more pictures

after bedroom

before bedroom

after dining room

before dining room

after bathroom

before bathroom

sorry they are all backwards but I guess I haven't figured out the order of things - opps....

Our 2nd Flip

Ok I am not as good as Troy as with these pictures so here it goes....
after kitchen
before kitchen

after kitchen

before kitchen

Before

After

The Shasta House
Much like the Brazos house, we bought the Shasta house at the sheriff's sale in November of 2009. While the scope of this project was similar in nature, the size of the Shasta house was more than double our first rehab making it a bit more challenging to complete within our time frame.

The exterior of this house needed some attention. Cedar shakes donned the first story, front side of the house when we bought it. They were in serious disrepair, so we replaced them with matching vinyl siding. We also replaced the garage doors on the front, put in a regular pass-thru door where a garage door had been installed on the back, added some support columns for the overhang in the front, and had a huge stump ground out of the front yard.

Unlike Brazos, the kitchen in this house existed...albeit disgusting. However, with more than 40 cabinets and nine drawers, we decided to salvage the cabinets themselves to help us keep within our budget. We moved the refrigerator to open up the kitchen and dining areas. Then the woodwork was professionally painted to ensure a nice finish. We topped the cabinets with our own custom concrete counters, added new hardware to the door & drawers, and finished the kitchen with a new light fixture, nice stainless appliances, and ceramic flooring.

As I said in the intro, the rest of the house was similar in scope to the Brazos house. It took a lot of paint, ceramic tile in here and there, new carpet throughout the rest of the house, new door hardware, all new light fixtures, and a lot of time and effort to bring this house back to the condition it deserved.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family all over the U.S, Canada, and anywhere else you may be reading (I know there are a few of you elsewhere). We've had a great holiday season and are wrapping things up with a wedding in Ontario tomorrow.

Any of you been to Ontario in January? It's a balmy thirty degrees BELOW zero today...and I actually just heard one of Sherry's uncles say, "It's really quite nice today!" Are you kidding me?!?!? These people are not normal. Sherry's dad shovelled snow for 10 hours on Tuesday stopping just long enough to eat lunch with us. I seriously wanted to offer to help him but I'm just not that tough. So I helped in the kitchen most of the day...really, I like to be macho and that was kind of a blow to my own ego. But I knew I'd freeze to death, so I just avoided him most of the morning.

Then I spent Wednesday on the couch with my new battery powered electric heating socks trying to thaw out my toes. Really, I knew battery powered socks existed, but now I know why. Necessity is the mother of invention, eh? (can you tell we've been here a few days? I'm starting to say "eh" a lot, and I watched an entire hockey game or match or whatever they call it? ) Did any of you know there was some big hockey game last night between the US and Canada?

It was like when I was a kid and the president was on EVERY channel we got...everything on TV here for the last 3 days has revolved around this game...that and the announcement of the Canadian Olympic hockey team. They were all so happy to have won last night in some kind of sudden death, double over time thing. And, of course, I'm the only full blooded American here. I know they really wanted me to care and everything, but I've never watched hockey in my life. But I think they just wanted somebody to tease...I didn't have the heart to tell them that all of our first stringers are still in football season.

On a serious note, we're thankful to be here...Sherry and I got married four years ago yesterday(agreeably the best four years of our lives). But some of you know what a struggle we've had with visas and greencards and all of that stuff. This is the first time we've been able to be here with her family, and it's been a real blessing...regardless of an ambient temperature that would cause the abominable snowman to shiver. We hope that you all have had as good a holiday season as we have and that you're off to a great new year. We love and miss you...most of you anyway :)

Our Wonderful Son!

This video is a bit long but.....so worth it. Jacob LOVES music and loves to dance.

He did this for about a 1/2 hour last night and would have continued had he not faceplanted into the couch. :)

craziness......

ok life has been crazy - we close on the house tomorrow PTL and things aren't slowing down....we are hoping to buy another house to flip next week so be praying...

here are some updated pix of the cutest boy ever :)

love you all....

Our First Flip?!?!

Many of you that have followed us for the past several years know that we fixed up our first house and converted a 100 year old church into our second home. Well, now we've decided to try our hand at "flipping" a house for the purpose of making a profit.

Last month we purchased a house at sheriff's sale and have all but completed it as of yesterday. With the exception of the carpet (which we had Lowe's install), we were able to complete all of the work ourselves in just under 5 weeks. While still managing to keep our other obligations afloat, we flew through this project (faster than we'll likely do any future flips).

It's on the market, and the ad reads as follows:

"House For Sale By Owner - $99,900

713 Brazos Trail, Lafayette, IN 47909
(off of South 9th St. in Rolling Hills)

This 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a full 2-car garage has been completely refinished and is move-in ready. With nearly 1150 square feet and a nice-sized mature lot, this is a great family home with something for everybody. Recent updates include:
Brand new kitchen with granite counters, ceramic tile, & stainless appliances
New vanities, ceramic tile, and lighting in both bathrooms
New paint, carpet, blinds, and ceiling fans throughout

Near Wea Ridge and McCutcheon schools, this house also has central air conditioning, natural gas heat, a washer / dryer included, and automatic garage door opener as well as a few other bonuses. For more information or to schedule a showing, please contact us at 765-430-4102 or info@tippyvss.com"

The fun part is looking at the pictures...both before and after. Below are some of them that we took...the first four kind of show the condition when we bought it.

Crazy Days.................

Jacob loved it when we went to the zoo here in Lafayette.

His new favorite thing is to crawl up on EVERYTHING.

He wants to be just like Daddy so we let him pretend to drink out of a coffee cup like Daddy.

I guess he also wants to be like Sally Jesse Raphael - if you don't get that it might be because i am old :(

He always wants to give kisses when he is dirty after lunch or supper.

Life has been a little crazy the past few weeks and months.

I like to at least post pictures on here for you guys to enjoy.

We recently bought another house - to renovate and then resell hopefully in the next month or so.

So that has been keeping up busy but we really do enjoy working together like this.

Here are some recent pictures of Jacob.

Jacob's First Hair Cut

Before the haircut.

During the haircut - he isn't sure what is going on here :)

After the haircut - look all handsome.

So we decided it was time to cut Jacob's hair. Troy wanted to buzz it and I just wanted to trim around his ears because I didn't want him to look like a little boy. :( So we compromised and gave him a hair but didn't buzz it. He looks so handsome and yes he looks all grown up. It makes me sad that my little baby isn't a baby anymore.