We Love Fixing Scruffy Houses
in the Scruffy City
Whether we buy your house for cash or partner with you to flip it, we will help you make as much money as possible
Here Are Some of Our Recent Remodels
That 70’s Bathroom
You know you’re in for a fun makeover when you have a matching set of brown toilet, sink, and tub. Pair that with a teal wall and a clay tile floor and you’re bound to have a great time. We discovered a window behind the tub (along with duct tape and sheetrock), the floor was tiled directly to the plywood, and the corners of the bathroom were curved and loaded with solid plaster. The demo took two full days because the tub was built directly into the wall and buried in cement and the plaster and chickenwire was thick everywhere. But the magic started happening shortly after that with a full marble floor to ceiling tile job, new window and fixtures, a marble basketweave floor and a soft blue accent on the walls. It turned out great!
Her Majesty Restored
This was one of our biggest projects. The building is a Victorian style (Italianate?) fourplex that took us nearly a year to complete all four units. Three sets of renters really wanted to stay, so we worked around them and their schedule to make it happen. Slow and steady was the way with this big mama. She deserved the makeover though. Every inch of every room, and every inch of the outside needed refreshed. Someone had taken out all of the old original trim and finishes, and replaced with builder grade finishes from the hardware store. So we undid all of that along with all other poorly done improvements, made some other enhancements, and finally we got her back to her old glory. This property just needed some love and we were happy to give it to her. She deserved the makeover and now stands tall and proud for all the tenants to enjoy.
From Drab to Fab
We love bathroom remodels. I’d go so far as to say we love them even more than kitchen makeovers. Sure your kitchen is the most important room to remodel in the house, but a lot of important alone time is spent in the bathroom throughout the day. It’s where you get warmed up, cleaned up, and ready to start the day. And it’s where you wind down, reflect, and prepare for bed after a long day. It’s a room that should never be less than fabulous. Because if your bathroom is fabulous, you feel fabulous. This one, as usual was a total gut; I mean, really….who paints walls like that? We also added some space from a closet in an adjoining room to make for a spacious shower, and also freed up enough room to create a separate water closet as well. This was actually a secondary bathroom in the house. Tell me their guests won’t feel like they’re living the life of luxury in this beauty!
Oasis in the City
Backyard makeovers are the best. You take an otherwise overlooked area of your property and you turn it into your favorite “room” of the house. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make it happen, other times it’s as big a job as a remodel inside the house. This one was the latter. We had to remove four mature invasive species trees from the property line, we found not one, but TWO previous patios we had to remove. We had to build a walk out deck due to the unexpected distance from the door to the ground after removing the patios, but it was worth it because we made a two tier deck that made good use of the downtown skyline views. Then we made the decision to add a pergola as well, a privacy fence all the way around along with an eating area, a sitting area, and even a cornhole game area. All of this in just under 1500 square feet of yard space to work with. It turned out great and the family who lives there now is loving the miniature urban retreat.
Down to the Guts
This kitchen was a hot mess. Though the picture reflects otherwise, the refrigerator and stove were actually in the rooms adjoining the kitchen when we purchased the property. Not because they wanted them there, but because there simply wasn’t room. The owners of the property chose to partner with us on this flip and they lived in the house through this remodel before the sale of the house. So we initially made the kitchen more useful by temporarily cutting in spaces for the appliances so we could work on those adjoining rooms. But when we got to the kitchen, it was all hands on deck to get them a kitchen gutted, rebuilt, and up and running before they returned from a long weekend trip. We took this one to the studs and the brick, and put in all new everything. We enhanced and tuckpointed the damaged brick backsplash, and we opened a wall to help the kitchen flow into the living area. It turns out this house actually sold for an additional $40k more than we even expected, and the owners got to keep all of it since they had the patience to wait for the remodel to be completed in order for them to get their money. It’s always fun for an owner when that happens!
A Well Deserved Facelift
This was one of those cases where it was the ugliest house in a neighborhood of beautiful historic older homes. Sometime back in the 70’s someone did an addition over the porch that kind of made this Foursquare home look like that all-terrain walker robot in Star Wars. It was cool for a robot, not for a house. But as it turns out, once everything got polished up, that addition actually looks kind of cool! Lots of stucco repair and brick pointing, new windows, new paint, new fence, sidewalk and porch, and just the right amount of shrubbery all made for some very happy new home owners. Not to mention some very happy neighbors who had to look at this house for too many years. Even the previous owner admitted it was ugly. But it served her purpose for many years as a rental. The new owners were thrilled and no one could ever say again that they have the ugly house on the block.
Fashion and Function
Sometimes the simplest things make the biggest difference. Whoever had remodeled this small bathroom 20 years ago did NOT do a good job with making the best use of the space. It was tight and awkward to say the least. You couldn’t avoid touching the bath tub when using the toilet. It’s amazing how much bigger a bathroom feels when it’s positioned correctly. There were no frills added here. Just basic Subway tile, a mosaic accent strip, a couple shampoo shelves, glass, new toilet, new vanity, and new basketweave marble flooring. It looked sharp. The owner didn’t want to tackle this bathroom, or any of the deferred maintenance that this house had from the previous 20 years since the last remodel. So he decided to cash out and sell the house to us. This one was actually one of our fastest pay outs. We went under contract Monday morning and were able to close by Thursday afternoon. The seller actually got more cash than he was hoping for, and we got a great house we were able to make some profit on a few months later after an extensive remodel. This was another win-win for us and the seller.
Time to Party
Another fun transformation of a back and side yard. The sellers were moving to Florida on a last minute decision and they had the moving truck scheduled the following week. So they needed to get the deal done fast. We were under contract on Friday and closed the following Friday and money wired to them as they were driving down to Florida! The house itself had so much character to begin with, we just needed to add some spice to the mix. The house was so perfectly situated among mature trees, that both the inside decor and the outside layout was created to accent this little house in the “woods”. We took full advantage of all of the lush natural landscaping by keeping everything natural. We added shaker siding to the addition, tore out the old deck, and added a three tiered deck with multiple sitting areas, a grill area, and a built in waterfall and fish pond. We might never have even removed the old deck, but a compromised sewer line ran directly under it! So the deck had to go so we could replace the sewer line. It was a blessing in disguise because this outdoor area just made the house even more perfect for its new owners. It wasn’t cheap but it was worth it.
Inherited Spiders
I wish we would have counted just how many spiders we ran across in this basement remodel. Actually, I don’t. It was gross, too many to count. But the basement was the most ideal place to add value to this house. It was large enough to be able to get an extra bedroom, an office, and a laundry room with room to spare. But the first few days of demo had the team extra edgy because of the amount of spiders and creepy bugs. But after the bugs realized we were there to stay (along with a healthy dose of perimeter pest spray), they were gone for good and we were able to turn this previously unused space into usable space for the new owners. This was an inherited property and the owners wanted the cash instead of the house. Sure they could have remodeled the house (and battled the spiders) to try to generate extra profits a few months later, but they had real jobs and other responsibilities. So they reached out to several “we buy houses” companies, as well as Scruffy Houses, and we had the best offer by far. We ended up closing quickly, even with the extra paperwork for the inheritance a little Title hiccup that was discovered. Chalk it up as yet another win-win.
Xeriscape Escape
You’ve probably heard that a kitchen remodel is where you focus your efforts during a successful remodel, but we would argue that when it comes to impressing would be buyers, the curb appeal of the house might actually be more important. The sellers of this house had kept it as a rental for many years. And fortunately for them, renters are easier to impress than a home buyer when it comes to first impression and curb appeal. So the sellers never really had a need to make the front yard impressive, and were still able to collect a monthly rent check regardless. After we purchased the property from them, the front yard got a lot of our attention. We put in gates to separate the front and back yard, a custom wood fence, a new sidewalk, a giant flagstone patio, a mini “smoking” deck, rebuilt rotten pillars, new patio furniture, a planter box and a mulched area for flowers and shrubs. We also focused on the “hell strip”, the area between the sidewalk and the road. This is an often overlooked area when it comes to curb appeal. We put in a retaining wall, mulch and new shrubs out there as well. The previous owners were happier to sell the house and put money in their pockets rather than tackle this big project. Our team worked hard on this one and it turned out beautifully.