*Under construction*

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For our first-ever-blog post, it only makes sense to share a bit of our story and how we got started with London Lee Homes. We purchased our first investment property in the summer of 2019. We were so eager (and green). When I tell you we drove to closing and had demo tools in the back of our car, it wouldn’t be any variation from the truth. We were ready to go, all that was missing was our HGTV camera crew.

We signed the papers, and while waiting on funding at the closing table, we were informed that the sellers still needed some time to move their belongings out. That was a surprise, to say the least. Technically per the contract- anything remaining in that house belonged to us, however we knew the family selling it needed that time so we said no problem. I was super sad we didn’t get to use our demo tools that day. There were multiple bids on this house, from memory we won it by $577. It was a 1911 home, located in the Paseo Arts District in OKC. By far one of my favorite houses we have touched.

This home didn’t come without hiccups though. See the thing is, we knew some about construction. At the time I worked for a very large builder in our area so I knew about the building process. New construction is different than remodeling, especially a 100+ year home with uneven walls and floors. Think about that- this home was built before the Titanic sailed.

When we really got into the home and evaluated the space, we decided it would be a good idea to open up the main area. It was really closed off and the kitchen was TINY. See below:

This picture was taken looking into the kitchen from the dining room after we demo’d the kitchen. The yellow trash can is approx. where the stove used to be. As you can see, TINY, and not designed for a modern family. I wish we had more pictures of before- but remember we were eager to demo! LOL

The picture above is taken from just about the same angle as the one above it.

Once we knew we were doing structural work on the house, especially removing a large load bearing wall we needed help with logistics of it. We hired a GC, which turned out to be the biggest curse/blessing all in one. For legal reasons we won’t name names, however this company is the sole reason that Jonathon and I are now general contractors. We had such an awful experience with them that we never wanted to encounter that again and we knew if that was how other home owners are being treated- then we could be so successful just by being better than that. At the time they had great reviews but since then I’ve looked from time to time and a lot of others had the same experience we did. Unfortunately in the construction industry it is not uncommon for general contractors to rip off home owners, pull off a job, and you never see them again after they collect their draw or down payment.

In our situation, the work was taking months, and I mean MONTHS, to complete. It is no exaggeration that tile took over 4 months- to finish 3 bathrooms. Now that we have been in this business we know tile should have taken a few days. We also knew that back then but there were excuses beyond excuses. Time is money in situations like that and the GC became extremely defensive when pace of work came into question. There would be weeks that went by when nobody was working on the house. Long story short, attorneys got involved and we moved forward (without them thankfully).

Progress!

Hard to believe this was the same space!

Same angle ^