House Flipping vs House Loving

Posted on October 17, 2012

The day we decided to sell Raybelle, I acted somewhat similar to Gollum in this scene of Lord of the Rings.

It was devastating to say the least, because we renovated and changed this “ugly house” into our perfect home. (yes, I admit, she was not so pretty at first)

We have not even been living here for a whole year and we are already leaving again. We moved in on 31 October 2o11. That is why I do understand why people would think that we just wanted to flip this house.

We are not house flippers! And we will never be! Every single thing that we have put into this house: every light, every fitting, every tile, was because we loved it. Everything was dreamt about, saved up for and appreciated. We never intended to upgrade the house just to sell it at a profit and to move on to the next house. We dreamt of living here for quite some time.

Flipping houses is just not for me. I put too much love into the smallest thing. I am all emotional because I have to leave my checkered floor behind

I was in Johannesburg last week for work and on my way home I read an article in the in-flight magazine about house flipping. It was quite interesting. The article went something like this: 5 ways to flip a house… something like that. I think we broke like 3 of the 5 rules of flipping houses. One of them… do not over capitalize. Do not do it for yourself. Take your own style and needs out. Keep in mind what the next owner want. I am so glad that the new owner of Raybelle likes a checkered bathroom, a shower room and white screeded floors with a white kitchen. ‘Cause I don’t think it is anyone’s cup of tee.

And that is probably why I feel like Golum at the moment. I can’t let go. I got so attached to my house that it is heartbreaking to think that we are moving out soon. First lesson learned: do not get attached to your house. Maybe it might have been easier if we were house flippers. Because it never really is your home. You always know that you will be moving on again.

I do believe that people that came to look at the house, noticed and valued the love that we have put into the house. It has definitely set our house apart from the rest of the houses for sale in the area.

The worst part is, that there is so much that we still wanted to do in and around the house.

These things were still on my to-do list:

add flooting shelves in the kitchen
add a back splash behind the oven
add a big mirror above red cabinet
buy a bigger fridge
buy a front loader washing machine so that it can fit under the counter
add a sliding door at main bedroom walk-in closet
finish the home office
paint the shower room (I had a really cool idea, but am not going to share it now, because I might still do it in our new home)
buy a french cabinet for second bedroom
recover my gran’s 2 chairs for the main bedroom
buy new headboard and side tables for main bedroom
a whole lot of changes in the third bedroom
build a deck outside at the braai area
build a roof at the braai area
paint the garage
add a doggy door
build a coffee table
….etc