If you didn't hear on Instagram, we have accepted an offer on the Dalton House! It was definitely an interesting experience, to say the least. The last house we sold (Brooklyn Street House) was in a really hot real estate market, so selling in our new small town was not the frenzy of action we were used to. Basically, we worked around the clock to renovate the property, then listed, and then... crickets. No showings, little interest. Eeek! We had to remind ourselves that this market is a little (ok, a lot) slower and we were happy to accept a good offer after only a couple of weeks. Phew!

Woohoo! We are finally D.O.N.E with the Dalton House! Our little project went on the market on Monday, and it was nice to wipe our hands of this house and pass the baton on to our real estate agent. Once all of the final receipts come in, I'll have the concrete financial report but I am happy to say that we came in UNDER budget for the renovation costs and listed HIGHER than initially anticipated!

We are FINALLY getting to some of the pretty stuff! Since most of the work has been done after hours, the Dalton House flip has gone a little slower than I think we would all like to see, but the light is definitely at the end of the tunnel! Everything should be done at the 8 week point, so we are getting really close to being able to list this little house! Two big things that have made the house look a lot better are paint and the laminate flooring. I am sure Jake and Brian were cursing me as they pulled out all of the tack strips from the living room subfloor, but having a wood-looking floor in the main living area makes it seem so much nicer. We used the Style Selections Auburn Stained White Oak laminate flooring from Lowe's and have been impressed so far. It is very affordable ($.99 a square foot) and seems to be decent quality. We chose that finish to tie into the existing cabinets and I think it complements them nicely.

Over the weekend, the four of us worked on the flip house a full day on Saturday. The men sanded and worked on trim while the ladies primed. We had a bit of a bumpy start to the day when we discovered our 5 gallon bucket of primer was frozen. To thaw it out quickly, we used a gas heater outside to try and warm it up. A few moments later, we went out to discover the gas heater had melted a hole in the side of the bucket and primer was splattering all over the deck and siding. Ugh. Luckily we caught it in time and were able to wash away the paint while it was wet. Never a dull moment when renovating! Speaking of which, the guys found the culprit for the drywall damage hiding between the walls: a sword....

The boys have been busy at the Dalton house mudding and taping the drywall in preparation for paint. They are wrapping up the sanding tonight and tomorrow, so we should be ready to prime and paint the walls in the next few days!

Much to their chagrin, I pleaded with my husband and friends to save this little built-in (the guys were ready to take the sledge hammer to it). It is literally falling apart, but it is the only hint of character in this little manufactured home. We couldn't save the wood veneer on it, but I plan on painting the whole thing white (keeping the beadboard black and counters as is) and tying it into a fun board-and-batten accent wall I plan on making in the kitchen - stay tuned.

So... did you notice anything different about the title of this post? Note how it doesn't say "flip hunting" - rather "house flipping"? (!!!) That's right guys, we have our first oh-fficial flip under way and I am SO freaking excited to share this whole project, process, and budget with y'all. I guess it's also pretty obvious which house we got - the Dalton House! A little bit of a gamble since it is a manufactured home, but still plenty of room in the budget and I think pretty fancy for a mobile home flip. Sadly, this renovation isn't going to be of Fixer Upper caliber. In other words, we're mostly going to be repairing, cleaning, and sprucing up a little. This is great news for the renovation cost, but there will not be these dramatic before and afters like the Myrtle House. So, shiplap lovers and farmhouse aficionados - my apologies in advance!