Striving to create a better life for everyone by sustainably solving real estate problems

(512) 807-8777

Tag Archives: Design

Rounding the Last Turn of Rattlesnake! Still Waiting for Materials…

I keep saying how close we are getting to finished. It is so close I can hardly contain myself! Now the things that hold up progress are waiting for materials to get here. The AC parts were supposed to be here Tuesday, but they rescheduled delivery for Thursday. Yay.

I am so tired, but marching on. It has been a real learning experience and test of faith having this project going on while trying to learn the other aspects of this business. Holding down the fort with one hand and trying to nail Jello to a tree with the other is what it feels like at times. If I have made one mistake, I have made one hundred of them. Just Wednesday, I realized that I made a pretty big mistake on Tuesday. Nothing that can’t be fixed, but still a pretty big one. Thankfully we are working with very understanding and patient people who are kind. Lee told me when I realized what a big one it was, “If we don’t learn something the hard way today, it just wasn’t a good day” and he laughed. That makes it easier to not kick myself and use that kicking energy to grow instead.

My future bathroom! It’s a surprise!

The dining room chandelier! This is in the lighting family that Sue Ann picked out, and she one upped the design when she did! There is no better lighting family for this house than these. She didn’t hit the mark, but rather erased it and moved it higher!

Back to Our Lady Rattlesnake! My bathroom is under construction and nearing completion. It will be the biggest jewel in her crown of that old farmhouse feel with a modern touch. It will be a surprise! Chris and Garry have performed what seems like magic. They understand the design concept and have made her even more than I dreamed.

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
10Shares

Making Decisions – Fast and Frugal

We have news on the Roadrunner house! We made the decisions we need to get the project started, and signed our old buddy Ruben of RJN Construction up to be the general contractor for this one.

front

The arches will go, and a patio that matches the driveway and path at right will go in. Maybe a chair could sit on the patio!

You may remember Lee posted about Statements of Work a few days ago. For this project, we went all out and used the form, and it’s working out well so far.

Last Friday, Lee and I met Ruben at the house in Bryan to go over exactly what to do on the house. We were joined by a young man who is a fellow FortuneBuilders student, who wanted a chance to see how we did things as he prepares for his first project. We were happy to serve as mentors for him.

Lee had examined our options on the house carefully, and determined that the original renovation goals would leave us not making any money on the house. So, Ruben revised his estimates to include fewer items, and Lee plugged them into the Statement of Work, to serve as our budget. The walk-through on Friday helped us cement exactly what was and was not going to be done. Some things we eliminated, while other things were added. I’ll share a few of the areas where we made changes to our new plan, so you can see how our thinking went.

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
17Shares

Little Things

Sometimes the smallest of things make a difference in a renovation, both for good and for, um, less than great. The Bobcat Lair project is no exception.

The new master bedroom bench matches the vanity granite.

While our next post will feature exciting things like doorknobs, handles on cabinets, and genuine light fixtures, I wanted to focus on how little touches have been affecting me on the project.

shower bench

Closer image of the shower bench. It’s a nice size.

The first little touch that made me happy is that the bench in the master shower got switched out from matching the wall tile to matching the vanity granite. The granite has high contrast between the light and dark parts. Until I saw the bathroom all together, I didn’t realize how perfectly the dark accents matched the dark pebbles in the shower floor and cubbyhole. It looks like I had a plan. Maybe I did? I mentioned earlier that some of the decisions on these rooms were made a long time ago, while others were recent. It’s always a relief to see the design coming together in a good way.

laundry room

Big LED fixture provided planty of light in the laundry room, and wasn’t even expensive.


Another small thing in the grand scheme, but one that makes a big difference, is the light fixture in the laundry room. Rather than putting in a standard contractor-grade closet light, Ruben found a much larger LED fixture that both fits the room better and gives nice, bright light.

When we saw it, we pretended to do laundry, and marveled at how well we could see stains. That’s our idea of renovation fun, I guess.

Continue reading →

Hermann says please like and share!
0Shares

Sources of Inspiration

A very nice house

Curb Appeal!

Hi, it’s Sue Ann. Today Carol and I drove around some of the nicer parts of Austin looking at some houses for sale. Some of them were beautifully renovated and professionally staged, while some were obviously “as is” (but fascinating)!

We really loved the color scheme and beautiful holiday decorations on this house. The black trim really stood out nicely. This is a scheme we could use!

I paid a lot of attention to colorful doors. There is a lot of turquoise and teal out there right now, with an “acid” green and red coming in right behind. My favorite was a medium gray house with a buttery yellow door. The happy door really livened up the trendy gray exterior! And if a buyer doesn’t like yellow, a door is inexpensive to change.

Looking at renovations, it became very clear that small things make a difference. There were two similar houses, both of which had been at least partially modernized. One had all-new front door, entry light fixture and doorbell hardware. The other had not changed what had been put up at least twenty years ago. The first impressions were much different! Inside, little things like peeling paint and original cabinetry that hadn’t even had knobs changed made a house look sad.

Here are a few cool ideas we saw:

  • Keep an old tub and tile and simply have them resurfaced. One house had an amazing old tub that they kept this way!
  • Another house had the original cabinet doors, but painted so beautifully, and with lovely handles…it was nice to see them there.
  • One house was very small, but had a studio with a little bathroom, hidden on the other side of its carport. Perfect if you work from home! You have psychological space between home and office.
  • Interior color schemes were mostly quite predictable–we actually DID see white subway tile, black grout, and black floor tile in a shower. But we also saw BLACK subway tile and those cool old-fashioned hexagonal tiles in a bathroom–a nice mix of old and new.
  • One house actually had green walls, but they were a very pale, modern shade of green that came across quite neutral. So, I guess it CAN be done!

Before you remodel or stage your own home to sell, take a little tour around YOUR town and see what others are doing to drive their own sales. It’s quite an eye-opening experience.

Hermann says please like and share!
0Shares

Greige Walls and a POP of Color!

I’ve spent the last two days cleaning my new house in preparation for furniture arriving. I’m including a couple of photos of the house. What you’ll notice in the kitchen is that (gasp!) it has cherry stained cabinets, dark granite, and a very bright red backsplash among all those fancy appliances. And you’ll notice in the guest bath that there is (gasp) wallpaper on the walls!

Oh my! I’m supposed to be the one on our team that picks out the materials for our rehabbed houses (well, along with Carol, who’s an amazing decorator). What am I DOING putting in all this color and “dated” finishes? Have I not paid the least bit of attention to my training?

Guest Bathroom

The guest bathroom in the ranch house

Relax, dear readers! This is my personal home. The one I’ll live in the rest of my life, I hope. We’ve broken every single rehabbing rule on this house. Such as:

  • It’s way out in the country in a poor county where no one would want to pay top dollar for it it.
  • We went significantly over budget and issued numerous change orders.
  • It’s taken us well over a year to build it.
  • The living area is not very big.
  • It only has two bedrooms, because we turned the third one into my office/den.
  • All the cabinets (and the doors when they finally show up) are solid wood, custom built, stained a non-trendy cherry. Nearly every room has custom built-ins. Ka-ching.
  • There is granite, quartz, and labradorite not only on counters, but windowsills.
  • There’s no attached garage.
  • The kitchen, as mentioned before, is not gleaming white with subway tiles and dark granite or quartz counters. At least it’s got stainless steel (whew).
  • I have a giant orange bathroom with very busy travertine stone. I like it. Another bathroom is dark purple. The third has that “dated” bird wallpaper (OK, actually I think wallpaper’s making a comeback).

But who cares? We aren’t planning to sell it! Rest assured that every single rehab we do for the foreseeable future, including the house we currently live in and plan to sell, will have the coveted tannish gray or grayish tan walls, gleaming white cabinetry, white or gray tile in the baths (with a small amount of accent tile, for that luxe look), brushed chrome fixtures as far as the eye can see, the trendiest of fake-wood laminate or tile (upscale houses get REAL wood–no horrible carpets!), and those coveted “pops” of color in the accessories, so people don’t go snow-blind. Of course they’ll be staged with all the furniture in the middle of the room and there will be fruit on the counter (pop of kitchen color).

This is all good, because it will sell houses, which is the goal. And it provides a neutral canvas that buyers can make their own. And many people are truly enjoying their beautiful new white kitchens; I think many of the kitchens my friends have put in recently are absolutely gorgeous in their white, gray, and accented black glory. But, I see a downside.

I am eagerly anticipating about a decade from now. Then, all the decorating shows on whatever HGTV has become by then will be full of entitled young women buying their first house just screaching about how “dated” those subway tiles are. And how horrible those boring white kitchens are. And how awful the floors are because they don’t have whatever the new flooring trend of the month is. And brushed chrome? OMG NO! It has to be black cast iron or nothing! (I made that up.)

Are we really supposed to completely overhaul our kitchens and baths every ten years? What if we bought quality appliances and used good materials? They might last longer than that! I’d love to embrace the looks of each decade and appreciate the beauty in them. Yes, in 80s wallpaper borders, in golden fixtures, in wide expanses of carpet. Someone spent a lot of time carefully choosing those things! Sure, remodel if you need to, and choose what’s current, but let’s stop picking on people who don’t.

As for me, I’ve got my forever house with what I hope are forever surfaces. Sure, if something breaks I’ll get a new and trendy replacement. But I like a red kitchen, I like travertine floors, and I like cherry wood. Thank goodness, since I can’t get away from it now!

What choices do you make that buck the trends? Or why did you choose what’s current? Share if you dare!

 

Hermann says please like and share!
2Shares