a house flip before the flip

Before I started this blog I helped my parents with a house project they had in Fresno. They bought a honey of a house and wanted to upgrade just enough to keep it current but not so much that they killed the character. They hired me to help with the overall feel of the project and we set out to finish it in one month. We did it. I wanted to post some before and after photos of that project for a few reasons. First of all I am especially proud of the project as we worked on it as a team and I feel good about that. We were also able to do almost all of the work ourselves and that was fantastic! We were able to keep our budget slim while still ending up with a beautiful finished product. Next, that honey of a house is ready to be sold. And finally...the open house is this weekend. If you are in the area and are in need of the perfect house for pennies then do stop on by.

Above you see the before picture. The cabinets were homemade and were really in need of being replaced. All of the drawer slides were crumbling and the wall of overhead cabinets made the kitchen seem smaller than it needed to be. The tile was cute in theory but had a lot of cracks and so we just decided to take it all out and upgrade.

Above you see the end of a long day of demo. I was in there with a sledge hammer for a while. I gotta say nothing satisfys quite like a demo project.

Above you see the after photos. The kitchen upgrade makes the kitchen a lot more open and user friendly, less overpowering. I think the changes keep the integrity of the original kitchen but just a bit more modern. We used Ikea cabinets and I built all of them myself.


I am including a great detail shot of the tile we put in. I found this gorgeous hand made Italian tile and my dad came up with this great design for it.

Now we move on to the bathroom. I wasn't able to get a before shot of the bathroom with the tub in but let me just tell you the tub was gross. The size of the tub was fine but it hadn't been maintained properly so it needed to come out. Here is a movie of Richard and my dad dragging the tub out of the house and onto my grandfathers truck.

And the rest of the before pictures. Now those of you that think pink is cute let me just tell you right now...this color was not cute.

I wish I had a picture of the seriously awful bathroom counter that was here. I was so excited to demo that I forgot to take a before shot. There is, however a movie of me taking out the tile in the shower. Power tools and demo are the best.

Here are the after photos. We wanted the bathroom to feel like a tiny spa. We kept the colors clean and calm. We upgraded the plumbing, tub, floor and light fixtures. Instead of a huge vanity we went with something that would allow for a little more space in the bathroom.



The rest of the house was relatively easy. We ripped out carpet from one of the bedrooms and had the floors refinished thought the entire house. We also freshened up the paint and added a few new light fixtures and curtains. Here are a few before and after photos of the rest of the house.


Above you see the before and after of the cute little dinning room area. The refinished floors look great here. We took out the weird little built in cabinet, ceiling fan and mini blinds. We replaced the fan with a cute ceiling lamp and new curtain situation. We also painted.

Above you see the living room area before and after. I wish I had before pictures in color but you get the idea. We didn't need to do much here. We switched out the big ceiling fan with a smaller one. We painted and changed the curtains. Of course the floors look amazing!


These two are of one of the two bedrooms. You can't see the ceiling fan in the before shot but we took it out and added a simple overhead. We also changed the curtains and painted.

For some reason I don't have a before picture of the front bedroom. This was the room with the wall to wall carpet. We ripped that out and had the floors redone. We also replace yet another ceiling fan with a simple overhead light. There is another set of windows to the right but I have no shot of that. Basically all the rooms in this house get lovely light.

One of the most appealing parts of the house is the enormous back yard. We didn't need to do much but we did make a few changes.

The first photo above you see the before shot. The second and third shots are of the the outdoor living area we put together. We also added bamboo fencing, a willow tree and plants.

One of the coolest parts of the little back studio area is the new door that my dad built. Here is a close-up.



We didn't have to do much with the inside of the shop/studio. We painted the floor and the walls. We also put in a new window.

And finally the front of the house. We didn't have to do much. It is just the cutest house. There is a mature Persimmon tree in front of the house which is just gorgeous.


That about sums it up. I so wish I could have this house in San Francisco. For the price and the available land it is pretty much an impossibility. If you are in the Fresno area and are interested in checking out our little project click here for more info.

Have a great Weekend!