Fixer Upper

A Realistic Remodel

Finding a balance between finance and the designing home you want is tricky. Often, what is envisioned is unrealistic. Despite this, the owner of this home was able to strike a balance between price and fantasy and thankfully journaled throughout the entire process.

November 25th 2018: When we first walked into the home, we loved it! Open concept isn’t 100% our style, so to be able to have an individual kitchen, formal living, and dining room, yet we can easily see from room to room is what initially made us want this house.

December 1st 2018: We won’t let ourselves get attached, so whatever happens, happens. Pat Koski has helped us through a few real estate transactions, and we love the way he advises on what he thinks the home is worth, and what we should offer. The list price on the home is way out of our budget, so we were hoping to get it for a great deal.

December 4th 2018: Because it had been sitting on the market, it was December, there were some real issues with it, and the house was already vacant, the stars just aligned, and our offer was accepted for $40,000 off asking price!

December 14th 2018: When it rains hard enough, the window wells fill up with water due to poor drainage from the home. The water than seeps into the unfinished basement leaving puddles. We’ll have Jared Winters of Next 2 Nature come bid out a regrade of the entire backyard and side of the house. Jared is one of the best around, so we know we can trust his plan to fix the problem.

February 2nd- May 15th 2019: We decided to take on a big remodel with a small budget. We know we’re capable of all the demo work, painting, and ceiling scraping. For about three months every day after work, we go home, change into paint clothes and get to work. Once we have completed everything we have the knowledge and tools to do ourselves, we call in the professionals.

Working with Genny from House of Color is one of my favorite parts of the process. She knows we were on a tight budget and always keeps that in mind while still showing us great options. The vinyl flooring in the two bathrooms and laundry room is what most people have commented the most on so far. We were hesitant to pick it because we didn’t want to choose trendy flooring; we need it to last 20 years. When we voice that to Genny, she was so confident and simply stated, “This pattern and look is all over Europe and has been for decades.”

Jere Rogers from Blind Ambition is a rock star at blinds and figures out the best option for us from her giant book with hundreds of choices. She helps us pick out blinds that were in our price range, match the room in a neutral color, and block out as much sunlight as possible.

January 3rd 2020: We want the house to look fantastic after all our blood and sweat (luckily there have been no tears so far). The team at Design That Sells think so far out of the box and it looks fantastic. The team took a mixture of our furniture and decor and added to it to create the coolest spaces. The best part was when we finally sat on our new couch, looked around the room, and realized all of our hard work had really paid off.