Flip #2: Craftsman Bungalow
November 12, 2019
We found another house to flip!
I am so excited to introduce this house to you all!! It is so, so special, and we cannot wait to restore it.
Let me give you a little backstory on it. It was last owned by a lady who lived in another state and rented it out. She listed it this fall for $95,000 and we offered $75,000 on the day it was listed. After some back and forth, we negotiated to $85,000. And then she backed out. And then when her ‘better offer’ fell through, we offered $85,000 again, and fortunately for us she accepted! We really would have loved to get it for less, but this little house is located in a prime neighborhood in the historic part of Goshen, surrounded by special unique homes and exceptional neighbors (the kind of people who live in one home all their lives) and therefore we knew we would have to pay more to get it.
This sweet little craftsman bungalow was built in 1920. It’s just over 1300 finished square feet. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room with a fireplace, dining space, kitchen, and a partial unfinished basement. It’s also got a 1 car detached garage out back. The home has a shared drive that runs through the yard (like an alley, but private) a great sized front porch and a deck out in the back yard. It’s so great! Really! But now let me show you some pictures (and I realize you might come to doubt the validity of my words of praise). The home has a charming fireplace:
A little surprise was staring at me from the fireplace…I jumped the first time I saw it:
A peek into the master bedroom:
The view from the dining room into the kitchen. Note the high ceilings, great trim work, and original hardwoods:
The kitchen:
We are so excited to get this house to a place where it can be loved for another 100 years.
SPEAKING OF THAT, HERE’S A VERY GENERAL OVERVIEW OF OUR TO-DO LIST:
· Bathrooms gutted. to. the. studs. (notice I didn’t show you any pictures of the bathrooms. Yep. That was on purpose).
· Kitchen gutted.
· All plumbing cut out the of the entire house and re-run
· All new electrical to every room
· Rip out old flooring in the kitchen (which is probably going to be many layers) and add new
· Widen the opening between the kitchen and dining room
· Steal a bedroom closet to improve the kitchen flow (and build a new closet to replace the one we steal)
· Reconfigure one bath to make it an en suite master bath.
· Widen the stairs to the basement
· Create a walk-in master closet
· Finish the basement into a family room
· Move the laundry up to the main level
· Paint the exterior (and garage)
· Add a sidewalk from garage to house
· Add a privacy fence in the back yard
· Rebuild parts of the deck
· Rebuild the front porch and steps
· All new windows
· All new exterior doors
· All new kitchen and bathrooms
· New garage door, side garage door, gutters
· New furnace and water softener
· And a million other things I’m forgetting
BUT WE’LL WORK HARD TO KEEP THE CHARACTER!
· We’ll keep the original doors where possible, repairing them as needed
· Original baseboard, casing and crown stays in place … and any new trim will be custom matched to the original
· Hardwood floors restored, not ripped out
· Remodeling that honors the history of the home (think mini hex tile mosaics, people) and feels appropriate for the home’s style.
I can’t wait to take this house from this:
To this!
I’ll be back soon with a demo post! Let’s just say the proper tool has been purchased and used….
P.S. If you want to read about our first flip, it’s here in the archive.