A girl has to have some secrets! Eventually, we all tell...Including Ginger!

In the very beginning I told you that we would be showing you how rehab was possible using "old" materials. A big focus with my rehabbers and contractors is reusing what you already have to cut costs and be kinder to the environment. In this particular case we had discovered some hidden things on Ginger. Most of the time when you run into something hidden on a rehab property it is not so good. In this case, we have a lot of good blended with some, "how do we fix it?".


Earlier in this blog series I had shown you that Ginger was covered in carpet. I don't know about you, but I personally hate carpet. Carpet is full of dirt, mites, sticky stuff and who knows what else. Boo hiss on carpet! Did I just say that? Yes, yes I did. So, needless to say I was eager to learn what was underneath Ginger's beige carpet...Unfortunately, you can't go ripping up the carpet to see what is underneath before you buy the place (or I would have). You just need to take your chances that the floor is probably wood given the architecture (OK, you busted me. I sometimes do peel back a small portion of the carpet just to see. Like my rehabber says, "I'm not stupid, just slow").

The day we closed on Ginger we peeled back more carpet and found that it was indeed hardwood underneath. They removed a large portion of the shaggy grossness, but because they were going to paint they didn't do more than a quarter of the room and left the carpet in place as a drop cloth. Work went along as scheduled....Until, another house 2 doors down came on the market as a foreclosure. This house was just like Ginger, so naturally we went to see it. Dan the Contractor, the Investor and I viewed the house together and we were bummed that our house didn't have the features that this one did. Its floors were hardwood with decorative inlay. It had loads of stain glass, and a mantel with a decorative mosaic motif on the floor. Ginger, as far as we could tell was missing all of this. We had a few brainstorming session about how to make up for the missing architectural details and then proceeded with the rehab.

In the next few weeks Ginger would reveal several things about herself that would indeed thrill us and send us back to the drawing table. One day, about three weeks ago, I got an email from the Investor that was doing most of the rehab on Ginger himself featuring 2 pictures of the same wall. One picture was taken from the inside and another was taken from the outside. Again, both of these pictures featured the same wall. The subject line of the email read, "Can you tell the difference?" I felt like I was playing along with a Sesame Street game... Here were the 2 pics. Can you tell the difference? It took me a minute.

The stain glass is on the outside, but not the inside! Someone had covered it up on the inside to make the wall completely smooth. Why? I have no idea...These unique details are like gold now. Maybe when they covered it up (in the 80's) people took it for granted.


Shortly after that the Investor called to inform me that the floors had decorative inlay and a tile mosaic for the hearth, but was missing the mantel. Here is what the mosaic looked like without the mantel...

So, what do we do now? We have a mantel made and cut out the windows,of course! The windows will more than likely need to be retrimmed and the mantel will need to be replaced somehow. Have you ever seen those BS ready made electric fireplace things they sell in Home Depot? Gross! Look to your RIGHT if you don't believe me.To me, that was just not an option. We needed to replace the mantel, make it non functional (it never was), look good and keep it cheap. For this mission we will call in our best agent. His mission? To craft a mantel from recycled materials, make it look hot and keep costs down. Should Dan Carter be willing to accept, he will be held to Leigh's picky standards (which actually, don't even begin to match his own) and risk being laughed at as he crawls in dumpsters looking for materials (SERIOUSLY).  I wasn't really expecting much.....What Dan produces exceeds my wildest expectations. In fact, it was SO SPECIAL that I am going to save it for the next blog. Until then!