39 days into Happy Homes’s (our real-estate investment company) 6th fix n flip property & we took the weekend off on an impromptu camping trip to go play in the mountains. The first few weeks were spent on window demo and lots of cleanup, and it’s been a productive few weeks, with Mike tackling some big hurdles. Here’s the break down of what we’ve done over the past two weeks….

• We got the HVAC Bid: $7,800. Mike has had the same guy work on the past several houses we’ve flipped and he’s good. Really fair & trustworthy.

• Removed the kitchen walls & built a beam system. This required engineering sign off (we used DL engineering who were amazing!) Mike building temp walls, pouring concrete pads to carry the load (I personally mixed 1280 lbs of concert & carried about 6 80lb bags down into the basement). This took us several hours on July 5th, my day off, and it was hard, dirty work. But so glad I was there to help!

• Had another electrician out. This first bid we got was $17k – wayyyy too high, so Mike contacted someone who is a good friend of a good friend. We’re still waiting, but will most like be a lot lower and will need to get him started.

• Plumber started work. There’s not a bid here. We trust the guy who’s doing the work (has worked on several other properties & does great work for a fair price).

• Removed all doors & door frames (9) from the house. I took on this and managed to complete it in about two hours total (between multiple days)

• Removed the flue work from the wood burning stove & the old furnace and water heater. The wood burning stove flue was attached from the master all the way to the basement, so Mike had to finagle it until it broke loose. The furnace & water heater was more complicated, as they are both located in the crawl space. He ended up cutting that out with a grinding wheel.

• Sold the washer & dryer. They were like new and we didn’t need them – we got $450 for them. A great deal for them & a bonus for us!

• Sold the scrap aluminum. Having gut 14 metal windows, we wanted to see if it would be worth it to scrap it for money. So, we ended up getting about $90 from the windows & doors, plus the two ladders left at the property. 100% worth it seeing as we would have had to dump this ourselves.

• Negotiated & purchased a new stove for $539. A screaming deal for the stove we purchased! Mike saw it as a return at Lowe’s & asked if they’d knock $100 off. And they did! The lesson: the answer is always No if you don’t ask.

• Bought 8 flush mount light fixtures, faucet hardware for all of the bathrooms, bought the kitchen sink & faucet, and two vanities for the two bedrooms. All of this came to just over $2k – a great deal for really nice finishes.
• Filled up a third dumpster. The attic is empty and 95% of the shed is cleaned out. That is a huge load off considering how much stuff the previous owners left.
• Mike patched and laid the subfloor. When we removed the wet bed tile, there wasn’t any, so had to lay new. Some areas got cut when the beam system was built (needed to build supports that would run down into the crawl space).

Quite a bit has been accomplished, much due to the fact that we worked July 4th holiday, taking advantage of the days I had off to help, and working late into the evenings on a few weeknights and Fridays. I don’t consider giving up that time as a sacrifice; I consider it a privilege.  To work towards something I helped create, to sweat and literally bleed for my own company, well that is truly something I am grateful I’m able to contribute to.

Our mountain weekend has been wonderful & Monday greets us full of possibility. Happy week!