dining rooms

…..the Wife!!

Hi there! It’s Harriet – i’m the reason for all of the large bills from Home Depot, Build.com, Pottery Barn, Sherwin Williams and Restoration Hardware, just to name a few. Yep, I’m the reason projects always seem to come in over budget. With good reason, though!

I know my husband is focused on the budget, but when you are trying to beautifully rehab a property, you sometimes need a little pizzaz! Unfortunately, pizzaz = money.

Over the weekend we did one of my favorite shopping trips for the Century Home – lighting! We shopped at two local lighting stores to find just what the flip needed…a little sparkle! While we always try to leave plenty of room in our budget for lighting and other finish projects, our daughter Mila couldn’t take her eyes off of one of the most expensive (and sparkly) chandeliers we’ve ever seen! Definitely castle worthy!

Here’s a sneak peak of the dining room chandelier we chose – a slightly tarnished silver that will definitely go well with the 100 year old sconces we were able to salvage.

We haven’t been updating the blog as often as we should, but I have to brag for moment. When you seen the end result … the transformation … your jaws will drop! My hubby is an intelligent man, but with all of the stress he’s been under to hit project deadlines, I think he’s been too distracted by the little things to realize just how beautiful the Century Home flip will be.

Ladies, this home is something we fantasize about. The walk in closet is the size of most bedrooms. The master bedroom is just as big and has a gorgeous fireplace, where the crystals radiate more than the flames. The kitchen is inviting and will be perfect for hosting large parties. Stay tuned, we’re just a few weeks away from hitting the market!

Xo,
Harriet + Mila + our little dog Zeus

Old homes present interesting problems, especially with the intention of flipping. One of the most common characteristics of homes built during the 1920-30’s is the lack of bedroom space. In the early 20th century, families typically spent their time together on the first floor and rarely retired to their bedrooms for anything but sleep. Living rooms and dining rooms were huge, but bedrooms and kitchens were tiny.

Today’s buyers, however, want space and lots of it. Master suites with an attached bath are huge selling points, but rarely seen outside of new construction.

With that in mind a quite a bit of space to work with, we’ve decided to do a little bit of rearranging on the second floor. The home has five bedrooms and two full bathrooms on the second floor, none of which are all that big. As you can see in the architectural drawing below (thanks, dad!), we’re turning the home into a four bedroom property.

The current plan is to create a large master bedroom that makes up the entire right side of the second floor. The cost in doing so was pretty nominal (demo two closets & build two walls), but I think it adds tremendous value and appeal to the property.