About Summerville's Kings Grant

I've got to be honest. For the last year I've been practically afraid to be in my yard. I would get in and out of my car in a hurry and dissppear out of view as soon as possible. When we bought an estate house a year ago in an attempt to downsize, we didn't plan on the things that happened over the past year. We really thought we could get more done in a shorter period of time. The inside of the home was such a nightmare that it took priority. Every single surface needed replacing or painting.... I'm really not kidding!

Still, when you live in an established neighborhood, on one of the primary corner lots next to homes that look like this:

Perfectly little trimmed bushes, green lawns, gorgeous oak trees that are uplighted at night (stunning really).... This particular house is right across the street from me. So, I'm pretty lucky. I love looking at their house. Unfortunately, until 3 weeks ago, this was their view.

Now can you see why I rushed to and from my car? It's been embarrassing!!! The home across the street from the front door had a slightly better view, but not much better.....

Finally, 3 weeks ago, it was time to start addressing the exterior of the home.... We ended up spending about $3500 on new sod and landscaping, but I think you'll be impressed with the difference. I know I am!!

GRASS!! GLORIOUS GRASS!!!

You can still see where it is growing in here. Can you also see that we replaced the lighting by the front door? I should have turned it on for the photo.... why didn't I think of that?

Finally I'm not embarrased to be out in the yard. When neighbors walk by I smile and wave instead of trying to hide my face like someone in witness protection.

Last weekend, we were talking to one of the neighbors, that's right TALKING TO THE NEIGHBORS, and he shared with us that he had been looking at that baren corner for 25 years. Apparently the neighbor who had lived here previously had a case of depression and no one wanted to confront them about the yard, afraid that it would make him even more depressed.

In the last few months, we've made the decision that despite our attempt to downsize was an error - a learning curve. Now we've got 7 more weeks to finish getting the house ready and put it on the market. We'll be moving back into our larger but fully complete new construction home. Living in a home that needs this kind of work just isn't in my to-do list anymore. I'm finally one of the rest of the buyers - I want move in ready..... I think I would like to just "live" in my house for a while.

From the point of view as an investment in the sale of our home, I think this was a HUGE improvement. If we had not replaced the lawn then buyers would likely expect that everything else in the home was neglected. No matter how good the inside may look, with this kind of curb appeal (or lack thereof) buyers will not believe that you have pride in ownership and you can expect much lower offers.

While I was out of town last week perhaps the biggest change to our house to date took place... NEW FLOORS!! While the before photos of the living room look OK, to be honest the laminate flooring was gross. It obviously had gotten wet and as laminate tends to do was buckling..... Wanting to be as environmentally concientious as possible, I went with a fantastic vertical carbonized bamboo...

buckling laminate flooring was not working out... ripping them out was the best option.

After ripping up the laminate flooring we found out that the subfloors actually had been painted (per neighbors the homeowners lived like this for some time). Woodboys, our new flooring installers, were happy about this as it apparently created a new moisure barrier in addition to the barrier they installed.

You can also see my husband installing new 6" baseboards in this space. I like the statement of 6" over 4".

I'm really pleased that these lead into the dining room as well, creating a more open feeling (i'll have photos, but we are still working on the ceilings and rooms are taped off - for now that includes the dining). New french doors have also been installed and all the trim work painted with a nice crisp white. The new color is Basketry by Behr.

The rooms in the family room/den have been a bit of a quandry too. We knew we needed to do something with them. The question was, to refinish them or to put in new bamboo floors here too.... We went with the less expensive option (about $1000 less) and then held our breath having no idea how it would turn out.

We started this space by priming and painting to get rid of the cave feeling....

Then they refinished the floors....

I think we made a great decision! The floors are really stunning in person with the variety of wood grains shown off so well. (btw, in case you are wondering about that unpainted window to the right... it's being replaced so we haven't spent time painting it yet.)

So, what was the cost of flooring in the living room, dining room and refinishing the family room? It was a little less than $6000 professionally installed. The return on investment is significantly higher however... not that I'm doing this for resale (this time).

Now are are about 2-3 weeks from moving in.... I can't wait to see what this room will look like with furniture!

Why is it that so many 1970s homes have wood panelling? Ok, so that was sylish back then but why do so many men still like it? Why is it that men cringe when you say you want to paint over wood? Well, if you are one of those guys who love the look of paneling and the 'man cave'... look away!

Our den before....

This depressing room was given a lift with A LOT of primer and some great pigmented paint...

The floors will be redone later this week and the windows are supposed to be replaced soon (why they weren't painted). The desk was left in the home and hauled out this evening. Shelves and cupboard doors still need to be added but you can already see the changes happening.

Right now this is the room that has the biggest improvement. Prior to the paint job this room was dark and depressing... today this room is bright and feels clean and fresh - even a little beachy.

The cost of this makeover? About $100. When working on value add, paint is frequently the most cost effective change you can make.

In order to close on our new home we were told a few things by our lender - the first of which was it would have to have usable flooring throughout the home. Well, somehow they let the fact that there was no carpeting slide upstairs, but the kitchen seemed to be another issue... If you remember, this was one of the scarier looking parts of our new home...

since this is where the fridge would go we were certain there was going to be damage to the subflooring and we would have to rip all of this out and have a big job on our hands. Instead we got lucky and found out that the previous owner had actually installed a layer of plywood and sticky tiles over the original subflooring and roll out vinyl floor. Per the inspection there was no real damage, which meant we had easy (and cheap) options available to us....

Now I will say that we plan on completely gutting the kitchen within the next 6 months and replacing the flooring with what we want was not on the list of fixing before closing - it would have been a waste of money since it would all be ripped out when we eventually gut the kitchen. Our goal was to get the room done inexpensively and make it last for 6 months....

This was our solution...

STICKY TILES! At 68 cents each we just couldn't go wrong. Here was the process for anyone who finds themselves in this same situation....

First we pulled up the second layer of plywood and sticky tiles in a nice neat square area. We then purchased and installed new plywood in that area. Adding two layers of sticky tiles (one to meet the height of the previous sticky tiles and then one to cover the entire flooring surface) we continued throughout the room making this the only part of the home that actually feels reasonably clean.

Now, I'm the first to admit that it is not particularly attractive but the idea was to do this as cheap as possible (entire room cost less than $90) and pass the appraisal.... Mission accomplished!

Tips & Techniques on sticky tiles.....

How to cut the tiles to fit when you can't use an entire square - turn the tile upside down and butt up against the wall you are trying to measure to. With a straight edge mark where the overhang on the tile is and using a razor knife score the tile along that mark. Bend the tile along the scoring and cut down that line. This is actually super easy. Remember that your tile will ultimately be upside down and backwards when you are scoring so pay attention to which side has the good edge.

We've been working on the new home for about 2.5 weeks now and are definately making progress. Unfortunately sometimes it's really hard to tell. A lot of what we've been doing has been ripping things apart, tearing it out or pulling it down. The good news is that this part of the process is very cheap... really mostly free!

Remember the Dining Room Before....

Vinyl sticky tile flooring, popcorn ceiling, wrong color walls for my decor....

Our progress....

In the living room and dining room we ripped out the vinyl flooring, painted the walls and scraped the ceilings (ok, they haven't been scraped in the living room yet... which is sad because it needs it the most, but apparently this will be a job we'll have to hire out as the previous owner did something to make this a very tricky job.) We also added new 6" baseboards and are in the process of painting the crown molding and all the trimwork.

New bamboo flooring goes in this week and I'm excited to see it.....

Remember the Master Bedroom before....

Well, we ripped out the shelving and mudded the walls.... new carpeting is in the process of going in....

Now in an ideal world we would have been able to finish the ceilings and painted everything before the flooring was installed. If we were flipping this house it definately would have gone in a different order. Unfortunately we are trying to sell our current residence and really would prefer to sell it without living in it... especially with so much work going on in this house. As soon as the home is habitable we'll be moving in....