My Favorite Room: For Amanda Pays, house-flipping is personal

Amanda Pays likes the art of buying homes, fixing them up and flipping them. The actress is best known for her role as Dr. Tina McGee in the early 1990s television show “The Flash” and a reprise of that role in 2014 on the CW network.

Pays, who’s also an interior designer, and husband-actor Corbin Bernsen take a hands-on approach to the houses they renovate and sell: They often live in them. The two bought a midcentury three-bedroom home in the hills of Sherman Oaks and moved in last November.

What is your favorite room and why?

The kitchen into living room. I always open this space up to flow as one; it becomes the “living” space. It is light with bright white walls and ceilings, and windows and doors that allow the beautiful mountain and valley views in.

It’s the hub of the house. I’ve been doing it in all these houses I’ve been flipping.

The feature I create is a big kitchen and the living room beside it, with no walls in between.

Is there a special piece of art or furniture in the room?

The art we have collected over the years always finds its place on our living room walls, and as we move so often, there is comfort in the familiarity of these “special” pieces.

The midcentury architecture of this house lends itself to the crisp white paint color I chose for the original brick walls and ceilings, and it’s a perfect backdrop for our art and books.

Any good stories about buying the house?

I was originally meant to see this house three months before we bought it. But I couldn’t find the address, so I drove on. This “mistake” enabled us to get it for less, as it had fallen out of escrow. Happy ending!

You call this a flip house. What’s your plan?

Typically, we’ve been staying in our own home two to four years, that’s kind of the range. I’ve also been flipping spec homes on the side, and they turn over in six to nine months.

What do you hang on to when you move that much?

I usually sell most of the furniture in the houses we are living in. We keep our art, we keep those key pieces. I’m happy to sell generic pieces like beds, sofas and dining items.

You know, most people don’t move so frequently.

I think there are two types of people: gypsies, what we are, and people who don’t ever move. I call those the hoarders. They can’t be bothered moving all their stuff.

How long does it take you to decide on buying a house?

We find houses in a day. It’s so easy.

Wait, how many do you see in a day?

Four a day.... It’s almost like searching for something that has that wow factor. Part of my philosophy too is that most people search for centuries trying to find the perfect house. We find the imperfect house in a day because that is the art: to turn that imperfect house into the perfect house, seeing its imperfections and transforming it.

hotproperty@latimes.com