This beautiful beach house renovation located in America’s voted ‘Most Fun Small Town’, Delray Beach, Florida was far from our ‘normal’ flip homes!
Location.. Beach Town baby.
The location of this home was perfect, a few blocks from Booming Atlantic Ave, two blocks from the Boat Launch into the Intercoastal canal, a short bike ride to Trader Joe’s and of course what everyone comes for, THE BEACH! We saw an opportunity and grabbed it but like many homes, this flip quickly became much more than we bargained for!
This was occupied when we first saw the property before making an offer. This home however, was home to 2 families which made it very difficult to get a solid estimate of work completed. We put together an estimate of $90,000 to completely flip this home and ended up spending $125,000. almost 40% more than our original estimated cost!
Below are some Before and After Photos and a few common pointers while flipping homes.
* Quick Tip *
Always Add 30% to your estimated renovation costs
Upon first review I didn’t see that I would have to pull ALL of the drywall and insulation out of the walls due to rats and rodents living in the walls. I didn’t realize that 100% of the AC duct work would have to be re-done. I didn’t visualize the extent of work that would be required to open up the kitchen wall, add sliding glass doors, etc. I didn’t see that the sewer line to the city was broken and needed to be repaired. Nor did I see that the electric service needed to be updated and moved underground. All of these things are the ‘unseen’ which is why when you estimate your next flip, add 30% to whatever number you land on and you should be safe!
Before and After Photos
Removing wall from Kitchen
This exterior wall also was located directly in the kitchen and we couldn’t imagine the house so ‘closed’ so we were required to remove it. To Do this, not only was an engineer’s drawing required ($1200) plus custom reinforced steel was made and installed ($2,500) so we could open the kitchen and make the home what it is. We also decided to cut in two new impact Sliding glass doors and replaced all the windows with Impact Windows / Doors throughout the house.
Opening up Living room to add 4th bed / Office
The living room had a solid concrete wall as well with a window in the the old garage space, that we opened as well, and added beautiful custom made barn doors to create an office / 4th bedroom.
Extending Kitchen by moving Electrical panel and Laundry room.
The Kitchen was closed off to a small laundry room that we opened up completely, moving the laundry into a private room, extending the kitchen and adding an impact exterior door to the rear patio. This also required moving the electrical panel to another wall, but was well worth it!
Add Bar / Entertaining Area
When we opened up the wall that was separating the kitchen from the dining area, we decided to use that separation as a bar, creating a large, open concept dining area.
Add Master Bath and Maximize Master bedroom Space!
The Master bedroom we had to move some walls and change the layout completely, when we added the Master Bath. We also added a few impact windows to give it more light and it turned out beautiful.
Patio / Yard complete revamp!
The yard and patio photos below do not do them justice! we had to completely revamp the entire yard, fence, irrigation systems, new paver patio and driveway, till the entire yard, remove an old shed, fence, etc and in the end, we created a really large patio / BBQ area and the yard has 2 Huge Mango trees and 2 Avocado trees and a Lime tree that are year round, providing more fruit than you can handle!
