DOOR #3 IS LIVE ON THE MARKET!

This month's highlights in the life of Refern:

• The Sheridan House is LISTED!

• We did a little DIY action for some added touches to the Sheridan Shotgun and it turned out SO good.

• We received our permits for the main house at Gunnison and framing is underway!

• The Gunnison DADU permit revisions are back in the city’s hands… and so we wait.

My favorite design element— the kitchen! Walnut cabinets with white uppers, a stacked backsplash, and floating walnut shelves.

The Sheridan House

The listing is LIVE!! Reflecting back, it's such a fun perspective to see how the vision evolved. Visualizing the end product from the beginning isn’t easy for everyone, but these renderings sure do help experiment with ideas, test what will sell and communicate to the contractors the end goal. We used Sherwin Williams Foxhall Green (love a good green!) for the siding and Natural Choice (white, but warm) for the trim. *chefs kiss*

Here's the exterior vision from Existing → Sketch → Rendering → Reality.

Stand-Out Moments

A few of the fun moments in this house (that I’m hoping the buyers will notice, too!)

• Walnut cabinets with small-scale stacked backsplash

• Kitchen Bench with Storage and Seat Cushion

• Bathroom Beadboard for texture and warmth

I also put in some DIY work this round for some added touches with the help of my hubs. There’s a few reasons I do it— I am still early on in my real estate investing journey and there’s been no faster way for me to learn than to do it myself. Assembling or building something yourself also allows you to understand how it goes together, and also realize when it’s time to hire a professional. At the same time, pulling out the drill or a paint brush can be therapeutic and sometimes I just love it!

Sheridan Timeline

Here’s the timeline for the Sheridan House! Aside from being overly diligent about managing the construction progress and trade coordination, I owe it to my contractors who work well together and don’t point blame when something goes wrong. I.e. A light in the wrong location that requires patching and repairing after the drywall is done… and the GC responds, ‘It’s okay, we got you this time!’

Judgement day (a.k.a. listing day followed by critiques during open houses and showings) is upon us… You’ll have to stay tuned for potential buyers' feedback on the design and what offers we get! While interest rates remain high, the Seattle/Tacoma market remains stable and competitive.

Gunni Progress

It’s best when you can find a property that has good bones, including the layout— the less walls you have to move around the less time, less cost and less unexpected surprises you’ll find. The layout for the Gunni home had good bones— a good foundation, roof, windows, but the layout was WEIRD and the furnace was in the middle of the house. We weren’t going to move that.. So, to bring the most value without significant rework of the walls, we found the best way to add ½ bath and re-program the existing spaces with some minimal wall demolition to make the spaces function better.

Lessons Learned This Month

• Cabinets | There’s always something to learn with cabinet details, but IKEA for the win!

• Floor Transitions at Doors | the floor should transition at the wall edge of the room that the door swings into so that the transition is not visible from the other side.

• Headers at Structural Walls | Field changes happen, but with older houses, you’ve got to be aware of the original footprint and structural walls. Knowing this would have allowed us to design the header from the beginning instead of being flagged by the inspector and delaying the project by a week.

• Be present for the inspectors! Form relationships with them so they can help you understand what to prioritize for getting sign-offs.

• Always get the bigger dumpster!

See you on the flip-side,

refern (aka Rachel)