Revamping a neglected family home
Before and after. The cute bay window was about to fall off the house, so we needed to get creative with supporting it
We’ve always wanted to try a home renovation for someone else. A flip, if the term doesn’t turn you off. We didn’t like the flip concept…
We struggled with the typical idea of a flip - using cheap materials and making it look good for sale, knowing it’ll look like crap in a couple years. We knew we wanted to do quality work and do an entire property and were curious how to make the bottom line work so it was worth our time.
The neighborhood
The home was in a nice, established neighborhood on a lake. While this house wasn’t lakefront (that was definitely not in the budget for our first flip attempt!), it had private access to the lake, a boat launch, and a little beach. It was one of the dumpiest houses in the neighborhood, too, so that’s always a good sign when you’re looking for the right project.
Pros and cons
Plus sides:
The neighborhood was great and it felt like you were out in nature
That said, the house was only about 5-10 minutes from grocery stores, pharmacies, bars and restaurants, and anything else you’d need
It was a decent-sized house with great potential
The previous owner clearly had a green thumb, though as she’d gotten older, she couldn’t keep it up. The garden beds were nicely structured in front. I just required a little cleanup
We got it pretty cheap because it was neglected and in rough shape
Downsides:
It had no basement and no garage. In retrospect, we wouldn’t buy one without either again
There was a big garage behind the house, but you couldn’t access it with a vehicle, so it really operated more like a big shed or workshop. But storage was pretty limited for a family home
The floorplan didn’t make any sense for a modern family, but that was fixable and fun to figure out
The floorplan: How to make this house make sense
The original attached garage was turned into extra living space at some point, but the elderly couple that lived there set it up in a way that didn’t make any sense to us.
Below is the original floorplan and then our mockup of a new layout (thanks to our friend, Chelsea Lewis for the digital drawing).
Old layout on top. Our new one on bottom.
There was a family bathroom that all the guests would also use right off the kitchen, across the hall from the bedroom and a den. We realized at the first showing that it could be turned into a master suite fairly simply and then the den could be an office.
This would allow the master bedroom to have the quieter off-street side of the house for sleeping and the views and we could expand the existing shared bathroom and make it only accessible from the master bedroom. Voila!
From family bathroom to master bath
Old bathroom. Please enjoy the random dead space to the left of the shower, behind the pedestal sink
Old door in the hallway, getting ready to expand and frame out the new master bath
New master bath framed and drywalled
Master bath, redone!
We knew we wanted a nice deep soaker tub, but didn’t have room for a separate freestanding tub and shower. The compromise was a fairly deep alcove tub with tile surround.
That also gave us room to squeeze in a decent-sized open closet for towels and linens. Again, storage in this house was already limited, so we wanted to add some wherever we could.
Wayfair sent us the wrong color vanity, so we got it for free. Score! Then they sent us a replacement vanity in the same exact wrong color, so we put a butcher block top on it and made it our kitchen island at our house. Huzzah! Free vanities for all! If you like navy instead of grey, anyway.
Kitchen and dining
The original kitchen (sorry for the terrible Zillow pic) had a hideously greasy stove next to a wall and a sink, which didn’t make much sense. We wanted to get the golden triangle (?) of kitchen workspace and knew we could, since the kitchen was a decent size.
We lost some wall space by widening the opening from the living room to the dining and kitchen, but there were no cabinets on that part of the kitchen wall anyway. We were also able to add a tall pantry for extra storage.
I refinished the cabinets after an insane amount of degreasing and a bit of sanding in a fresh shade of green - somewhere between a sage and a moss.
We ordered WilsonArt solid surface countertops. We loved how they turned out and they were much more affordable than stone or quartz, but much better quality than standard laminate, with no seams.
By removing some upper cabinets by the sink, we were able to open up the space with open floating shelves. We painted those upper cabinets and used them in the adjoining laundry room, so there’s some extra pantry and laundry storage there.
We did a shiplap backsplash with a satin, extra washable and smooth paint to make cleanup easy. We also decided it was worth replacing the old appliances and took advantage of a Black Friday sale to get a nice new set. We actually used those new appliances in our house and moved our stainless set over to this project. They all worked great and we got an upgrade.
Built-in bench and dining setup
Nick built a custom bench that we sized for a standard cushion we found on Amazon. This allowed us to move the dining space over against the wall, providing easier access to the sliding door to the deck and backyard.
It wasn’t a huge space to work with, but the original layout with a ceiling fan centered in front of the door would mean you had to squeeze around the table to get to the backyard space. This setup allows the homeowner to have a pretty large table without restricting access.
Our hope was that some custom built-ins would also help the house standout and let us make the space special without spending a fortune.
The kitchen and dining room coordinate thanks to that lovely green shade
Entryway and living room
Drab, dirty white and golden oak trim got a refresh with neutral grey and white
Family bathroom
The main bathroom that once served all the bedroom was a decent size, but super outdated. We have NO idea what was going on with the vanity that was in there, but since the toilet paper holder was installed on the opposite side from the toilet (see below), we assume it was just found and placed there to try to sell the house.
We replaced the old vinyl shower insert (which had horrible rust stains from the well water) with a new tub that was both deeper and wider. We then did a subway tile surround for a classic, fresh look.
I’m happy to report we left the toilet paper holder off so that the new owners could decide where they wanted it. I secretly hope they mounted it on the wrong side of the vanity, in keeping with the tradition of the home.
Exterior
The backyard of this house was a real mess. The previous owners had built a “garden shed” right up against the house for some reason. It was rotted, made of plywood, and basically a nest for squirrels and raccoons. We were able to push it over the same day we got the place.
That let in so much more light to the room we were turning into the master suite.
I didn’t get any great pictures of the backyard before, unfortunately. But there was a rotten swingset, massive overgrowth with invasive vines climbing up the mature trees, rust stains on the actual shed, rotten wooden beams used as garden bed edging, and old fencing around an area presumably also used for a garden.
We ripped out all the rotten stuff and hacked away at the vines and overgrowth. It made a huge difference. Then I used CLR on the rust stains on the shed, cleaned that up, and painted the door navy.
That Bay Window, though…
Next up, we had to deal with the bay window in the front of the house. While I knew the spot could become a cool little reading nook, it needed support. Like many bay windows, it had started to sag and pull away from the house over the years. The cables that hold it up had started to pull through rotten wood.
We decided to build a significant support structure underneath to make sure it was super solid for the buyer.
Building the support
First, we added a piece of pressure-treated plywood to the underside of the entire window
The we jacked up the bay window with a car jack. We used that 4x4 in the pic as a base.
We added 2x4s on a 45 degree angle from the bottom of the window to the side of the house for support
We wrapped and protected it all like you see in the pics with PVC plywood to it won’t ever rot.
Then we had to figure out how to make it look good. The front of the house is just a boring old ranch + garage to living space conversion, so it actually helped us add some more interest. We decided to go with a classic navy paint for the bay window to match the front door and shutters we added.
Spending wisely
Since we knew this house wouldn’t sell for a fortune, we really had to find quality materials that didn’t break the bank. It was a great learning experience and I would absolutely use those counters in our own home when we remodel.
The cabinets were in decent shape and just needed a clean-up and update, which saved us a fortune.
One area we decided to spend on was real nail-down hardwood floors throughout. We’ve used the click-lock luxury vinyl planks before and they always end up popping up at some point and we didn’t want someone to have to deal with that after we sold it to them.
We did wait for a deal on the hardwood planks, so it wasn’t vastly more expensive than the LVP, but for us it was worth it to have a strong, solid floor to build on.
All of the bathroom tile was fairly inexpensive. I decided a classic design would be best for the area, which is pretty family-friendly and not super fancy or trendy. You can’t go wrong with subway tile and it’s almost always affordable. The slate-look floors for both bathrooms can take a beating, which is good for anyone with kids and pets.
I didn’t spend money on staging anything, but only brought stuff from our house where it was going to make an impact, like the table by the built-in bench in the dining area. I also brought some greenery and linens for the kitchen and bathrooms, since those spaces are still what sell houses.
Selling the house
Overall, we completed the project in about three months and I’m happy to report that we made a decent profit on our first flip! More than average, according to the data we found. I did sit on the market for a couple weeks, which had us a bit scared.
We listed it as soon as we finished the work, which in retrospect, could have been a mistake. Listing in March in Michigan means you’ll have snow and a smaller market of buyers. We may have saved money because we didn’t need to do much landscaping since everything was covered. That said, we spent a lot of time cleaning up the wooded backyard and garden spaces just before winter set in so at least it was a clean slate for the new owners. We also fixed some areas of the deck and porch that were in rough shape.
We also sold it without a realtor, using a service called Houzz, which I can’t recommend. They were truly hideous to deal with. The only upside is that it allowed us to list the house with an MLS and a realtor attached even though we aren’t licensed realtors ourselves. So it showed up on Zillow, Trulia, etc. without being hidden away on that “For sale by owner” tab very few people look at.
I had to schedule showings with the buyer’s agents myself through their platform, which was fine, but could be a lot if you were working full time.
If we do another, we would probably use a proper realtor to sell it. Or if we decide to do this as a regular or semi-regular thing, I may look into getting a realtor’s license.
What we learned
We learned a fair bit for the next project we take on:
We added another layer of subfloor over the existing layer before we put the hardwood down. That was to stabilize the floors, which were a bit bouncy without it.
However, that extra floor height meant that the front door wouldn’t open. We ended up replacing the front door (which looked much better anyway). We had to raise the front door up, though, due to the extra height of that additional subfloor.
One of the most impactful things we did initially was just cleaning up the backyard, cutting back all the overgrowth, and powerwashing the house and garage.
The house was definitely built on the cheap. The windows were economy and it showed. We were able to frame them out with wood to make them look much more upscale. Replacing the windows wasn’t an option if we wanted to make our numbers work.
There was a window in the shower, like a lot of older homes have. The original wooden trim was rotted due to constant moisture, so we replaced that trim with waterproof PVC trim so it would last for years to come.
Unearthed treasures
I’d forever regret publishing this post if I didn’t share some of the epic and unexpected gifts we found. Behold, the Criss Angel baseball card (?) from under one of the bedroom closet floorboards.
I can smell this image from here. It smells like Axe Body Spray and shame.
Cuter and much more appreciated was the neighbor’s cat, who visited every single day for pets and belly rubs.
