Project Homebase in Virginia Beach: The Live-in Flip Fantasy
I imagine my mother at twenty-eight trying to figure out where she might live if she had been given the freedom to move anywhere. I imagine her looking anxiously in encyclopedias or picking up her landline to call some friends to inquire about their experiences living in different places around the U.S. Nowadays, it’s as if Google can answer any question you have and just hand you a dream location in which to settle down. Most days, I’m grateful to not have been where my mom was about 40 years ago without the aid from almighty Google. Amid its omniscience, it’s funny how fast your heart can answer a question that your computer never could.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? The question is a thrilling one to answer, until it could potentially come with lifetime consequences. After hours of research into zip codes, median household incomes, proximity to schools and local Chick-fil-a’s, after repair values, square footages, flood insurance and a thousand other factors, I wasn't sure I'd ever been less prepared for buying a house for our full time residence. It’s one thing buying a flip house. It’s another thing buying the house that your family is going to reside in for the foreseeable future. Allow me to remind you that after Sean and I got married, we rented 1 apartment, 2 houses, and then were gifted a family farmhouse. Up to this point, we had NEVER purchased a residence that Sean, myself, and our two children would live in for an extended period of time. All of a sudden it was as if all my housing knowledge were being tested right here and now. This was a real estate purchase that really counted.
I remember feeling fed up with foreclosures, houses out of our price range, and yet more likable houses being under contract. I had accepted that the neighborhood bordering Sandbridge Beach was too highly sought after and totally out of reach. My kids wouldn’t go to the neighborhood school that was one of the best in the state. I put down my phone and wondered if we were going to be stuck living with my parents forever. We loved living with them but it was time for Team Wayne to find our own place to raise a family and start our new journey. I closed my email, closed my phone, and closed my eyes. The moment I succumbed to the fact that we may be living full time in my parents home was the moment I found ours.
My phone lit up to tell me that a new house had hit the MLS less than 10 minutes from the ocean front of Sandbridge. I could almost smell the salt air from the beach and feel the walls of my parents home open up to welcome us into our own space.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
It's funny how fast your heart can answer a question that your computer never could.
Within hours, I contacted our realtor to put an offer down on the perfectly located starter home sight unseen. We crunched the numbers, calculated the ARV (after repair value) of the home, and scheduled a home inspection. Sean had the opportunity to walk the house two weeks before closing. My phone rang a few hours after he arrived at the house. I remember hearing on the other end of the line, “ Babe, it looks squeaky clean and has great bones.” What I really heard was, “Babe, our kids can grow up at the beach and attend one of the best schools in the state.” It took less than 4 weeks to close the deal on our new home down south.
It wasn’t until closing day that I finally saw our first home in person. The house was on Brigstock Court which is why it became lovingly known as “Brigstock,” later to be renamed “Project Homebase” when our journey in real estate would meet its official beginning. We decided that I would pack the kids up and drive the three and a half hours to the closing. Sean was already there so it was up to me to remember the snacks, sippy cups, diapers, iPads, and whatever else two littles under four could possibly demand on an impromptu sleepover in an empty, mystery house. I realized half way through packing that we’d have a bed for our 1 year old but nothing for the older team members to sleep on. It didn’t take long for Sean to convince me that there were many places that sold mattresses in Virginia Beach. Besides, we needed a new bed anyway. Besides, buying a queen mattress and moving it into our new home after driving 3 hours into the evening with exhausted toddlers had zero implications for going terribly.
We woke up to day one of the Brigstock Reno which was floor demo day. With the help of our tots, we unsnapped each and every laminate floor board that covered the 1700 square foot house. With two future real estate experts under the age of four running circles around Sean and I, it was a task we felt we could tackle smoothly. These beach houses have such a soft foundation being that they are all placed on concrete. The floor underneath the laminate would be smooth, and little feet couldn’t possibly damage themselves on the concrete foundation. Click and Lock laminate floors do not use nails or staples so, luckily, no toes were harmed in the traveling along said sub flooring. Though, I do acknowledge the intervention of the divine amid the craziness and thank my lucky stars for no trips to the emergency room.
Day two was wall demolition. This day, I told Sean, we would test our capacity as house renovators - we’d be juggling the reality of a full-scale wall demolition with the reality of full-time parenting. I have to say, having the kids around came with some perks. For one, there were frequent breaks. If we were ever afraid that we would work ourselves into the ground, the kiddos made sure that wouldn't happen. Between naps and the need to run around outside, frequent trips to the park and/or the ocean were a necessity. You’d reach a groove with one project just in time for lunch and/or snacktime. Second, project playlists were always on point. Without Daniel Tiger, Baby Shark, the Rescue Bot theme song or Bubble Guppies, I don’t think Sean or I would have made it through.
By the end of day two, our positive vibes and invincibility were visibly dwindling. The house was gutted, the kids were confined to the master bedroom, the range and sink were covered in debris and the anticipation of mass riots from the tiny locals in the next room was becoming more and more ominous. It was time for mom and kids to retreat to my parents’ house once again, leaving Sean to fend for himself. Alone with gaping holes in the ceiling, half-demoed walls, exposed electrical cords and half-eaten hotdogs, Sean would attempt to finish the house solo.
Here’s what we learned along the way:
Lesson 1: Don’t do it.
Just kidding; but if you do it the way we did, you may need a totally different game plan. We tried to do the big and dangerous stuff with the family all living in one place and the closest family member living 3.5 hours away. We ripped down existing walls with crowbars while the kids were trapped via babygate in the master bedroom. Mid demolition, we realized that these houses are Slab on Grade (concrete foundations) thus, the electrical must travel from the ceiling through the walls. At this point, debris was everywhere including nails and wood shards. We unintentionally added a new obstacle to the mix. We had just created an at-home Tough Mudder course with dangling exposed wiring running down the center of our house. Tip: Make sure you have a separate crash pad where you can escape. Whether it’s a family or friend’s house, a camper or Airstream, we advocate for completely separate sleeping quarters. Maybe plan to camp out for a week. Be creative, but if you are planning to live-in flip and renovate on a large scale then at least find another place to sleep. When you demo, debri goes everywhere, wires are exposed and air quality is easily compromised. All this goes without saying, and you’d think most people would use their brains for all that knowledge, but yeah, NO. We needed to experience it for ourselves before learning.
Lesson 2: Hire or bribe help.
Sean and I tried so hard to demo and work in the beginning of the renovations, without help. Nothing was overly difficult, but as you can imagine, you are fighting the clock. These stages of home renovation must transpire quickly, and with kids running around, you’re often at the mercy of a slower pace than you’d prefer. Projects are paused and resumed on a by-minute basis, and you feel as if you may lose your mind. Hire a professional or bride some friends. In our case, 24-hour access to a fridge full of Modelos did the trick for my dad. He took time off work, spent several weekends here, and sat in hours of traffic just to drink our Modelos (and help us!). He and Sean demoed, framed, drywalled, mudded, spackled, painted and installed closets and doors. We were lost without him.
Lesson 3: Game plan before game time.
Identify project details before it’s go time. We weren’t sure how or when everything would come together for the house. I knew “ish” what I wanted the house to look like, but we had no concept of how quickly we could do it all. Days went by in the beginning after the kid and I returned home to my parents, that Sean was working at the Brigstock house and I was back in DC. If you read Becoming a Team, Part 2, I talk about how traveling influenced Sean and I to decide to start a business together. Suddenly we found ourselves in the same predicament at a new location.
Sean was working 3 hours south, while the kids and I were up north missing half of Team Wayne and just itching to live in our new home. What I wish we would have done was made a list of what BIG projects we should have focussed on first to make the house livable. We probably would have chosen wall demo, reframing, and flooring. That’s it. Instead Sean accomplished all those things plus, painting the cabinets, drywalling and mudding the walls and ceilings, and a few more things that we should have just waited on and flipped later in life. I think at the end of the day just know that live-in flipping will save you SO much money because you will do most of the work yourselves but it will most likely take several months to complete. We have lived in this house for roughly 6 months and the bathrooms have not been touched, the baseboards have not been installed, the master bedroom flooring is still the original laminate floor, and the list goes on. It’s a great lesson in patience, that’s for sure. It’s definitely brought me back to basics: gratitude for a roof and four walls.
About a month into renovations and a few weeks before Christmas, the kids and I were still traveling in and out from the Brigstock House to my parents house. When projects that my dad and Sean were working on would get too messy or too dangerous for the kids, we’d pack up and leave. This exodus happened about once a week for four weeks. In the fourth week, Sean called me midday and checked in to see how I was holding up. Between gulps of air and tears, I tried to tell him we were fine and that I knew our separation was not only temporary but also very necessary. Not sure if it was my sad attempt to convince him of my mental strength or if he too was feeling the stress of it all, but Sean told me to pack the kids up and be ready to head down to our new home the next day.
After an hour and a half of traffic, the kids and I pulled into the driveway after an exhausting 4.5 hour trip. Sean greeted us at the door and there before us was a sparkling clean house and a Christmas tree in the living room complete with lights and presents. Our son's room was also decorated with a mini light up tree in the corner. It took me several minutes to notice the Christmas music in the background and no time at all to begin openly weeping in the middle of the living room.
It was more than my husband’s self-sacrificing love for his family or his taste in perfectly chosen kid presents and balloons. It was as if the reality of the strength of our family, of our marriage, came crashing down in an excruciating instance. It was starting. I could feel the roots of a life that hadn’t existed here before reaching to grab hold of the surface below, which to my surprise was newly finished bamboo planks. The reality of beginning a new life, a new business, and a new career collapsed upon my overworked mama heart all in the same moment.
As quickly as it came, the stress disappeared from my mind with the reality that I wasn’t sleeping well in a bed at my parents house where I knew our dreams and goals couldn’t be accomplished. I wanted a new bed shared with my other half, thrown down in the middle of an unfinished bedroom located in Virginia Beach, right smack dab in the middle of our absolute dream.
Ann | Design