It is 11:30am and they are going to be late, like always. I beg her to hurry the hell up and get down to the truck so we can go. Today is a day I have been looking forward to for the last few weeks. Today is auction day. Me and my buddy mark are going to try and buy a flip house. We have been talking about it for years and are finally both ready to take the dive and do it. The wives are shockingly both on board, even though they probably won't have much to do with it. "Come on! we can't be late!" Mary finally comes down the stairs, walks to the door and playfully says, "I'm waiting on you now." she is a tall slender woman. long brown hair almost always in a braid. i let out a loud enough sigh the neighbors probably heard it. we head to the truck and head for the auction.
We finally arrive and there are only about 10 cars on the street. If that is all that is going to show up, we might be able to get this. I find Mark and his wife Carol. Mark is not as large as i am. He is 5'10' and around 190lbs. Myself on the other hand am 6'2" and a solid 280lbs. Despite our size difference we have a ton in common and have been friends for the last 15-20 years. Carol on the other hand is 5'2', slender, blonde, and for some reason never really talks to me.
The house is a charming 86-year-old Victorian with 3 bed, 2 bath, and a full basement. The yard is not large, but it does have a nice 2 car garage. Downside to it, there is a lot of work to be done. Most of the rooms have holes in the walls, bad lighting, and a kitchen that needs a full redo. Mark and I both are pretty handy, but the ladies are a bit lacking. They are both looking forward to making the finishing choices like fixtures, wall color, and what kind of cabinet doors to get. Me and Mark are more looking forward to breaking shit and building it back up into something beautiful.
We meet up with an embrace and say a howdy to each other and the wives. The wives don't talk a lot to each other but that's okay. They get along just fine. Mary is more into sports and Carol is more into art. We make our ways to the auction table, get a number, and find some seats. Shockingly there are only about 5 other groups with us. I really hope they bow out early.
A man walks to the podium, thanks everyone for coming, and starts the bidding at 20,000. No way this house is going to go for that. Those fuckers must be high. He starts to drop price by 500 every few moments until Mark offers 2,000. let the fun begin. Another man in a stupid cowboy hat offers up 3, and so it begins. Mark upped it to 4. A woman in a floral dress offers 5. Mark goes to 5,500. Cowboy hat offers 6. Floral dress goes up to 6,500. Mark ups it to 7. it is silent. Right before the house is ours the jerk in the cowboy hat offers up 7,500. We talk for a moment. How bad do we want this place? I really think there is something special about it. After telling that to Mark he throws out 7,750. it felt like 30 min goes by even though it was only about a min. everyone is looking down when they auctioneer finally says sold. I offer up a fist bump, try not to cheer, and we all walk up to the front to claim our prize.
After a few days of waiting and fees, the house is freaking ours. All in all, it cost us a whooping 8,326 dollars. We figure it will cost us around 25k and countless hours but possible for profit is huge. Maybe in the area of 80k. I couldn't be happier with that price besides maybe if it was free. "So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, Wanna start to break some shit?" Mark smiles and replies "fuck yeah i do." "The dumpster is getting dropped off later today so we should be good to do whatever first thing." We fist bump and talk about what all we have in mind. The wives are listening in but not really talking much. Doubt they really know half of what we are talking about anyways. Neither have any experience flipping houses.
The next morning, we all arrive at the house and all 4 of us are eager to get inside and start to destroy this thing. "So, who gets the honor of opening the door?" I ask. Of course, every one of us wants to do it but no one wants to be that over eager, let me go first, kind of person. Since no one pipes up fast enough, and I really want to have some fun, I go "I got it" standing in front of the door, I rear back and place my size 15 foot right into the door yelling "This is Sparta!" with an amazing thud the door flies open and crashes to the floor. I look around at the face of my friends. Mark is smiling ear to ear, Mary is looking at me like I'm an idiot and why did she ever marry me, and Carol is oddly smiling at me. The door was getting replaced for a new one in a different place, so it wasn't a big deal anyways. What can I say, had to have a little fun.
We all are in the entry way trying to figure out what we were going to tackle first. My thought was, let's start with the entry way. I already kicked the door down and it is going to be gutted down to studs. Might as well start here. Mark agreed and the girls were already gone. Sounded like they were already talking paint colors and making lists of things me and Mark were going to have to do. I paid them no mind. mark and I get to work, smashing, hauling, and making as large of a mess as possible. God demo day can be so much fun.
The first day flew by. We managed to knock out 2 of the bedrooms, the living room, both baths, and part of the kitchen. All down to nothing but studs and wires. We were exhausted but couldn't stop smiling. There really isn't anything like a good hard day's work. We board up my Sparta victory and headed home. I'm still impressed that wives even pitched in and broke some things, hauled some junk, and got all kinds of dirty. Huge turn on for me. Love watching a woman work. Prolly why we got married in the first place. Mary is excited about how much we accomplished, and I had to remind her, this is probably going to take a couple months to do. There is a ton of hard work and long nights ahead of us. She doesn't seem to care and goes back to talking about what is going to go where and her vision for the home. All I hear is someone who doesn't know what she is talking about and the amount of work she is wanting us to do. I don't mind though. Kind of into it.
The next day we all arrive back at the home and finish demoing it. The whole house is nothing but studs, rough plumbing, and hanging wires that are driving me nuts. I don't like that level of chaos. Although I do get off on making everything in order and in its proper place. We are all dirty, hot and gross but a plan needs to be made. I go out to the truck, grab my grill, cooler, and set up some chairs. We grill up some burgers and have a few beers. We spend the rest of the afternoon planning out where new walls are going to go, old ones to be removed, what's going where, laughing, enjoying our time together like we have millions of times, and me and mark reminding them it is just us going to be doing all the work, so clam the fuck down. it really does take all night, but we all agree on how the house is going to look. With another day of hard work and progress we say our goodbyes and head home.
