I finally went through the pictures. The state of that carpeting is dreadful! Did the homeowners actually see what it looks like even after cleaning?? Oh well, re-carpeting a couple of rooms later would not be a big deal and I gather that they are happy with carpet in the bedrooms.
It’s a shame they aren’t doing more with the bathrooms. I guess I understand if it’s a budget issue, but it wouldn’t cost THAT much to at least replace the vanities.
And I really don’t understand the thing of painting the entire interior the same color, even when it doesn’t work with tile and so forth. That can’t be a budget issue.
It’s a shame that they are missing this opportunity to get stuff done well at a price they could never match again, but hopefully the kitchen, at least, will not be an aesthetic disaster. That would be a REAL waste of money, since it is actually being redone.
I just went and revisited the photos from Flip #5. I feel so vested in that house! I wonder what it looks like now…I almost feel like it is my house. Weird for the owner, if s/he realized there are all these people who were involved with the remodel and feel possessive about it. 
I hope cb isn’t underpricing her services that much…
I too am very vested in the last flip, it was such a long hard journey. I find myself stopping by every month or so and sneaking up to the green gate…“Are MY new trees still alive? Did new leaves grow back? How is the landscaping flushing out?”
Happy to say the Crepe Mrytle trees in front yard are full of leaves and, because of our great rains this year, the succulents and grasses in front yard are booming and all grown in. Maybe I’ll sneak a picture next time.
I think the elderly owners are just anxious to move in as quickly as possible. They are just ignoring all the aesthetics.
Today I had to walk them through the house and point out that there is no lighting in the family room and living room. I asked them how they were going to lay out their furniture and use table lamps everywhere. It became very obvious there were going to be cords running everywhere causing a serious tripping hazard. Because of the views they want a lot of seating in the center of the room facing the big windows
So now we are going to have to install subtle LED can lighting in the ceilings. I don’t think they noticed there was no lighting in the house
Did recessed lighting not exist back when these houses were built?
My house was built in the late 60’s, and there were no ceiling lights anywhere in the entire house except for combo light/fan fixtures in the bathrooms, and butt-ugly lights hanging from chains in the kitchen and dining room.
Same thing in this house. Ceiling fans in bedrooms and an ugly ceiling fan in family room with no light. No ceiling lights anywhere except hallway, which I have changed out already
Was the green gate flip the guy who called you with the drainage issue well after closing? Hoping he LOVES that house. IIRC , didn’t he sell a pretty house to buy that one?
Here in my neck of the woods ceiling lights are not required by code in the bedrooms. Go figure. A switchable outlet is all that is required. Ceiling lights were an upgrade feature in houses built prior to mid-nineties here.
I had pot lights in my 1950’s kitchen that were original to the house. They were in the soffits.
I have no ceiling lights in my bedrooms or my living room. I use table lamps - but no cords show since they are behind furniture. In my family room and kitchen all I have are pots - controlled by several switches and all on dimmers so I can adjust all of them to my liking and depending on time of day.
I just did the main bath and the powder room (my only bathrooms) and the total cost was $42k. 6k probably wouidn’t have paid for my vanity - which was custom natural bamboo. Just the two sconces I had put in cost $1400.
I had the same tile in my bathroom but it was also 3/4 of the way up on every wall. And it was sea foam green - which is truly awful-er than pink - especially when tile floor had diamond shaped olive green in it. And I lived with it for 26 years!
We are not talking about custom bamboo or Italian marble here… any HD vanity will be a huge improvement over what the owners have now! 
The new lights and TV hookup in the bath cost us a bunch of wire and a few metal thingies from HD. And an evening of Mr’s elbow grease. Of course, then I had to pick the lights… that is a different issue.
They don’t need custom vanities. Since time is of the essence here… any dang off the shelf vanity is going to have to be the answer. But, I’m not going to go there because it will add time to the schedule.
For example, I made the tough decision yesterday to let the kitchen cabinet retail store do the cabinet installation. It is going to cost about $900 more, but it will save a lot of time in the overall schedule. Because they are cabinets that need to be assembled… these guys are going to be much faster at it than we would be because they are familiar with the cabinetry. Also, there are a lot of modifications needed and they will know how to do it faster. That lets my core crew keep moving on the window and door installation without having to be pulled off task.
But, we still have to do the hard part which is cutting a new trench in concrete slab and laying out all the new plumbing and wiring. We have to trench out new drain lines, hot and cold water lines and electrical out to the new sink island. That will keep us busy all next week so we can get that done and ready for cabinet install.
Loaded some new photos to Flickr with descriptions
The paint and white trim look light years better than the all cream scheme they came up with!!!
Holy cow, those carpets look even worse after cleaning. I guess because you know they can’t get any better and you can see big dark areas where there was more foot traffic. Yuck!
And carousel horses???
“Note even more stuff is stuck into this room that will have to be moved out to install flooring”
Ha! Called it. B-)
It’s probably just me, but I see no point in remoldling if one is going to cheap out on the materials - especially in kitchens and bathrooms. It’s why I lived with awful for so long until I couid do it exactly how I wanted (which I knew was always going to be expensive because what I like is always expensive.)
There is nothing wrong with “cheap out” as long as it is better quality and will last longer and keep the shape better than what is there.
My bet is that most of the stuff that sits in those boxes will stay in those boxes… until the bitter end. Ditto the carousel horses. So no one will be walking on that gross carpet anyway!
The Flickr site doesn’t show the bathrooms that aren’t getting upgraded, so I’ll activate my way-back machine to our first house -
Full bath - yellow tub, toilet and sink. No vanity. Yellow and white tile - 1" square on floor, 4" in bath area.
Powder room - turquoise toilet and sink. No vanity. Mostly white tile with some turquoise accents
Master BR half bath - Pink toilet and sink, no vanity. Mostly white tile with pink and blue accents.
My Christmas present one year was that I bought vanities at HD and DH installed them. It was worth it. A full remodel would have been better, but doing it right would have been a waste of money in that house. Which I do not miss.
The Grandma house, though, has a great location and the upgrades would make sense. But it might have to wait until GM and GP move on to assisted living, and the next buyer comes along.
“There is nothing wrong with “cheap out” as long as it is better quality and will last longer and keep the shape better than what is there.”
That’s why I said it’s probably just me. I wouidn’t be happy with that option and would eventually still want to redo it with exactly what I wanted. It would just be a waste of money for us. H even had to glue the old toilet tank together, which got a big crack in it because I refused to replace it until the whole bath could be done, even though I couid have gotten a decent toilet for a couple hundred dollars.