A Split-Hall Colonial....

...in Texas!  I know it sounds weird, but there it was.

The house we lived in prior to the loft was located in a subdivision that had one street.  You drove in, drove around the circle and drove out.  It was a horse community and most of the owners had horses in their pastures or in nearby stables.  The minimum lot was 1.5 acres.  We had a minimum lot.


While I loved the house, I disliked the HOA because all they did was bicker and fight over the top plates on the fences.  They let one, and I do mean ONE, person divide the neighborhood so that most of the people in the neighborhood would not speak to each other.  Too much politics for me, so we mostly kept to ourselves and associated with our friends outside of the neighborhood.


The house was a short sale and had been abused by the previous owners.  The house had an in-ground pool and we purchased it without ever laying eyes on the pool because it had been covered and the bank would not uncover it for us to look at.  Did I mention it was a short sale?!  We envisioned the black hole of death with creatures crawling through the oozy muck underneath the wood beams that were a part of the cover.  The creatures were dead by the time we got around to uncovering the pool.


We did not know if it was usable or if it had lifted out of the ground, which is pretty common in Texas.  We decided that if it was not usable, we would fill it in and have a nice garden area.  Hey, we had to water the foundation anyway, what's one more something to water!  But as you can see in the photos above, Miss Thang approved the pool facilities, so we were good to go!


When we saw the house the first time, there was a dead bird in the living room fireplace and 12 bazillion bugs covering the floors...I kid you not!  The next time we went back, I wore a gas mask, gloves that ended at my neck and steel toe boots!  The dead bird was in the yard and most of the bugs had been swept away.

I thought the hubster was nutso for even wanting to tackle this house, but I finally gave in to his request and purchased a hazmat suit.  I needed to make sure I was protected from West Nile Virus, Pig Flu, Bird Flu, tick bite and chicken pox.


Everything in this house had to be painted, replaced, repaired, or removed.  Four rooms of flooring had to be installed/replaced.  The master didn't even have flooring, just tile back hardy board something or another.  Wiring vomited out of most of the walls.

Drywall had to be replaced in the kitchen, living room and laundry room.  There were holes in the walls and ceiling in the kitchen from poor DIY ventures that had to be removed and the holes in the laundry room walls were from little doggies trying to dig their way out...they must have been locked in there for quite some time.


We tried to work in the foot print and didn't want to "gut" anything if it wasn't necessary.  Most of the house had been painted some shade of brown, even the ceilings.  I know I've told you before that I like light, bright and airy.  This house was so light and bright after all the new paint, it was hard to get photos that weren't totally blown out. :-)


We completed all of the work in 3 short months.  It was labor-intensive, nasty, repulsive, and vomitous (yes it is my word) work.  I gagged many times over having to touch nasty bathrooms in this house.  We had someone come in and clean all of the duct work.  I won't even tell you how many rodent skeletons and carcasses were removed. We would not let the kids move into the house until all of the work was completed and we had a priest over to exorcise the demons away.

The house sold within 2 months when we were ready to move to our loft.  More stories to come...


24 comments

  1. Are you planning to tackle another job like this!?! The transformation in the rooms is fantastic.

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    1. Thank you, it was a lot of work. No ma’am! I never want to do this again!

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  2. Too much work, but it looks great after your updates!!

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    1. Thank you ma'am. It was a tremendous amount of work and I don't want to go through it again!

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  3. OH my goodness, so much work. The house we're in now needed a lot. I don't think I would have the energy to do that kind of work again!

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    1. Yes, it was quite a bit of work and I do not want to do anything like that again any time soon. The hubster mentioned finding a “fixer upper”. No, was the word he heard…LOL

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  4. It did turn out BEAUTIFUL !!! The way you told the story had me laughing out loud and Yogi (the puppy) was barking at me. Haha
    The loft ystrdy looked like what I would envision you living in, very chic !! I noticed in your wording you said you've settled on something ....? Is that why you and the hubster had appts. one morning last week ? Under contract ??? Nosy aren't I !?! As long as you have cable and internet ,you'll be good to go !! I can't wait to see :))) Big Hug's, TT

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    1. Tammy, thank you so much! It was definitely a process and one that I do not want to repeat any time soon! And thank you for your sweet words about the loft. It has been my most favorite place to live!! And yes ma'am, we did sign a contract....on the one that has no cable or internet access...LOL. And we work from home and use TONS of GB on the internet. We now have to find an office outside of our home, which doesn't hurt my feelings at all!!! I will be posting about it next week, I think...LOL. Big Hugs!!!

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  5. Wow Benita,
    Your re love of this house was fantastic. Lot's of work but really beautiful. I am with you on not wanting to do another fixer upper! Hope you find something really sweet that you can just put your decor touches on and not have a lot of reno.
    Kris

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    1. Thank you so much Kris! It was awful, but we did love this home. When we put it up for sale, the realtor (who was the one who sold it to us) couldn’t believe the transformation. We did find a house here in Tennessee and it is not a reno at all, but I will be making some changes. It’s new construction and the hubster cannot understand why I want to change things before we move in…LOL.

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  6. You and your hubby did an amazing job, Benita! Love the flooring and your paint choice. Did you work with any contractors? Hope your week is going great so far! hugs, Christine

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    1. Thank you so much Christine! The flooring in the living room and reading room was the original flooring that received tons of cleaning. We did actually replace these 2 floors before we put it up for sale. And yes ma'am, we worked with an awesome drywall company and a wonderful man who made the kitchen countertops for us. We originally had painters but had to fire them. The hubster did a lot of the electrical and plumbing work. Hope you are having a great week also girl! Hugs!!

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  7. Hi Benita!
    You two did an amazing job! And I hear you, we've done so many renos that I am officially tired now! ;)
    And your pool looked amazing too!
    I don't like the neighborhood politics either, not my thing!
    Have a great rest of your week!!

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    1. Thank you so much Kimberley! I am officially done with “fixer uppers” for a while. I don’t mind doing some changes that I want to do, but the “have-to” things have been kicked to the curb for a bit. Yeah, the HOA politics kills me and I don’t get it at all. Thank you on the pool. We drained the sludge, had it cleaned with acid, refilled it, threw in the chemicals and stayed awesome until we moved. In Texas, pools stay open all year, there’s no closing them down for the winter, so it doesn’t seem that they are prone to algae as much. That, and the lack of regular rainfall…LOL. Have a great evening and week!

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  8. I think you were very brave, Benita! All of your work surely did pay off! We have rental properties, so I am quite familiar with a paintbrush and a broom. I wouldn't say it has been vomitous, but it definitely isn't as fun as shopping ;)

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    1. Thank you so much and I hear ya! The shopping is definitely so much more enjoyable. I don't know how you do it with rental property. I don't know if I could handle it. This house just about did me in...LOL

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  9. What is it with brown paint? Do these people not see the other colors in the paint section?? How about white?? LOL

    It amazes me how screwed people are when they get their house repossessed. Like it's the bank's fault or the house's fault that they couldn't afford it? Idiots. You did an amazing job with this house too and I love Miss Thang :)

    xo

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    1. Girl, I have no idea, but the people who owned this house loved that brown paint! Every room that they painted with that paint was so dark and drab. These people had issues and I hated it for their kids, because the kids (10 and younger) ended up being the adults to the parents...it was sad. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. I don't want to do it again....LOL Miss Thang is something else. I will be seeing her this weekend! :-) Hugs!!

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  10. LOL, the house we live in today has similar stories.
    I gag too, I just can not stand gross stuff. I gag, then I can work. CRAZY!
    When we moved in, a freezer was left in the purchase of the home, but the sellers unplugged it. It was 1/2 full of meat!!! SICK, GROSS, GAG
    :-) looking forward to your stories of your house.

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    1. ewwwww...I would have thrown up right there...LOL..bless your heart, that is horrible!!! There are some that we walked in and turned around and walked out. I couldn't even make it through the house...LOL.

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  11. I can understand why you invented a word such as vomitous !

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  12. Benita, I do love the after pictures of this house! What a beautiful setting in the snow picture with those big trees. It must have felt good to leave that house so much better than you found it, your own little effort to make this world more beautiful.

    Now I'm getting excited to see what house you will be calling home next, but first I must check out today's post!

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    1. It did feel nice to leave it better than we found it, that’s for sure. That poor house had been abused, but there were issues with the family. It was so nice to have that little bit of snow on Christmas Day in 2012…a nice surprise for sure. And the red leaves gave it an extra punch!

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