I Love the After: The Big Reveal of our Latest Flip

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I’m not writing a progress post on our flip house like I had planned for this week. The good news is because it’s turned into a reveal post! Yep, we’re done. This sweet little home is on the market, ready and waiting for its next family.

I loved working on our first flip house, but this one has brought me even more creative joy than that one did. I don’t know why, but some houses just capture your heart, and this one did just that. Maybe it was the moment my daughter christened it “The Birthday Cake House” (y’all know I love anything cake-related!) or maybe it’s because it reminded me a little of our first home. Whatever the reason, this one has been extra fun, and I hope it goes to a really sweet family. Soon!

I think the pictures say it best, so let’s jump right in, shall we?

Curb Appeal

Here’s how the front of the house looked before:

Not too bad, but a bit boxy and boring. We decided it needed a little architectural interest, so we added a pergola to make it feel a little more welcoming.

Living Spaces

As you walk in the front door, the house used to look dark and closed in.

After opening up some walls, painting, cleaning, and changing the flooring and lighting, we created a bright and open floor plan that invites you all the way in.

The front room is the living/sitting room. It used to look like this:

Yikes! A little TLC later and it looks like this:

This room looks into another living area, which used to open up through a small archway.

While I love architectural details, this one was undersized and underwhelming, so we replaced it with a larger opening and french doors.

Here’s another view from before into this second room from the hallway.

Those weird cut-outs weren’t doing any good, so we opened up the walls instead. We staged this room as a dining room, but it could be another living space, depending on the family’s preferences. (I love fireplaces in dining rooms!)

We painted out the fireplace, and opened a large pass-through to the kitchen. This whole space was dark, dreary, and choppy before, but now the light flows through each room, and it’s become a great space for entertaining and spending time.

Kitchen

Here’s the view from the kitchen before we added the pass-through.

The peninsula wasn’t doing much to help, and was really restricting the flow into the kitchen and breakfast area, so we took it out and extended the cabinets to the end of that wall.

We painted the cabinets, updated the hardware, changed the backsplash, upgraded to granite, and added all new appliances to brighten the kitchen.

Removing the peninsula really opened up the space in the breakfast nook, and we furthered that expansion by changing out the laundry door to a barn door. Now there’s plenty of room to move around, without compromising style and function.

Beds and Baths

This house has three bedrooms, which all got fresh paint and carpet, and new light fixtures. Here’s a quick peek at the master bedroom.

The two bathrooms didn’t need much besides paint, other than a good cleaning, fresh toilets, and updated hardware and counter tops.

Now this house is bright, sunny and cheerful, a far cry from its dark and dreary former version of itself.

This is why I love flipping houses. Deep down, we knew this house had great potential. It was just covered in a layer of grime and dark paint. If we could give it a second chance, we could save the house, and make something beautiful and functional for a family to love.

If you want more information about the house, check out the full listing here. We’d love to show it to you, if you’re looking in Albuquerque!

In the meantime, stay tuned for the next flip! (Once we get this one sold…)