Let me begin by stating, “I love HGTV!”  I have always enjoyed house design and remodeling interiors and exteriors.  It just looks far too easy on TV.

My daughter and her husband bought a bank owned house in our neighborhood in September.  The house has good “bones”; it just needs a lot of TLC.  It has been neglected for several years, so every room has to be cleaned with the walls and woodwork wiped down before painting could begin.  All the flooring needs to be replaced, including the tile in the entryway and kitchen which is dated and has a few cracks.  On the plus side, the kitchen cabinetry is beautiful, the counter is Corian, but dated, so it is on the schedule to possibly be replaced.  New appliances are needed, but they are keeping the refrigerator for extra use in the garage.  The master bath needs a new shower, and the exterior of the house needs to painted.

My financial minded son-in-law figured out a plan and a budget, and they were able to secure a reasonable deal from the bank.  Initially, my daughter and son-in-law planned to do all the work themselves, although with two children 1 & 6, and both working full time jobs this HGTV remodel fantasy came crashing down to reality.  The large jobs such as painting the exterior and the two story foyer, and the master shower were handed over to experts.  As I write this, today is December 2, 2016 – the Thanksgiving and the Christmas move in deadlines will not be met.  Hopefully, mid January might be achieved.

Day 1 –  The closing and landscape removal.

After Lisa and Michael closed on the house, we immediately started to cleanup the landscape with chainsaws, rakes, wagons, and a lot of neighborhood help.  Fortunately, Dennis and I have a few acres and a burn pile, so all the debris was removed and dumped on our burn pile.

In the lower picture some of the shutters were already removed to prepare for painting.  It is amazing to me that just cleaning up the landscape exposes the true beauty of the house.

Day 2 plus—

We cleaned out the garage so Lisa and Michael could store some of the overflow items from their first house.  I neglected to say that their house sold in 2 1/2 weeks, so they moved in with Dennis and me, stored a lot of their things in our basement, but also had a storage unit at the new house.  So it was imperative to empty the unit into the garage as soon as possible.

Exterior painting

A couple of bids were gotten for the exterior painting, then a family friend recommended a company, their bid was good, and they did excellent work as you can see below:

The siding was painted and the deck railing along with the support beams.  The shutters were painted black and the door a striking blue.  By the beginning of October the painters were finished.  However, the interior work was just beginning!!!