This is what my house looked like when I first bought it. I think the house had gone into foreclosure and was snagged up by a house flipper. He changed the floors, counters, sinks, light fixtures, front door, added blinds to some of the rooms, installed some recessed lights, etc...(mainly cosmetic stuff). Did I mention that I found it the day it was listed? Mmmmm hmmmm...I'm awesome like that! :) I am too much of a control freak to just let a realtor show me homes I may be in be interested in. I figured that would just waste tons of time, so I did my own searches and passed the info on to my realtor. She set up the appointments and got me all the relevant info. I loved my realtor! We got along like peas and carrots. So anyway...what was I saying? Oh yeah, here is what the house used to look like, drum roll please:
Specs: 2 story home, 2455 sq ft, .30 acre lot, 4 bdrms, 2.5 bathrooms
The exterior
Lets just say I wasn't wowed by the exterior. I had wanted a one story, ranch style home.
The entry way and part of the stair case
Next to the front door is the formal dining room (which is now a toy room, more on that later).
Walking past the stair case you have the living room.
There was nothing special about it. The first thing I noticed was that it was lacking a fire place (not that you really need one in TX, but I always wanted one).
Next to the living room is the half bath, a coat closet, and the laundry room and garage (not pictured).
Next to the living room is the eat in kitchen with an awesome bay window
Then you have the kitchen:
I loved the granite and amount of cabinets.
I disliked the vent hood, oak color (yuck), and that they were lacking drawer pulls.
The pantry is down the hall and not pictured. The kitchen is a funky shape.
Then UPSTAIRS you have the
Master bedroom
You can't tell but it's enormous! How can you not have ceiling fans in TX?
The master bath
Loved the double vanity and granite, but oh joy, more oak cabinets and flat doors (yucky)!
Smallest of the bedrooms I thought would make a good office
Middle bedroom would be the guest room
Hall bath. Love the granite, hate the oak.
The largest of the secondary bedrooms would be Eva's room and it had a ceiling fan!
Back downstairs you have sliding doors leading to a big deck.
Other end of the deck
View from the side of the back yard.
Did I forget to mention that it backs up to a Greenbelt? Major selling point for me because I love my privacy.
Back view of the house
First thing I noticed was that the entire house was BEIGE. Don't get me wrong, I love beige. It is actually one of my favorite colors and I like to think of myself as a boring beige person. However, this was waaaaay too much beige. It was in the counters, on all the walls, in the floor tile, bath tile, and blended too well with the oak cabinets. I knew if I bought this house, I would be doing a lot of painting. So lets discuss the pros and cons I came up with when I walked through it for the first time.
Pros:
big house that felt cozy
.30 acre lot was bigger than most I'd seen
price was in the range I was searching
house had updated light fixtures, counters, floors, and sinks
great school district
close to family
Backs up to Greenbelt!
Cons:
2 stories instead of ranch style
no fireplace!
oak cabinetry
small minor bedrooms
tile floors not hardwoods
back yard has a huge slope
original a/c and roof
I went back and forth with this house quite a bit. I had actually fallen in love with a house comparable in size with an amazing layout, that backed up to a green belt, and had just had a $30K kitchen remodel. Unfortunately, they had already accepted another offer by the time I found it.
When I went through my pros and cons, I realized that I could cross off the lack of fireplace. They're not necessary down here and if I really wanted one, I could buy an electric one (I did just that). I could also cross out the oak cabinets. Sure they are oak, but they are in great condition and I can always paint them white. I LOVE white cabinets. Not having hardwood floors was disappointing but the tile was huge and looked good in the space, so that got crossed off too. Maybe one day I will install hardwoods. Overall I felt like I was getting a fair deal for what I was paying. I can honestly say that I am super happy in this house. There are still things I want to change, but I've personalized it quite a bit, and we are very comfortable here.
Fast forward eight months, and the house looks completely different! I painted, painted, and painted. I also installed hardware for the cabinets, towel rings, and am in the middle of redoing the laundry room and ex-office.
You can see all the changes in the Room Gallery, just click here.
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