refinished, new carpet to be installed, and appliances to be delivered. Hoping we will have some of that done before everyone comes for Thanksgiving so that we can show off more of our progress.

Until next time.... (I'm tired.....)! Oh yeah, link to the latest pictures is below. It's actually set up as a slideshow. Click on the picture and it'll enlarge to full screen. Somehow, I've gotten it in here twice and don't know how to get rid of one of them. Oh well. I said I was tired....

NORGA 10/5/08 Flip Update #1

Well, we're making progress.... slowly, but surely. I've placed a link at the bottom of this post with the newest pictures included. It's not as many as the first post, but just a few to show the things we have accomplished and kind of give you a feel for what we are going through.

Here's a good rundown of what we've done so far:

• We've had the front porch refinished. It now looks like a cozy rocking chair porch instead of the old, flat, blank concrete "thing" that was there before. Kurt's and Kevin's older brother, Brad, had one of his framing crews come over and do the work for us. It really does start giving the house some character that it never had before. They also replaced the rotten soffit along the backside of the house.
  
• Kurt, Kevin, and Donna painted the basement, so it now looks fresh and clean and doesn't smell so much like a basement anymore.
• Brad also tore down the rickety steps going into the basement and rebuilt much stronger, more stable ones. Trust me, on these steps, they were RICKETY! I don't have any before and after pictures of them, but the before steps were so horrible that we were afraid to have more than one person on them at a time!
• Kurt and Kevin have had a ball demo'ing the stuff that needed to be torn out, torn down, torn up, whatever! Some of it was pretty hard work, but you know men, they are little boys at heart and tearing things up is always fun for them.
• Donna worked really hard outside on the side of the front yard clearing away a lot of the brush and weeds. There's no way to get rid of all of it, but it sure looks "cleaner" now than it did before.
• Kurt pressure-washed the back deck and rebuilt the handrails getting it ready to stain. He also bought some latticework for he and Kevin to put along the bottom of the porch going down to the ground. Will add more of a "look" to the back of the house and make it a little less like a box!
• I worked hard getting the walls inside the house ready to paint. There are so many holes, dents, dings, bad spots, and other mess on those walls, that it took me most of the first couple of weeks to get them ready to go. Lots of spackling, sanding, and priming.
• Once the walls were ready to be painted, Donna and I have been hard at work getting them done. They really are looking good and giving the whole inside a fresh, clean, newer feel. The house smelled quite musty from sitting empty for several months when we got it. It now smells like paint. Trust me, it's a lot better!

Now, we are waiting for the windows to come in so that they can be installed. They were supposed to be in this week, but the plant where they are being built had equipment problems, which has delayed them a couple of weeks. Once they are in and installed, we can get the outside of the house painted. Followed by installation of new garage doors.

Hoping to meet with the landscaping guys this Thursday and hoping that our contractor that will be doing most of the work inside will be able to start in the next week. Once we get the kitchen finished being painted and cleaned, we will get the granite countertops installed.

Kurt remarked a few days ago when we had finally gotten the first room painted that it was actually starting to feel like we were making progress. I agree.

Keep praying for us and the whole project. So far, so good....

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjfales/FlipUpdates1?authkey=ysh5fMykhYk#

Our first flip

Many of you know that Kurt and I have been searching for an investment house to buy and flip for quite some time now. About 6-8 months roughly. The whole idea started when my brother, Joe, sent Kurt a real estate investment book for Christmas. Thanks, Joe (I think!)! We have bought almost every book about property flipping, foreclosure investing, and property management that there is. As well as watched almost every single episode of Flip This House, Flip That House, and Property Ladder that have been aired. Not that any of this makes us experts by any means, but you really do learn a lot watching all the other idiots on TV make horrible mistakes and thinking to yourself how you would have handled it.

Several opportunites presented themselves that just didn't work out for numerous reasons. Either we didn't act fast enough, didn't quite know how to act (I'm sure this doesn't surprise some people, but for other reasons - ha!), or it just wasn't the right fit.

Well, in early August, the right one finally presented itself - a foreclosed property. We made a bid for the house one day after seeing it, and surprisingly enough, the bank accepted our bid! My initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief. All I could think to myself was "What have we just done??? Can we really do this??? Do we have a clue what we are doing???" Kurt, of course, was elated and also scared a bit, I'm sure. He's so cautious and analytical that it was a roller coaster ride all the way to the closing on September 10th. Lots of questions, concerns, fears, affirmations, reaffirmations, more questions, concerns, etc. You get the picture....

I'm going to try to use this site to allow people to keep up with our progress. The intial pictures I'm posting today are the beginning pictures. Did I say this was a foreclosure??? The house is 35 years old, so it's definitely not a McMansion built in the last few years that we have seen popping up all around us everywhere. But, it has "good bones" and lots of plusses that we felt made this the right house for us to try to do our first flip with. It ain't much to the eye right now, but we have great plans for it.

Now, just please join us in praying that we can do all the things that we have envisioned for this house and that we are successful on the back-end of this deal - selling the house when the time comes! Especially in this market and the financial mess that the country is in.

Also, I forgot to mention that Kurt's brother Kevin, and his wife, Donna, decided to go into this business venture with us. Kurt and Kevin are co-owners of a corporation that their father built many years ago. They inherited it after he passed away last year. Things are working out beautifully having them involved. They are lots of help - physically, financially, and visually (opinions or ideas on painting, remodeling, etc)! All Kurt and I can keep thinking to ourselves is how proud his Dad would be and excited for us all at the same time. Anyone that knew him knew that real estate was something he did many years for a living and enjoyed. He worked through many different facets of it over the years - renting, buying land, etc. His ultimate success was in purchasing two mountains in Blue Ridge, GA that he developed, subdivided, and sold lots on. He was really in his element when showing potential customers lots on the mountains when they would come up on the weekends looking for property. It's a shame he's not here to help guide us through the unknowns of the real estate world, but we know that he is our guardian angel watching over our shoulder helping to point us to the right people to help us out when we don't have the answers.

Here's the link to the pictures of the house. I'll post more as things start coming together.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjfales/NorgaFirstFlip?authkey=yaScLicCweE#