Since the days when HGTV’s infamous house flipping shows first aired, the trend of flipping houses has seen a startling rise. What began in the 1980s as a trend influenced by celebrities soon grew to encourage many people to consider remodeling their home instead of demolishing it and building something new. When this house flipping trend first began, hardware stores began popping up in suburban areas, making it possible for families to build new homes and fix older ones. Learn how you can take part in this trend with this ultimate guide to flipping a historic home.

Start With a Plan

We all enjoy watching others flip homes on TV, especially when it involves renovating breathtaking historical homes to their former glory. However, the house flipping process is never as simple as it seems on TV. For instance, it often takes longer to get the approval to convert a historic home than it does to actually fix it. In many cases, before you can get approval for your project, you need to supply a clear plan that outlines your budget, examines the selected area for the home, and analyzes loans and other available resources.

Set a Budget

Like any renovation project, you need to have a solid budget in place before you can begin flipping a historic home. This budget should account for the essential features you cannot live without in the new home and the features, furniture, materials, and maintenance fixes you are willing to compromise on.

Seek Out Loans or Have Cash Ready

After you find a home, figure out how you’re going to pay for it. If you have cash, ensure that all accounts are ready to go with the right amounts in each account. If financing is something you’re looking into instead, start researching your area for lenders and see which ones will offer pre-approval. A precautionary note for first-time home flippers is that having a loan might look safe, but it won’t help you if you’re in a bidding war for a property.

Analyze Local Real Estate

Every real estate market has potential, and doing your research on profitable areas can make or break your plan for flipping a house. For example, check if the area has good schools, substantial property values, and other factors that will impact the worth of the house post-flip.

Understand the Challenges

With every fixer-upper, there are problems that you won’t see coming. However, view things from a professional standpoint and mentally prepare for these challenges ahead of time. Below are several challenges you may encounter on your historic home flipping journey.

Finding a Good Property

There’s a lot to consider when searching for the perfect property. Unfortunately, we often spend more time daydreaming about finding the ideal house than we do actually making moves to secure that house. Start by scouting out potential areas and search newspapers and real estate websites that have current listings available. Additionally, be wary of viewing properties with rose-tinted glasses. When searching for a decent property, one of the biggest concerns you’ll have to contend with involves the repairs and renovations that come with each house. Consider these repairs realistically and factor their costs into your budget before closing on a sale.

Bumps in the Road

Unfortunately, flipping a house in real life is nothing like it is on TV. Most of the time, you’ll be dealing with bigger issues than standard plumbing or infrastructure problems. Certain unforeseen problems, such as weather and theft, are more common than you’d think. Before you purchase a property, make sure you plan procedures to deal with every worst-case scenario and create an emergency contact sheet to help you out in your time of need.

Make the Interior Historically Appropriate

Before renovating a historic home, it’s essential to understand the history behind the property and what’s appropriate to place inside the home. Begin by assessing the items and fixtures that are already in the house, such as the flooring. When conducting your renovations, try to find flooring (and other fixtures) that match the original pieces in the home. If the original hardwood floors in the home have since become damaged beyond repair, try to replace them with new hardwood floors that are similar in style. This will help retain the original beauty of the home.

It’s okay to bend and break some rules, but make sure you’re maintaining most of the historic home’s character by leaving some of its original flooring or walls untouched. When looking at areas of the house to refurbish, be reasonable and realistic about your approach, as some areas will contain obsolete and inoperable amenities. However, you can use these items as decorations or donate them to a historical society or museum.

Style the Historical Home Based on Type

Historical homes have charm and rich histories; if the walls could talk, they’d drone on for hours about the many faces and conversations they overheard. Historic homes are a blessing for every community. As such, the most important part of renovating a historic home, aside from retaining the history behind the property, is to refurbish the interior and make it as historically accurate as possible without losing the home’s original character. Here’s a quick breakdown of common historical home styles and how you can decorate them.

Victorian Homes

Popular between 1830 and 1910, this style was named for Queen Victoria. Budding architects from England brought the style over to the US to share their talents and help add diversity in housing styles. These styled homes boast features that resemble dollhouses. Victorian homes take on many different styles, two of which are Gothic Revival and Folk Victorian.

When painting the walls of a Victorian home, it’s good to go with deep hues such as red, amber, emerald, and dark brown. Victorian Homes are often dramatic, so consider painting each room in a way that gives off some level of drama.

Foursquare Homes

Foursquare homes were popular between 1895 and 1930. Their cube-like appearance was widespread in urban areas; they were small, but the lots they were on made them feel significant. The Foursquare home was also available as a reasonably priced home kit that you could order and build yourself.

When renovating a home like this, it’s important to note the natural light that pours in through the windows. Choosing paint in neutral or grey-toned pastel colors will help make the home’s interior feel more natural to visitors.

Colonial Revival Homes

This style was popularized from 1876 to 1955 and is found all over the country. Colonial revivals are easy to spot based on their seamless lines that dip down. Colonial revivals were first presented at the US Centennial Exposition in 1876 and quickly became a reflection of American patriotism.

Even though individual colonial revival homes change slightly in style, you can help restore the home’s beauty by adding classic neutrals, such as eggshell white, for finishes on walls. To help balance the neutral colors out in every room, you can also add warmer tones such as soft blush pink or yellow.

Flipping a historic home is a long process, but that shouldn’t stop you from taking it on as your next home rehab project. After you’ve completed every step that you’ve learned from the ultimate guide to flipping a historic home, start looking into the finishing touches, such as touching up the home’s paint. When searching for residential painters in Cumming, contact Bear Mountain Custom Painting. We can enhance the look of your historic home by giving a new coat of paint to every room.

Shiplap sounds like a strange name for a type of wood paneling, and we understand your confusion and curiosity about it. Before we jump into telling you about the three things to know before having shiplap installed, you first need to know what shiplap is. So, what exactly is it?

What’s Shiplap, and Why Should I Consider it?

Research from a simple Google search shows that shiplap is a wooden board material often used to construct sheds, barns, and many other buildings. Typically, shiplap will have a rabbet or a groove that’s cut at the top and bottom. The track allows the pieces to fit snugly, which then forms a tight seal. This tight seal helps give the shiplap its familiar horizontal look. So, what about those three things to know before having shiplap installed? Read below for more information.

Shiplap Is Difficult To Identify

It seems surreal, but you can nail some simple wooden boards to the wall and call it shiplap. However, calling plain pieces of wood shiplap isn’t correct. The only way to tell if you have authentic shiplap is to focus on the grooves of the wood. If the tracks match up to create a firm fit, then it’s shiplap. The design helps differentiate them from other wood types and the tight fit helps you find those thin lines and horizontal look.

Damage Repair Is Difficult

Even with a tight fit, repairing any damage is difficult. To thoroughly repair any damage done to your walls, you’ll need to remove the boards to get to the damaged area. After removal, you’ll need to replace the entire panel again. Typically, removing and replacing is more of a concern for exterior use than the interior.

Shiplap Is Paintable

There are many ways to use shiplap, and one of the essential items on this list to know before you consider installing it is whether you can apply paint. Yes, you can paint over shiplap. Using interior house painting contractors through Bear Mountain Custom Painting will set you up with a world of freedom when painting your home. We’ve experience replacing and even painting over shiplap to help give your home a fresh makeover. We’ll make your shiplap as vibrant as you’d like or as bold as you want to go.

Bear Mountain Custom Painting knows your concerns, and we understand the complicated process of picking the right wood paneling to paint over. After thinking over the things you’d like to know about shiplap before installing it, you’ll be ready to contact one of our associates to assist you further. Consider these three things before you paint over and install shiplap in Cumming, GA.

The exterior of your house is what sets it apart from your neighbors’ homes. The interior is essential, but the surface of your home also matters. This is because the environment is unpredictable, and temperatures might not be suitable in a particular season. No matter what season you paint your exterior, there isn’t such a thing as the best time to paint. The time of year doesn’t matter, as long as the best season to paint your home’s exterior is the right fit for you.

Painting in the Fall

As the weather becomes a little chillier, you might consider doing a quick paint job before the weather gets crisp and dry. Depending on where you reside, you might think fall isn’t a good season to paint because of the high temperatures it may have in the beginning. However, this isn’t true.

Fall might be the right season for you since paint can dry quickly in comfortable and leveled temperatures that dip into the mid-50s to the low 40s in the evenings. With that said, consider the first few weeks of early fall to get your exterior siding paint job done.

Painting in the Winter

You may consider winter as the best season, but it can often lead to significant difficulties in other parts of the country. Though, as paint quality improves, you’ll begin to see that minimum temperature requirements increase. Many modern formulas have made it easy to paint in temperatures below 50 degrees. Painting in the winter means that people in southern states can paint well through December and January.

Painting in the Summer

When considering the best season to paint your home’s exterior, you may have heard that summer is the best, as there are more reasons to get out and enjoy the weather. Aside from the fact that many people take some time off from work during this time, the paint curing rate is faster. This increase is due to the warm temperatures. The lifespan and quality of your exterior paint will last a long time when you apply it during this season. Since summer has plenty of rain-free days, you won’t risk having any issues later on.

Painting in the Spring

Spring might be the best season for painting, although it has its moments of unpredictable weather. However, you have the option of being the first to know about significant savings and deals on paint and even our painting services at Bear Mountain Custom Painting. Depending on the exterior side you want to paint, you’ll appreciate the mild temperatures and decreased foliage when setting up to paint.

Painting your home’s exterior is a fun process that Bear Mountain Custom Painting can tackle at any time of year. One season might fit into your schedule better. So, whenever you need home exterior painting in Atlanta, Bear Mountain Custom Painting can help you. We’ll deliver exceptional painting services during your season of choice.

You want your doors and windows replaced but don’t want to pay at different times. So, the only solution left is to change them all at once. Here are three reasons to replace home windows and doors simultaneously.

Your Home Will Still Look Its Best

One of the three reasons you should replace both simultaneously is to help keep your home looking nice at all times. If you do either separately, the doors and windows will have mismatched designs. We understand it isn’t easy to execute them all at once, but it’s ideal enough to keep your home looking its best at all times. For the best, most efficient window repair in Cumming, GA, contact Bear Mountain Custom Painting for one of our experienced contractors. They can take down and replace your windows and doors all at once.

Improve Energy Efficiency

The sealant on your home’s doors and windows isn’t going to last forever, which is why you need to replace them to continue using the maximum energy saving levels for your home, or otherwise, you’ll lose energy through drafty entryways. Consider Bear Mountain Custom Painting, where our contractors can help you with design choices and even set up an excellent plan to take down and replace everything at once. Regardless of the style, we’ll make sure to provide you with solutions for the best in energy-saving costs.

Savings on Trendy Upgrades

We’re all looking to save on trendy upgrades to help make our home look luxurious while still maintaining its character. It’s challenging to keep a home updated if you’re only replacing one at a time. Consider us when you want to upgrade both to new, improved styles concurrently to help save time and money.

Plan out your same-day door or window replacement in Alpharetta, GA and get it done right with Bear Mountain Custom Painting, where we’ll be more than happy to come down, find the best styles for you, and replace them both in one day. Whether you’re looking to do both or want more information, our contractors are here to help give you the reasons to replace home windows and doors simultaneously instead of one single service at a time.

We understand that your taste in home décor may have suddenly switched. Sometimes it’s due to the approach of a new season or a preferential change of scenery. No matter the reason, you want to switch up your style and change your home décor. Instead of rotating furniture around the room to make it feel a bit different, find out how to transition from one décor style to another.

Transition in Style: Focus on What You’re Looking For

What style is your heart after this time? Perhaps it’s rustic and cozy, or maybe modern and urban. Or classic and tasteful. Whatever the style, it all comes down to figuring out the right pieces to use. For walls in your home, you may consider hiring interior house painters in Cumming, GA to help spruce up your home with an array of options, from the boldest blues to the prettiest pinks.

Find your perfect color through Bear Mountain Custom Painting, where paint is more than colors on a brush. Our skilled painters can curate a rich palette of colors that you seek.

Transition in Style: Start at Square One

Don’t skip any steps until you removed all the items in the room. Once everything is removed—and we recommend doing this one at a time to get a better visual—you’ll have a clearer idea of what to put in the room. If you plan on keeping specific items, like a chair, couch, or table, add that into the new perspective of your upgraded space.

While everything’s out of the room, insert some items again to add more depth to your vision. Was the couch at an angle? Move it forward more to make the room appear bigger. Are you tired of white walls? Maybe you need a splash of warmer tones to help the ambiance of the room. If you’re bored of the same paint style, consider trying out spray paint to change the colors of different décor pieces you have lying around.

Transition in Style: Show Off Those DIY Skills

Even if you aren’t a DIY pro, it’ll help to have an open mind when it comes to creating something new. Get your friends and family engaged and ready to have fun redecorating your space. Don’t leave a corner untouched; you’ll notice that every detail is important once you have completely gutted the room and repurposed it.

Bear Mountain Custom Painting is happy to get in on the fun as well. Crack out those paintbrushes and canvas sets and start creating. If you need any help with painting frames or finding the best palette selection for your home’s interior, look no further than Bear Mountain Custom Painting.

Transition in Style: Purchase Items One at a Time

Whatever the item, don’t purchase it yet: we still have a room that is currently in transition. The best way to know how to transition from one décor style to another sufficiently is to add on as little as possible. Even with a big budget to utilize, you still want to buy items one at a time. Buying too much can lead to hoarding tendencies and accidentally clashing more than one style.

Fortunately, some apps can help show you what an item would look like in an empty room. Also, when using apps like this, make sure to try various things before selecting any. If you like to shop for good bargains, hit up local second-hand shops to purchase gently used pieces of furniture and décor.

Transition in Style: Live By the 80/20 Rule

If you’re a fan of more than one style, then this rule is for you. When styling your home, sometimes it’s appropriate to mix and match styles to fit a particular look. However, don’t match Victorian with Arts and Crafts style décor: focus on mixing and matching in similar eras instead of clashing styles.

When it comes to wood, it’s okay to pair them with rugs to help make the color of the panels pop. When following the 80/20 rule, make sure you rejuvenate any neutral tones with new paint. Adding specks of popping colors on different items, like pictures, vases, and pillows will help make the room stand out and transform its aura.

Don’t stay neutral the entire time—add bold color. If you have mostly ceiling light fixtures in your room, add a small part—about twenty percent of the space—of decorative lightings like table lamps and library lights to help make the room more interesting to wandering eyes.

Act with modesty when setting up different styles, especially with the furniture. A furniture’s modesty means that you should have a low sofa with a longer skirt to cover the chair’s legs if you have a high side table. Also, when updating a bathroom or kitchen to feel more upscale, you can save by using stock and semi-customed cabinets. Using custom cabinets allows the layout to come to life, especially with one main area standing out—usually, this is a stainless-steel faucet or something similar.

Transition in Style: Sell Your Old Things

When walking into your new room, you don’t want to climb over any old pieces that you have yet to relocate or throw away. Old stuff can get in the way and collect dirt, so donate or give them away to someone looking for furniture. We all like to hold onto old items because they have sentimental value. The greatest thing about selling or giving away old items is giving them a chance at a second life for a new family to enjoy.

When designing your home, make sure that you aren’t combining styles that don’t mesh well and clear out the junk that you no longer need to give those furniture and décor pieces a second chance in a different home. As recognized contractors at Bear Mountain Custom Painting, we’ll gladly help you re-establish your rooms with a new coat of paint. Not only that, but we’ll help bring to life your ideas for transitioning your space from one style of décor to the next.