New Live-In Flipper

[Sara Smith]

Hello All,

My husband and I are nearly done rehabbing our first ever flip. We learned the hard way about the importance of taking time to interview and gather multiple bids to find the best contractors and not to get too hasty to just hire someone to get it done. 

We moved into the house after paint, carpet and bathroom tiling was done. Wood floors, plumbing (except toilets), kitchen counters, and kitchen appliances were not in yet. Many small repairs still need to be made and we need to do them ourselves because we are over budget. We live in it with our 3 boys, ages 9, 6 and 2. The part that is really wearing on us is protecting the work already done with the kids in the house. Mostly the paint and the engineered hardwood. Plus working around all our stuff and their stuff seems to be really slowing us down. I wish we didn't have to do a live in, but financially it seems like the best option for us right now. Here is my question. Is there a best order to complete a live in flip. I feel like we did things out of order on this one. Here was our order: had furnaces and condensers replaced, removed old carpet, demo-ed 1000 sq ft of tile on main floor, painted upstairs, tiled laundry, half bath, master bath and upstairs bath, tiled master bath shower, carpeted upstairs and master downstairs, painted downstairs and kitchen cabinets, installed engineered hardwood, installed granite, had plumber come to plumb the shower and kitchen. Now we are on the little fixes we need to do ourselves. 

Should paint have come last? It seems like each contractor took their turn adding to the mars, dings, wall scuffs and grease prints. My kids picked up where they left off. Professional painting is expensive! Next time we hope to do our own painting we just don't know where it makes sense to put paint in the schedule.