House Flipping

It is 11:30am and they are going to be late, like always. I beg her to hurry the hell up and get down to the truck so we can go. Today is a day I have been looking forward to for the last few weeks. Today is auction day. Me and my buddy mark are going to try and buy a flip house. We have been talking about it for years and are finally both ready to take the dive and do it. The wives are shockingly both on board, even though they probably won't have much to do with it. "Come on! we can't be late!" Mary finally comes down the stairs, walks to the door and playfully says, "I'm waiting on you now." she is a tall slender woman. long brown hair almost always in a braid. i let out a loud enough sigh the neighbors probably heard it. we head to the truck and head for the auction.

We finally arrive and there are only about 10 cars on the street. If that is all that is going to show up, we might be able to get this. I find Mark and his wife Carol. Mark is not as large as i am. He is 5'10' and around 190lbs. Myself on the other hand am 6'2" and a solid 280lbs. Despite our size difference we have a ton in common and have been friends for the last 15-20 years. Carol on the other hand is 5'2', slender, blonde, and for some reason never really talks to me.

The house is a charming 86-year-old Victorian with 3 bed, 2 bath, and a full basement. The yard is not large, but it does have a nice 2 car garage. Downside to it, there is a lot of work to be done. Most of the rooms have holes in the walls, bad lighting, and a kitchen that needs a full redo. Mark and I both are pretty handy, but the ladies are a bit lacking. They are both looking forward to making the finishing choices like fixtures, wall color, and what kind of cabinet doors to get. Me and Mark are more looking forward to breaking shit and building it back up into something beautiful.

We meet up with an embrace and say a howdy to each other and the wives. The wives don't talk a lot to each other but that's okay. They get along just fine. Mary is more into sports and Carol is more into art. We make our ways to the auction table, get a number, and find some seats. Shockingly there are only about 5 other groups with us. I really hope they bow out early.

A man walks to the podium, thanks everyone for coming, and starts the bidding at 20,000. No way this house is going to go for that. Those fuckers must be high. He starts to drop price by 500 every few moments until Mark offers 2,000. let the fun begin. Another man in a stupid cowboy hat offers up 3, and so it begins. Mark upped it to 4. A woman in a floral dress offers 5. Mark goes to 5,500. Cowboy hat offers 6. Floral dress goes up to 6,500. Mark ups it to 7. it is silent. Right before the house is ours the jerk in the cowboy hat offers up 7,500. We talk for a moment. How bad do we want this place? I really think there is something special about it. After telling that to Mark he throws out 7,750. it felt like 30 min goes by even though it was only about a min. everyone is looking down when they auctioneer finally says sold. I offer up a fist bump, try not to cheer, and we all walk up to the front to claim our prize.

After a few days of waiting and fees, the house is freaking ours. All in all, it cost us a whooping 8,326 dollars. We figure it will cost us around 25k and countless hours but possible for profit is huge. Maybe in the area of 80k. I couldn't be happier with that price besides maybe if it was free. "So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, Wanna start to break some shit?" Mark smiles and replies "fuck yeah i do." "The dumpster is getting dropped off later today so we should be good to do whatever first thing." We fist bump and talk about what all we have in mind. The wives are listening in but not really talking much. Doubt they really know half of what we are talking about anyways. Neither have any experience flipping houses.

The next morning, we all arrive at the house and all 4 of us are eager to get inside and start to destroy this thing. "So, who gets the honor of opening the door?" I ask. Of course, every one of us wants to do it but no one wants to be that over eager, let me go first, kind of person. Since no one pipes up fast enough, and I really want to have some fun, I go "I got it" standing in front of the door, I rear back and place my size 15 foot right into the door yelling "This is Sparta!" with an amazing thud the door flies open and crashes to the floor. I look around at the face of my friends. Mark is smiling ear to ear, Mary is looking at me like I'm an idiot and why did she ever marry me, and Carol is oddly smiling at me. The door was getting replaced for a new one in a different place, so it wasn't a big deal anyways. What can I say, had to have a little fun.

We all are in the entry way trying to figure out what we were going to tackle first. My thought was, let's start with the entry way. I already kicked the door down and it is going to be gutted down to studs. Might as well start here. Mark agreed and the girls were already gone. Sounded like they were already talking paint colors and making lists of things me and Mark were going to have to do. I paid them no mind. mark and I get to work, smashing, hauling, and making as large of a mess as possible. God demo day can be so much fun.

The first day flew by. We managed to knock out 2 of the bedrooms, the living room, both baths, and part of the kitchen. All down to nothing but studs and wires. We were exhausted but couldn't stop smiling. There really isn't anything like a good hard day's work. We board up my Sparta victory and headed home. I'm still impressed that wives even pitched in and broke some things, hauled some junk, and got all kinds of dirty. Huge turn on for me. Love watching a woman work. Prolly why we got married in the first place. Mary is excited about how much we accomplished, and I had to remind her, this is probably going to take a couple months to do. There is a ton of hard work and long nights ahead of us. She doesn't seem to care and goes back to talking about what is going to go where and her vision for the home. All I hear is someone who doesn't know what she is talking about and the amount of work she is wanting us to do. I don't mind though. Kind of into it.

The next day we all arrive back at the home and finish demoing it. The whole house is nothing but studs, rough plumbing, and hanging wires that are driving me nuts. I don't like that level of chaos. Although I do get off on making everything in order and in its proper place. We are all dirty, hot and gross but a plan needs to be made. I go out to the truck, grab my grill, cooler, and set up some chairs. We grill up some burgers and have a few beers. We spend the rest of the afternoon planning out where new walls are going to go, old ones to be removed, what's going where, laughing, enjoying our time together like we have millions of times, and me and mark reminding them it is just us going to be doing all the work, so clam the fuck down. it really does take all night, but we all agree on how the house is going to look. With another day of hard work and progress we say our goodbyes and head home.

The car ride this time was silent. I assume because we are both exhausted. Right when we pull up Mary lets out a, who do they think they are? My ideas were better than theirs. we should have just done this ourselves and then we could do whatever we wanted. "Honey, it would take me a year or longer doing all this myself. "I would help." "You don't know anything about this kind of stuff though. this is going to be hard and a lot of effort from all of us. Those shows you like to watch have teams of people working on them and it still takes them a couple of months to get everything finished. I love your passion though." She looks pissed at me for not blindly taking her side. "Whatever you say, dear." She gets out of the truck and walks to the door not looking to see if I'm following. I am not. The only thing I can do is lower my head and think, this is going to be a long few months.

The first full week both Mark and I spent most of our free time at the new home. Slowly but surely making little bits of progress. We decided to stat on the furthest room from where the new front door was going to be and work our way to the there. Bedrooms are easy. The furthest from the front was the master. In the first week we were able to almost complete all the plumbing for the on-suite bath, insulate the walls, put in the new windows, hang the drywall, replace parts of the floor that were damaged, and make a nice walk in closet. The room was really taking shape nicely. On Friday night after Mark and I finished putting in the sink and toilet. "Hey man, I wont be able to help this weekend. We are having the in laws over." "No worries. I may come by still but may just relax at home." We fist bump and head home.

The weekend comes and goes. It really was a nice relaxing for a change of pace. We have been putting all our free time into the house. After work on Monday I change into my jeans, black tee shirt, and old Steelers hat, and head over to the project. Mark isn't there yet, so I dive in solo. Todays goal is to have the room sanded down, and try to finish the bathroom so the finishing touches and paint can go in. I get everything tiled, shower walls, floor, and backsplash by the sink. Didn't get to sand the bedroom walls down. Leave that for Mr. no show to do tomorrow. I don't wanna clean that up anyways lol. Drywall dust is a nightmare to clean.

Tuesday comes and he still doesn't show. I send him a text of a house and hammer. Not going to wait on him, I put my headphones in and get to work. The song blaring, anger just as loud. Rage work helps sometimes. Took a couple more hours but the on suite is finished. Just needs to dry. I'm still feeling okay so I go ahead and sand the walls so I can paint the next day. As mad as I am that he didn't show two days in a row, he did a really good job mudding the walls. Only a few spots needed attention and sad to say, they are the joints I did. Not sure how he did such a good job but oh well. I pack my shit up and go home.

Day 3 of no show. Whatever jack ass. I'm going to finish this whole god damn room by myself so when you finally do show up I can rub your nose in it. Fucking bitch. I get out the rollers, paint, and a few of my tools out so I can dive in. It is getting hot in there, so I take my shirt off. Only wearing jeans, work boots, and my trademark hat. I am working on putting in the ceiling fan when Carol walks in. I didn't hear her since I had my headphones in. She scares the shit out of me. I take my headphones out. "Hey there. You scared me." She apologized. "The room is looking really good. " "Thanks. You should tell that lazy ass husband of yours to come help me sometime." I laugh but I'm serious. She awkward laughs a little and asks what I was just doing. "I am installing the ceiling fan. Wanna help?" she looked at me so strangely. Like I was asking her to join a cult. She nods her head but looks embarrassed now. She has never really made sense to me but it is what it is. I reach up and am starting to twist the wires and cap them for the motor.

She asks me what I am doing. I smile and start to explain. Black wire is the power wire, so we are hooking the two blacks together, the two whites will be connected, and the green one is the ground. This little wire is for the remote-control feature. I ask her to hand me the screwdriver. She slowly hands it to me. She is acting more odd than normal. I start to screw it in and notice how hard she is staring at my chest. Out of pure man need I give it a little flex and she smiled. I let out a little laugh. "I need to put the fan blades on next. You want to do it?" She acts a little shy but agrees. I pull over a box for her to stand on. I hand her the first blade, screwdriver, and 2 screws. She is struggling but getting the first screw in is always the hardest. She got the first one in, then the second, then in a flash they were all in. I stand right next to her and made sure they were all tight before letting her down, but she did a good job. I tell her she did well and asked if she needed help getting down. She reached her arm out but we were so close, I wrap my arms around her, pull her in close and tight, lift her off the box, and set her on the floor. She looked shocked but it was nothing. She couldn't have weighed 150 and that's not even my warmup weight for most big lifts.

What room are you going to work on next? She asks

We are not finished with this one.

What else do you need to do in here?

I still need to paint the walls, lay the carpet, and put in the base boards.

Do you think I could help with any of that?

I laugh at her question. You can help with all of it if you want.

I hand her a paint roller. "You are in nice cloths, do you have anything to change into?"

Nope. Just got what I'm wearing. Hadn't really planned on doing anything. Just wanted to see this place. There is something special about this home. I can feel it. I'm really glad we all got it.

I know what she means. I feel it too. This house just feels special. "Don't worry about helping. I would hate for you to get your cloths dirty." She looked sad. My mouth worked faster than my head, "Why don't you take off your shirt and you can wear mine." My eyes got huge. "I mean, put my shirt over yours. Or whatever you want to do." I cannot believe I said that. My face had to be pretty red. I went to walk out of the room all embarrassed, but she holds her arm out, takes my shirt and goes into the bathroom. There is no door up in the bathroom yet. I can't see her easily but she isn't really hidden.

I see her shirt lift off and go to look away, but I am a man and can't. She is wearing a black lace bra and way more shapely than I would have thought. My eyes so focused on her body. Mark is a luckier guy than I had thought. She slides my shirt down to cover her and looks over. I move my head away so fast that it was obvious I was staring at her. She walks out with a big smile on her face. She looks a little funny in my shirt. It covers her almost to her knees. I hand her the paint roller again and she gets to work. We knock out painting the room in no time. I'm still a bit embarrassed for staring and more that I got caught. "Well, it is starting to get late. I need to run home and get dinner. If you want to help tomorrow, you are welcome to join me again. I will put another coat of paint on, put in the carpet and baseboards." She said she would love to learn more. She goes to the bathroom again, takes my shirt off and puts hers back on. This time I made sure not to stare. In fact, I had to turn around so I wouldn't be tempted. She hands me my shirt, I put it on. it smells pretty good. not going to lie. We shut the door and head to our homes.

The next day I show up to the house and see Marks truck. About time that jerk came and helped me lol. I walk in and greet him with a, "Glad to see you are alive." We both laugh. "Nice work on finishing the master man. Looks good. "Thanks. Wanna finish up the floor and what room you wanna start on after?" We knock out the rest of the master and start on laundry room. We both hate plumbing so trying to knock out those rooms first. The laundry room takes no time. Get it all knocked out besides the 2nd coat of mud, painting, and flooring. "I'm glad you are alright man. It was getting lonely working solo." "I'm getting old. Don't have the drive as much as I use to. Hey, while I am thinking about it, I got a work trip I am heading to tomorrow. Won't be back for about a week." "Cool man, hope you have a safe trip. I got to head home real quick. Mary texted me dinner is ready. So you know what that means, gonna get laid tonight!" We both laugh and head our separate ways.

Its Friday and I am so happy for the weekend. Gonna put in a few hours on the house and take the weekend off. I head over to the project house and head on in. Change into my jeans, tee, and hat. I finish painting the laundry room, put down the floor, and put the light fixture in. I am getting kind of tired but decide to keep on working. I'm making pretty good time. I walk to where the kitchen is going to be to find Carol. I greet her with a friendly "Howdy." "Since Mark is out of town, I was hoping to maybe give you a hand again. I like learning this stuff, and would love to learn more. " "Sure. I was going to start on the second bedroom. Do you want to turn off power to the breaker listed 2nd bedroom?" she walks out and back in. "Did you bring cloths this time?" She pats the bag over her shoulder. "Awesome. Well get changed and I will see you in there." I walk to the bedroom and test the wiring to make sure it really was off. Not saying I don't trust her but I don't want to get shocked. Happy to find the power was off. She walks in the room, drops her bag on the floor with a thud, and is wearing nothing but a g string and heels. (Kidding lol what kind of story do you think this is)

She walks in the room wearing a black yoga pants and an old tee, her blonde hair pulled back in a loose pony. "So, what are we going to do first?" I explain I'm going to start redoing the electrical in the room since it is a hot mess and I love order. We plan where to put the outlets and lighting and I begin to re run all the wires. She is watching me like a hawk, and I explain everything I'm doing. Drew a few pictures for some of the harder things to understand. She asks if I mind if she can run the last side. Kind of impressed she wants to do this. Worse comes to worse I can redo it when she isn't around. She feeds the wires through the studs, plans where to put the outlet, and continues. She does a fantastic job so I make sure to tell her. Only one more thing left to do tonight. We get the tape out, and mark where the new closet is going to be so tomorrow or Monday I can start building it. I again tell her how helpful she is and give her a high five. We joke about Mark and slowly walk to the door. "Are you going to do any work this weekend?" "I'm not sure to be honest. Are you wanting to do more this weekend?" "Mark is out of town so I have no clue what I'm going to do." "Well, I tell you what, if I come in at all I will make sure to text you first that way if you are free you can join me." She nods and we part ways.

Saturday goes by in a flash. I needed the rest. Mary is getting annoyed with me so I head to the new house to work. More like get away from the ball and chain while she rage cleans. I text Carol and let her know. It is like 8pm so I doubt she will be coming. I pull up, smile, and mentally prepare. I open the garage and start to carry in 2x4s so I can make the walls for the closet. Not 5 min into cutting the studs I see head lights. Carol gets out of her car and walks in. I'm surprised to see her. Today she is wearing black yoga pants and a tight green shirt. I throw her a pair of gloves. "You might want these. Don't need to get a splinter." She thanks me and asks what I am doing. "We are building a wall for the closet." I explain the process and we start building it. I have her at the miter saw and I'm working the drill. In no time the wall is made. I have her come over to help me put it in place. "Lets see how strong you are little lady. Go on that side and grab some wood, on three we lift." I'm fully capable of doing this on my own but I figure she might enjoy it. Wait, did I really say that? I really need to watch my mouth.

"Okay, 1, 2, 3." I let her struggle a little and push it up. Wall is up. "Alright, grab the drill over there and some screws. Put two screws in each gap all the way down." She looks nervous but gets on her knees and gets to work. I follow behind her making sure nothing bad happens. She finishes the bottom, looks up at me with a big smile. I take my tool from her hand and help her to her feet. I grab a handful of screws and start screwing in the headers. We work for a good couple of hours. I show her how to do the drywall, cut out the outlets and insulate the room. Once the drywall is up, I ask her if it is cool if we stop. I was getting really tired. She said it was fine. We clean up what we can and walk to the door. "You did an amazing job. You are going to be able to do this on your own before long." She laughs and gives me a sweaty hug. "I will be here everyday after work if you want to learn more. Maybe Mary will come join us sometime. This really isn't her bag though." She is looking at me kind of funny. Oh well. I give her a high hive and head home.