Inherited homes carry two kinds of weight. The first is deferred maintenance, because a house that was loved for forty years was usually not updated for forty years. The second is emotional. The people who inherit it want to honor what it was, and they are also overwhelmed by their own lives. Both weights land on the same family at the same time.
This Glendale home in Bellevue is both of those things, and it is the first one I am going to walk you through from the day before the work starts to the day it goes on the market.
Here is the walkthrough. Five minutes, the whole plan, before the first wall comes down.
What the sellers actually asked for
When the family reached out to us at Icon, they wanted two numbers. What the home would sell for, and how long it would take. We gave them both quickly. That part is easy.
What they did not expect was a third option. We run a program where our construction company and our real estate company work as one team, so instead of selling a tired house as is, we can bring it up to the level that gets the highest sale price and the highest net back to the seller. The seller approves the plan. We carry the work. It settles at closing.
They chose that, and this series is what it looks like in practice.
The mandatory list, then the options
Every one of these projects starts the same way. There is a short list of items we cannot move forward without, the things a buyer or an inspector will not forgive. Then there is a longer list of options, and the real conversation is how far to take the house. A light refresh sells faster than it did. A renovation that reads close to new construction sells for a different number entirely. The answer is not always the bigger one, and that is a decision the sellers make with the numbers in front of them, not a decision we make for them.
On this house the options list is long, and most of it is about making the plan of the home match how people live now.
Inside, before and after in words
- The front. The tongue and groove siding stays, cleaned and clear coated or stained so it reads as a feature rather than a dated one. The two front windows turn black, which is a small spend for the two windows that set the first impression. The double front door becomes a door worth the entry.
- The coat closet goes. It sits where a focal wall should be. We seal it and give the entry a wall that holds the eye.
- The primary bath is small. We knock it back, re-tile the whole thing, and give it the footprint it should have had.
- Floors. Luxury vinyl plank over the existing three quarter inch hardwood. On its own LVP can feel bouncy and sound thin. Over solid hardwood it is quiet and firm, and it takes the beating a new owner will give it.
- The laundry lives in a hall closet. We move the water heater, wall off the old utility space, and flip the laundry into a real room with cabinets and a counter. The old closet door becomes a proper door. Small change, and the house stops feeling like 1970.
- The kitchen is the big move. The kitchen, the pantry and the center wall all come out, which leaves one open room more than 21 feet long. The new kitchen goes against the back wall with room for a 42 inch island and an eating area. The old formal living room becomes the formal dining room, with a chandelier, open to the kitchen. One great room instead of four small ones.
- The fireplace stays as a fireplace and loses everything else. New surround, new mantle, one of our signature updated styles, with two or three options shown to the sellers for their pick.
Outside, the part you cannot build
The backyard is the reason this house will sell above its street. An oversized lot in the middle of Bellevue with mature landscaping, a big maple and a Japanese maple that we are keeping and designing the new planting around. The patio has been stained and painted red over the years. It gets professionally resurfaced, likely a stained and stamped finish, so it reads as outdoor living rather than a slab. Three bay windows on the back become traditional windows, and the whole exterior gets a first class paint job.
You can renovate a kitchen anywhere. You cannot manufacture a yard like this inside the city.
What happens next
The final proposals go to the sellers for every remaining option. They decide exactly how far to take it, keep the plan or change it, and then the work starts. About six weeks after that, this house is ready for market.
Part two is the work. Part three is the number.
The details
- Where. Glendale, Bellevue. 612 130th Avenue NE.
- What it is. An inherited single family home with original finishes and a large, mature lot.
- The program. Renovation before sale, planned and carried by Icon, approved by the seller, settled at closing.
- Timeline. Proposals now, roughly six weeks of work, then market.
Talk to me before you list as is
If you have inherited a home, or you own one that has not been touched in decades, the as-is number is not the only number. Send me the address and I will tell you what the mandatory list looks like and what the options are worth. No obligation, and you keep every decision.
