Making Modern Home's First Austin Flip

Completed 2011. Making Modern Home’s first Austin flip (we had restored homes in St. Louis prior). This house began as a humble 1950's ranch with a shabby 60's addition in need of many repairs. The vision was to create a "Craftsman" Bungalow and optimize the floor plan.  The entire right side of the home was opened up and, where once there was a laundry room, there is now a breakfast room serving as the "hub" of the home.  The house now has 3 generously sized bedrooms, 2 luxurious bathrooms, 2 large living areas, 2 dining areas, and a high-end kitchen.  Perfect for entertaining, the rooms in the back of the house now open to the large yard with french doors.  When listed for sale, the house sold in just 2 days for almost DOUBLE the original purchase price.   Thanks to savvy renovations and a lot of DIY work, the extensive renovation which included all new siding, windows, roofing, porch, decks, carport, kitchen, wood trim, bathrooms, flooring, drywall, plumbing, electrical, foundation, sub-flooring, and HVAC, totaled around $60 a square foot with soft costs (closing and carrying).  The home was purchased for little more than land value.  A similar grade of new construction would cost about $150 a square foot.  Notable features of this house are: 

-blending in new 2 1/4" red oaks floors with the old floors and finishing them all to match

-using stock IKEA kitchen cabinetry, but using custom trim and painting upper cabinets for an expensive custom look

-opening up walls in the center of the home to create a new breakfast room in the existing footprint (adding value!)

-going through many meetings with the city to get permits for adding a front porch in the front yard setback (this was really needed to take the house into a higher listing price bracket and totally worth all the extra work)

-Installing all new windows and creating custom 3 piece trim

-Lots of DIY work including tile work, building a custom shower pan, detailed millwork, all interior painting etc.

-"Finding" square footage and rooms in the existing footprint by maximizing the floor plan.  

-Creating a master bathroom vanity using stair newel posts as legs, readily available sinks, and butcher block countertops

Photos by Jeff Wilson