Read about how I came to purchase my parents’ house here.
If you’re already up to speed then let’s roll up our sleeves and get to the good stuff!
EXTERIOR
The exterior really just needed a tiny bit of cosmetic work. We gave the house a good power washing, and that shined things up dramatically. My painters painted the trim around the big bay window a medium to dark gray. This update alone brought the house up into this decade. Take off those bell bottoms and stay a while, why don’t you. Girl, you look good in those skinny jeans.
I built and stained shutters for the house out of cedar. I DID THAT! My original plan was to have these beautiful cedar accents on the shutters and also to wrap the porch column with cedar to make a cedar post. It was going to look so cool. A little masculine. Very now. Very modern. Very cool. But when I went to hang the shutters on the windows the cedar color blended right in with the brick. It was completely camouflaged. SWAT teams, listen up: cedar colored uniforms when you enter ranch style homes built in the 60’s, kay? UNDETECTABLE YOU WILL BE. You’re welcome.
(Full disclosure: this is a shot of me building shutters for a different house because I don’t have one from this house)
I was so sad.
So I decided to rethink my plans and paint the shutters a dark brown (Sherwin Williams French Roast) so that they would pop against the brick color, and it worked. So, ever adaptable me- look at me being so cool and rolling with the punches- I had my painters paint the front porch column French Roast to match. Ah, much better.
A new front door was a must. Not only was the current one not working for my eyeballs, but it also sat 2 inches off the ground and an audible breeze whistled its way into the house on blustery days, and we couldn’t have that. In came this adorable door and this adorable blue green paint which my painter told me was ugly. *Shhh, Negib, you talk too much.*
And LOOOOOOOK at how cute it came out!!!!! I’m in love with this entry. We don’t even need to go inside. Just sit here beside me and admire it. Let’s pretend it’s Fall and grab some coffee (is it too early for wine in this fantasy?) and just sit here on the stoop and ogle this cute door while we sip in silence. While we’re here, look at that doorbell. Really check out that sexy devil. I watched a seven minute YouTube tutorial on rewiring doorbells, and I took it apart and rewired it myself and then I gave myself ALL THE PATS ON THE BACK for being so handy. Please don’t mistake this for a humble brag- it’s a good old fashioned open brag. I basically figured out the cure for cancer.
Alright, let’s go inside. Wipe your feet.
ENTRY AND STUDY
The entryway was brought way up to date with a new light fixture and by removing the built-in that really only served to obstruct traffic and to, once a year, host the Halloween candy bowl. The once titled “formal living room” underwent a legal name change and emerged as “The Study” (doesn’t it sound so mature and sophisticated now? The room equivalent of going from Matt to Matthew after completing law school) and had those heavy accent posts removed to match the upgraded name. The space leftover from the post removal was sheetrocked in and double sliding barn doors were installed on a track. I love the big bay window in this room. I love this room altogether. It’s so big and bright. Maybe the new owners will let me rent it as office space to blog. *Siri, make a note to remind me to stop by and ask the new owners about this. NO, Siri, it actually WON’T be weird. You’re weird. Eyeroll.*
LIVING ROOM
Moving into the living room, check this change out! Lots and lots of change happened in here! As planned, I removed the big sliding doors to the right of the fireplace that led into the sunroom but were no longer in use. I had the pass through wall that divided the living and dining spaced removed so that the space opened up and seemed much larger and much more welcoming. A support beam was added to take on the load of the bigger opening. I removed the half wall of wainscoting and had the walls retextured and painted a light gray (Sherwin Williams Repose Gray), and all of the trim was painted white (Sherwin Williams Snowbound). I had the fireplace painted the same white also, though a specialized masonry grade paint was used, and I replaced the mantel for a more current, very lightly distressed cedar mantel.
Kevin and I hung shiplap on both sides of the fireplace, and it somehow all turned out straight and even and good looking despite this being our first time to delve in the ‘lap. I had crown molding hung at the ceiling and the vaulted tray ceiling painted a darker gray for emphasis at the suggestion of my painter (I mildly wish I wouldn’t have listened to this advice and would have painted it a lighter color). The finishing touch was a modern farmhouse style ceiling fan.
SUNROOM
Passing through the now large and airy opening from the living room into the sunroom you are greeted with all the sunlight on the planet. Plants could photosynthesize like maniacs in here. I had trim added around the windows to make them look pretty and proper. These windows are no longer ladies of the night- they have been reformed. They are now proper, fancy ladies. I had the ceiling planked, and to be honest, I’m a little disappointed with how it turned out. Due to a miscommunication on my part (completely my fault), the planks were hung the opposite direction from which I had precisely measured and accounted for and so there had to be a trim piece added over the seam, thus killing the look, in my opinion. Sigh. It’s still a large improvement from before though. And that plank work sure is eye candy.
I unfortunatley didn’t get an after shot of the pretty exposed brick wall. I wanted to keep the original, natural brick color and avoid painting it, but there was a large round hole (WHY?!) that ruined those plans. I had a brick mason come out to professionally patch the hole, but it looked pretty horrible and made the white paint job inevitable. I still love you though, brick wall. We cool.
KITCHEN AND DINING
In the kitchen I kept the half wall of wainscoting, and just painted it white along with all of the trim and cabinetry (Sherwin Williams Snowbound). I removed all of the wallpaper and border and had the walls textured. I chose white 3×6 subway tile with a 1/8” charcoal gray grout line for the backsplash.
I took a risk and ordered these very inexpensive cabinet pulls from Amazon after sweating through the hundreds of reviews on them online, and I am so glad I did! I think they look amazing and the quality is insane for the price. I will use them again and again in future houses.
I worked with the existing granite countertops because they were in great condition. I added this cute caged light over the sink and it’s one of my favorite fixtures in the house. I replaced the dishwasher and ultimately the stove. I tried hard to salvage that stove but I just couldn’t get it cleaned up and looking decent, and it was killing my vibe. I wasn’t going to let it bring down this kitchen remodel. You’re only as weak as your weakest link, right, kitchen? See yourself to the door, greasy stove. Take your cornbread crumbs with you.
I love this built in desk in the kitchen and decided to keep it, both for aesthetic and sentimental reasons. I used to sit here for hours when I was a kid playing secretary and teacher. I was a very important and busy, well-respected secretary slash teacher.
The big bay window in the dining room is begging for a pretty round table so I added a lantern style chandelier that would look cute over many family dinners served here.
LAUNDRY/MUDROOM
This was my mom’s sewing room. I’m actually tearing up a little reflecting and preparing to write this paragraph. My mom would spend hours in here. This was her happy place. When I think of her this is where I picture her- here in this room, creating something or repairing a hole in something for someone she loved. We had the best Halloween costumes on the planet because they were homemade, here in this room.
My mom is still alive, but she has advanced Alzheimer’s disease, and she doesn’t recognize me much any more. It’s a heartbreaking disease because her body is still here, but she is not. It’s a strange thing to mourn for someone whose body is still on this Earth. But I mourn because she doesn’t call me Courty anymore, and because her face doesn’t light up with recognition when she sees me, and mostly because she doesn’t get to be a Nana to my kids when being a Nana was her favorite thing on this Earth. I don’t get to tell her about my joys and my losses. Or maybe in fact I could, because her hugs are still just as warm and rich and full and she still smells the same- like the perfect mix of Beautiful by Estee Lauder with just the tiniest hint of Aquanet hairspray somewhere in the background. But maybe I’m just afraid to try, because when she looks at me politely like I’m just another woman chatting with her about my life it breaks me into a million pieces. I miss her so, so terribly. I hope that she would be proud of the work I put into this house.
I poured extra love into this room for her, her favorite room.
On that note, I wanted to pay tribute to my family and our original home somehow, and I was able to do that in this room. I found the original front door to the house in the garage, buried deep under some scrap wood (because my parents threw NOTHING away. Thank you for that, said I, when I had to clean the entire house out and prepare it for Estate Sale. Thanks again for keeping my baby teeth. I sure do treasure them). The door, replaced years ago by the current front door, was missing a diamond glass pane, but I was able to get that easily repaired by a local glass company for under $50, and after cleaning it up and restaining it I had Negib hang it from a barn door track so that you can close off the door to the laundry room when you don’t want to hear the dryer reminding you that you’re about to have to fold nine loads of towels. I looooove how this turned out. Not only is it cool looking, but it’s also a little wink to my family. I see you, Doyles. A part of us will always be here in the house that built us.
HALL BATH
The first stop down the hallway is the hall bath. Easily my favorite “after” in this whole house. I loooooove how this room turned out! I had my guys raise the dropped down ceiling up to normal human height and also remove the fur down over the vanity. The room got all dressed up with shiplap and it couldn’t look any better on her!!!
Look how pretty she looks now! I die.
I had planned to save and paint the existing vanity, but it fell apart when the counterop was being removed, and I’m so glad it did because I found this beautiful vanity with the attached marble couterop on major discount (at Builder’s Warehouse, if you’re local!). It was already painted this moody gray color and I love how it, along with the black granite, contrast against the all white walls and white floor tile and white subway tiled shower. I added the black vintage pharmacy mirrors and the farmhouse inspired vanity lights above to complete the look. The final touch were some cute chalkboard towel hooks that I found at Target. Be still my heart.
GUEST BEDROOMS
The three guest bedrooms are down the hallway a little. They didn’t need much to update them. They received paint, new closet doors, door hardware, baseboards, carpet, and ceiling fans. Le voila.
MASTER BEDROOM
We addressed this in my last post, but again I say WHY DID THIS FLOOPLAN EXIST? I won’t beat a dead horse here, but I just need you to know how I feel about this. Sinks do not belong in bedrooms. This is not a Super 8 motel. The end. Period. Amen forever.
And so the bathroom was made into a real deal bathroom and separated from the bedroom. Glory be, hallelujah.
I had a pocket door placed here to conserve space but to accommodate for privacy. I removed the bathroom vanity and was able to fit two smaller vanities side by side after having a plumber split the line to house two sinks. I had the fur downs removed above the vanity and also in the shower. I chose white 3×6 subway tile with charcoal colored grout for the surround, and I love how it all turned out. This master bedroom and bath gets the award for most improved.
UPSTAIRS BONUS ROOM
After much debate I elected not to have the bonus room included in the square footage of this home. But why? More square footage is always better! Not always though. Gather round, my children, let me tell you why it was not better in this case.
This house already exceeded the average home size in the neighborhood by 400-600 square feet. The upstairs bonus room was well over 700 square feet. If I were to have added that into the measured square footage 1) I would have out-priced my neighborhood 2) the home would have to sell for a greatly reduced price per square foot, thus lowering comps and property values in the neighborhood. I fancy myself the Santa Clause of property values, not the Grinch. I giveth, I don’t taketh away.
So, the homeowners have a nice, huge bonus room upstairs where they can send their kids up to play. Because I wasn’t including this room in the square footage I put the bare minimum into it: paint and carpet only. It truly is just free bonus space for the home owners to do what they choose with.
THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE
Throughout the house all of the popcorn ceilings were scraped and textured, because that crap is gross. If I have one mission in this life it is to eradicate all the popcorn ceilings from this planet. DEATH WILL FIND YOU.
Wood look tile floors were added in all of the main areas and hallways (This floor tile from Lowe’s is so affordable and of GREAT quality. It looks much more expensive than it was!).
All of the walls and ceilings were painted Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams, and all of the trim and cabinetry was painted SW Snowbound.
When the house was complete I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief. So much had changed in me throughout the course of this project. From beginning to end, the remodel took a total of six weeks, but in many ways I felt like I had lived 6 lifetimes in that span. So much of me had changed and healed, and I had discovered a passion that I didn’t know existed. I felt good about what I had done, but I felt nervous and shy about bringing my family here to see the end product. I had an overwhelming need to make them proud of the changes I had made in our family home before I passed it on to the next family. I felt like the home spoke for us.
I visited Paris when I was eighteen, and I was surprised to see that at a metro stop outside of the Palace Versailles people had graffiti-ed their names all over the walls. It was a beautiful, messy hodge podge of cultures of people crying out “I WAS HERE. SEE ME. REMEMBER ME.” They needed the world to know that they had been here, to be seen and to be remembered at a place that meant something to them. They knew that others would come after them, and that, as long as these walls were standing, they would forever have an imprint that would be seen. The wrapping of my childhood home felt much like that. Our family was here. For over forty years our family loved here and we nursed our hurts here and we grew together and we made a legacy, and now it was time for us to go. It was someone else’s turn to build a life here, but we were here.
Here she is.
My family home. The home that I lived in from birth until age 19 when I moved out to be closer to my college campus, and of course the home that I returned to every weekend and holiday to visit my mom.
Built in 1968, it is your typical traditional ranch style home which is the most common architectural style for our region, and my parents were the original owners.
The Sunroom
The house, when built, was around 1600 sq ft, but my dad enclosed the porch and routed HVAC to it creating, by definition, a sunroom- although we just referred to this room as “the back room,” and in my lifetime it was used as our family computer room.
After the sunroom enclosure the square footage was brought up to 2050 sq ft. I’ve always loved the exposed brick wall back here and the bank of windows along the back wall that poured natural sunlight into the room. It was absolutely brimming with potential.
THE “BONUS ROOM”
But my dad didn’t stop there. The man couldn’t sit still. When I was in 5th or 6th grade he decided that our home’s ample attic space was a missed opportunity for a second story. So he transformed our single story home into a two story with his DIY addition of a 600 sq ft heated and cooled “bonus room,” before those were even a thing. I can remember this transformation happening and not thinking anything of it, wasn’t it perfectly normal for parents to add a story onto their homes…?
Check out those stairs.
This was all before HGTV and Pinterest and, gasp- the internet even, so he did all of this out of his own brain.
The upstairs was my domain. A clubhouse of sorts. That “stage” (which is raised to accommodate for the vaulting of the living room ceiling below) is where my band practiced. It’s true- if you thought I looked familiar all this time it’s because I was the rhythm guitarist- and for a stint the bass guitarist- in the wildly famous all girl band Aquarius, which was later renamed That Great Band after learning with palpable heartbreak that there was already a band called The Age of Aquarius. The band broke up in mid-high school citing artistic differences as the reason for our demise.
After purchasing the home but before getting started, I brought in two different home inspectors to inspect all of my dad’s handy work, and I was terrified. None of this extreme change was done to code, and I was certain that the entire upstairs would need to be ripped out and the ceiling patched up like it never existed. This would have broken my heart as I felt it would have deleted some relic of my dad’s legacy.
Against all of my expectations, when I brought in two sets of home inspectors they both said a version of “I WANT to hate this. Everything in me wants to say that this is bad and wrong and needs to be ripped out, but I actually kind of love it and have serious respect for your dad for doing all of this himself.”
The stairs, though steep, were all uniform in distance, head clearance was to code, joists were all present and accounted for. In that moment I felt an overwhelming surge of pride for my dad, and I had an intense desire and newfound motivation to make him proud of me in return by doing this renovation justice.
But all tenderness aside, there was some dated and ugly stuff in this house, guys. I mean.
ENTRY/FORMAL LIVING
Those posts “defining” the formal living room had to go. In fact the formal living had to go altogether. Nobody does formal anymore. “Please, won’t you come and sit in my well defined parlour and drink some tea. Let’s first, though, walk past the perfectly good couch and loveseat in my first living room to get there. Ah, yes, that’s much better. I’m exhausted from that walk and in great need of this tea.”
Yeah those dark, ugly, dated, and unnecessary posts had to GO. This room would become a study with a set of two sliding barn doors to give privacy if desired.
LIVING ROOM
The living room lacks any natural light as it has no windows of its own. To remedy that I would remove what was originally the sliding door to the patio, now an unused and cumbersome door to The Sunroom (I had of course taken to calling “the backroom” “The Sunroom” because it was about to become classy, so it might as well start acting the part.) This would become a large opening and would let in plenty of natural light. I also would paint all of the trim and the fireplace white to brighten it up majorly. Also, can we get some shiplap up in here? Mama needs some ‘lap. Out would go the bookcase to the left of the fireplace, in would go some shiplap in its place- picking back up on the other side of the fireplace.
What was the point of that pass through window to the kitchen with a doorway to just *walk* into the kitchen right next to it? That had to come out to open up the living room to the dining and kitchen. However, that wall was a load bearing wall, and a beam would need to be added to ensure that the house didn’t cave in. That would be sad.
KITCHEN
The kitchen just needed your typical cosmetic updates. Ivy wallpaper, you’ve seen your last days. Goodbye to you and your matching fruit border friend.
My mom had new granite countertops installed a few years ago before her memory really went downhill, and while they weren’t my personal first choice in color I knew that I could design around them and make them look intentional, saving beaucoups of money that desperately needed to be spent elsewhere.
LAUNDRY ROOM
The laundry room is HUGE, which was unheard of for a home of this era. It doubled as my mom’s sewing room, and I knew it would make a fantastic mudroom with all of that space and being right off of the garage. It had to have built in mud cubbies. I vividly pictured a young family coming home from school and hanging up their backpacks on little hooks in this room while kicking off their shoes and filling their mom in on their school day. MUD CUBBIES OR BUST.
HALL BATH
The hall bath had seen better days.
Can I start by saying that the ceiling in this hall bathroom dropped down to SEVEN FEET? Seven. For no reason. No other room in the house had a ceiling this low. The vanity counter was also weirdly low like it was custom made for preschool children to wash up their hands after finger painting and before snack time. What say we go ahead and make this room normal human sized?
Oh, and let’s 86 the mauve wall paint and matching mauve floor, the flower wall paper border, and while we’re at it the mildewed tile tub surround. That cast iron bath tub was quality though. It would stay. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
MASTER BEDROOM AND BATH
Bless its heart.
WHY IS THIS FLOOR PLAN A THING? I need you to fully understand and feel my distaste. My brow is furrowed. Why would anyone ever think “You know what would be great? Having a sink IN the bedroom, 5 feet away from the bed where the wife is sleeping when the husband wakes up and brushes his teeth every morning and then uses his electric razor to shave his face. The noise will wake up the sleeping wife an hour before her alarm is set to go off and it will be fantastic. They will live happily ever after.” I AM FROWNING AT YOU, 1960’S ARCHITECT.
This would have to be fixed. And all God’s people said “let us give this blessed husband and wife a real deal bathroom with walls and doors and everything, Amen.” And so a wall would be built, separating the bedroom from the bathroom so that it would actually BE a bathroom, and a pocket door would be added to conserve space. Additionally the door between the vanity area and the shower would be opened up slightly to create the feeling of more space. Oh, and it would need a major attractiveness boost, obvi. All the things would need to come out of there and be replaced with new pretty things.
BEDROOMS 2-4
(I’m missing a picture of the fourth bedroom.)
The remaining 3 bedrooms were a good size- nice and spacious, with no real issues other than just needing paint and carpet and fixtures replaced. They would have their dated folding closet doors replaced for real hinged opening doors.
THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE
Throughout the house all of the floors would come up and be replaced with wood-look tile with the exception of the bedrooms (which would be carpeted) and the bathrooms (which would be tiled). The walls would all be painted a light, neutral gray, and all of the trim and cabinets in the house would be modernized with a fresh white paint. Much of the trim was damaged and would be replaced (all of the baseboards would wind up needing to be replaced) and a bedroom door that had an unpatchable hole and would also need to be replaced.
All of the light fixtures throughout the house would be replaced with stylish, modern looking ones, and all cabinet and door hardware would be replaced- hinges and pulls.
Additionally, the entire electrical panel for the house and much of the plumbing would need to be redone. This was not an expense that I budgeted for and this made me VERY SAD. The electrician said it was one of the worst electrical jobs he’s ever done. And my budget replied: “ouch.”
The exterior wasn’t bad. It just needed a few paint color tweaks and a good power washing as the garage doors and siding were both relatively new. And it of course needed landscaping, shutters and a new, adorable front door. And I had already decided that the front door had to be a minty blue-green.
I felt optimistic as I embarked on my journey. I had a reason to get up out of bed every day and put on clothes and leave my house. I had a purpose- something that was waiting on me. A commitment that was depending on me to see it through. I had an outlet to channel my sadness and heartbreak over the loss of the baby. I poured my confusion and frustration and anger into demolishing wood paneling and ripping wallpaper from walls. Sometimes tears of anger poured out of me as I ripped and tugged and freed the walls from their ivy patterned prison.
I spent time in prayer and also ample time talking to my parents in the many hours that I was there alone. I cried to the empty walls and to their memories, and I felt them there- in the place where I grew up, in the living room where my mom rocked me as a baby, under the second story that my dad had built by hand- surrounding me and loving me through it. It was there, in my empty childhood home, in the eleventh hour of my darkness and hurt, that I started to find a glimmer of something. A flicker of something on the other side of that dark place. A reminder that I was valuable, and the promise that something good was coming; something was changing.
Out of the ashes comes something living, something good and light; out of the ashes comes the promise of hope.
****Stay tuned next week, when I reveal what became of my childhood home after her dramatic updates!****
I’m making strange life choices. Someone reign me in.
Two years ago I was a happily practicing chiropractor partnering in a busy clinic with my husband, Kevin, also a chiropractor. I love being a chiropractor. Like, love it to depths of my soul- that kind of love. Helping others fulfills me. Someone asked me once what my dream job was and I immediately answered that I was doing it. They said “yeah, but if you could be ANYTHING.” I said again,” yeah, I’m doing it,” and I meant it. So, why then am I doing weird things with my life?
Buckle up because I’m going to get overly personal right off the bat.
My husband and I struggled with infertility, so having both of our boys was particularly monumental. We underwent years of fertility treatments to conceive both of them. It felt like this made my attachment to them stronger, my time with them felt more fleeting and precious. I went back to work part-time after we had our first son, but I made the decision to stay home full time after we had our second son. I needed this time with my babies. During this time I had everything that I wanted- time at home with my boys and a husband who supported this decision; everything was truly perfect and fantastic.
So why after two years did I begin to feel so itchy? So restless? So left behind by my peers in practice? So jealous of my husband for getting to go out into the world and use all of his brain cells? I was writing out my son’s Valentine’s Day cards one day, and I forgot how to spell the word “friend” and immediately started crying. I text my sister that my brain was dissolving. I said “please send help right now, my brain broke.” She assured me that all mothers’ brains dissolve but eventually regenerate. I wasn’t convinced, and it was at this time that I began my plan to go back into practice.
And then I got pregnant for the third time. By accident. I say by accident because we were definitely, absolutely confirmed to only be able to get pregnant very intentionally. By spending gazillions of dollars and having our babies made in labs. So how on earth did this happen? It was only by some very large and intentional miracle. We were so happy. We were just absolutely over the moon. We always wanted tons of kids and we felt that our miracle had finally arrived. Our guard was completely down and our hearts were completely open and in love with this precious child. I was absolutely convinced that it was a boy, and we began to call him “Tripp,” as he would be- in my convinced mind- our third son. And then, at ten weeks pregnant, I had a miscarriage. Physically, it was a two week long nightmare of a miscarriage that ended in surgery. Emotionally, we were heartbroken and completely devastated. Not only had we lost a baby that we were completely in love with, the loss of this baby also signified the end of babies for our family. The definite and very painful closing of a chapter.
I didn’t return into practice as I had been planning before the pregnancy because my focus in our clinic centers around the care of pregnant moms, babies, and young children. All the things that broke my heart into a million pieces. I just couldn’t even.
And so it was after this miscarriage that I started to feel myself losing myself. I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t laughing or smiling; I wasn’t coping. I was very definitely falling into a very bad and dark place.
To add some additional backstory, my mom has Alzheimer’s Disease. My sisters and I moved her into a local assisted living center a year ago, but we left my parents’ house vacant. (My dad died when I was in high school. This is the last depressing fact in this blog, I promise. You’re almost to the good part. Keep reading.) We came to the agreement that it was time to sell the house for my mom because the memory care unit in assisted living is hella expensive, guys. I mean really. So I reached out to a friend who is a realtor and he came and looked at the house. He confirmed what we already knew- that the house wasn’t in great shape and would not pass any inspection even with hardcore bribery and a prayer (my dad was into DIY before that was a thing. Hello entire electrical panel that was rewired *DIY*. Cringe.). Our realtor said that the only person we could get to purchase the home would be an investor, a house flipper. He mentioned that he knew of two who would likely be interested, both women, and he invited them to come out and look at the house. They came and walked through the property with poker faces and inevitably made the same offer to purchase the home. I presented this offer to my family and we agreed to accept and move forward with the selling of our family home.
And then I got in my head.
Kevin and I successfully “long flipped” two homes. Our first two houses we bought and completely renovated with the intent to live in them while remodeling them and then to sell them for a profit. We enjoyed this process immensely. So I started thinking that if one of these two Lady Flippers was going to buy my beloved childhood home and tear it to shreds and make it unrecognizable and do this for a profit, why then couldn’t I? What skill set did they have that I didn’t? And what if they did a crappy job? Why couldn’t I do what they were going to do and have control over the quality of the products going into the renovation so that it could be made into something that my parents would be proud of again? So that our family home could be brought back to life and make a happy home for a family all over again?
So I voiced these things to Kevin. And bless that man, without batting an eye he said, “You can do this. You’ll be great at it.” I love him so.
So, I presented the idea to my family and they agreed to let me purchase the home from my mom for the same price that the other lady flippers had offered, and after closing on the home I began the process of renovating it.
And this blog is the story of how that process came along at exactly the right moment and saved me from my dark place. It’s the beginning of the story of how saving houses- breathing life back into them- breathed life back into me.
The name Ash and Ivy has two meanings. It represents the balance of masculine and feminine design elements that I like to achieve in every home. Ash represents the masculine: as a type of wood it is hard and strong. And there is nothing in this world more beautiful to me than ivy growing on a home: it is charming and mysterious and quaint and soft and feminine. But deeper than that, and on a level far more personal to me, the name signifies the idea that out of the ashes- out of all of the ugly- there emerges something beautiful and living. Taking these older homes found in disrepair and renovating them breathes life back into them again. It rewrites their story. And that’s what this did for me. It breathed life back into me. It rewrote my story. Out of the ashes I found myself again.
I’m excited to share my house flipping journey with you. I can’t say what the future looks like or how long I will continue on this path or when I will go back into practice, but for now this feels just exactly right and is exactly where I want to be. I hope you’ll enjoy following along with me as I go.