Oh hey - anybody still out there? So sorry to leave you guys hanging like that. This renovation has completely consumed our lives. Working 80 hours a week between our day jobs and the flip has left zero time to blog, so apologies for the hiatus. The listing papers are freshly signed and I finally feel like we have a chance to come up for air!

The good news is that we are finished and the Avenue House hits the market this week! Yasssssssss. (*Cue angels singing*) Guys, this flip about did us in. To be honest, we probably did not make the wisest choice when purchasing this house. I think that since we have a soft spot in our hearts for old houses and charm, we let that blind us to the amount of WORK this project would be (it's only a complete kitchen gut, deck rebuild, and bathroom reno - easy peasy! ;). We put in 680 man hours just between the two of us over the course of 3 months (the equivalent of one person working full time for 17 weeks)! So yeah, definitely not the quick flip we should shoot for, haha.

One month left, guys! I'm freaking out a little because I still feel like we have a million things still to do (and we kind of do) but at least we have moved on to the fun stuff! The original hardwoods were sanded and stained this week and I am thrilled with how they turned out. We chose Minwax Provincial - a stain we haven't used before - and I love it. The color is super rich without looking too orange and dark enough to camouflage water stains without making the house feel heavy. I think the stain color also tones down the reddish brick throughout the house. I don't have a ton of photos because the poly is still drying so we can't get in the house yet, but here is a little glimpse of how different the kitchen looks. Can you believe those floors were hiding underneath that vinyl?

Friends, we have passed the halfway point for the Avenue House and I feel like the loose ends are finally starting to come together. We were out of town one of the past weekends, so not a whole lot of progress was made on our part, but we did pass the rough in inspection for plumbing, HVAC, and electrical! With that milestone behind us, we were able to schedule the hardwood refinishing (starting 7/31!) and prep for the kitchen install.

Guys, these last few weeks have been a STRUGGLE! We were making pretty good progress with paint and some of the systems (HVAC and plumbing are in!) but we had a pretty big setback with one teeny tiny mistake: using the wrong type of paint. Uggghhhh. We learned a very valuable lesson with this mistake, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.