Hello. New to the Forum

[James Yarosz]

Hey everyone.  I just found this forum today, and it sure looks like the biggest wealth of knowledge on the real estate subject.  I'm obviously focusing more specifically on renovating/flipping, but if anyone thinks my questions would be better answered somewhere else, please let me know.

Situation: My wife and I (early 30's) are in the process of buying a house closer to work in much better schools with more social life for our daughter.  Currently we live in a rather large cape cod out in the country that we built in 2005/2006. 

Issues: We are going into this with the full intention of NOT living in this new house for a long time (more than 6 years).  Our ultimate goal is to find that perfect piece of land and build our dream home to grow old in.  The issue is we don't want to put a ton of money into this new house, but we certainly don't want to end up losing money when we try to sell it a few years from now.  So we're treating this as a live-in flip opportunity.  

Background: I am a somewhat self-taught handyman.  So far the only things I've found I'm not capable of doing well are finishing drywall and installing carpet.  The house we are buying was built in 1958, and has been lived in by a family of 6 for the past 2 years.  This family just grew to 7, which is why they are selling.  We are only a family of 3, and 3 is where it's staying.

Question: There are a number of ways we can approach this house, and there are far too many details to try to list right now.  However, I was wondering what people would recommend to focus on the most?  The house is a 1300 sqft ranch with mostly finished basement.  1 full bath on each floor, basement bathroom is new/modern, 1st floor bath is original.  Kitchen is usable for now, but my wife wants to re-finish/pant the cabinets and I want new countertops (current tops are 4x4 tile with wood trim boarders).  The basement has a 2nd kitchen which is in much worse shape than the original upstairs so I plan to remove most of it and re-purpose it into a utility/laundry area.  Moving the laundry downstairs opens up a little more space next to the bathroom upstairs, which I'm debating on merging.  The basement bath has a tub, so I was wondering if it would be advisable to switch out the tub upstairs for a larger shower.

What do you guys think?  What's the best thing I can do with this upstairs bathroom from an investment perspective?  I also have another question regarding a screened-in porch that was added off the basement walkout, but I don't want to type anymore right now.

Thanks for reading.