as i've mentioned and am real thrilled to repeat, we bought a house, y'all! i'm so excited i can almost not stand it, DOT COM, and since this is about to consume my life and
instagram feed, i thought it would be fun-slash-necessary to share on this online diary of mine. and by fun, i mean that i'm terrified to share it, as are all designers when it comes to their own house, and it's taken a summoning of all my courage to post this.
for starters, by 'a house', what i mean is, we bought two houses? aka two crackety crack shacks. they are in may-jah, may-jah disrepair, but the spaces are interesting, the lot is not small and i really love the new neighborhood. didimentiontheyaredumps? due to some serious curb unappeal and the amount of repair obviously needed, plus the super confusion of two biggish houses, situated separately on one single property, we actually got ye olde shanty for a pretty good bargain. also, in this totes bonkers seller's market, we sold our townhouse for the asking price, which was calculated by figuring out what it was worth, what the market might bear, multiplying by two and then adding $5K just because we are GAMBLERS. four offers in nine days, and we closed friday, which i still don't think is real? but it is real, and we'd closed previously in the week on ye olde shanters, so PHEW.
ye olde shanty has thus far been drawing a lot of comparisons to that movie the money pit, which i haven't seen, but i presume is about a handsome young couple who are so smart in buying a fixer upper that they have to dig a huge hole to put all the profits in, after they're done? just kidding. we are getting nothing but looks of pity, raised eyebrows, voices of concern, and someone asked me yesterday how i'd talked sugarbear into it. the truth is, I DON'T KNOW, but i do know that brad is the brains of this operation, so if he believes it can be done realistically, it really can. he is mensasmart and NOT a risktaker, where as if i believe it can be done, it is because i am very much GLASS HALF FULL, we will find a way, money is no object, reality is for everyone else, nobody tells me no. but brad tells me no all the time, so if he's on board, ALL ABOARD. please feel free to give me/us a pep talk, because we are rill excited, and also a bit skeered.
so anyway, ye olde shanty part one - the front house, was built in the 30's, ALLEGEDLY, has three bedrooms and faces the street. it is fug as all get out, but not to fear, that front shit, all siding and winders, porch, et all, is going away asap (SPOILER ALERT: most of it got ripped off on saturday).
ye olde shanty part two - the back house, was built in the 80's, is nestled between two enormous trees and kind of hard to see from anywhere other than inside the compound. SUPES SNEAKY. also, like half of that NO RAILINGS NO PROBLEM deck sitch is coming down monday.
PHOTOS BELOW.
although we are on the fringes of very amazing historic districts of montrose, there are no historical aspects of the front house for us to try and preserve, which is why we went into this with the plan to completely gut and renovate the front house. that sucker has been a rental since maybe the 80's and needs new EVERYTHING. did i mention it has two types of termites? it does. so does le back house, so the termite tents go up on monday. good news: termite tents are cheap. if your jealousy is still consuming you, i encourage you to please keep reading.
we need to get our shiz in order with the structural people and our architect, because there are foundation issues (natch) to fix first, and then some general concern that ye olde shanty: front house may just need to RIP forever, if the rot situation is too great. however, if it is deemed salvagable, the loose plan is to open up and enlarge the stair, wrap the stair into the entry a bit (because the step-to-riser ratio is beyond wrong and scary), create a new route into the kitchen, open up the dining room, add a butler's pantry and clearer access to the powder bath, enlarge the kitchen, enclose the laundry room (currently accessible by exiting to the out of doors through the dining room and walking down the deck) and add a second bathroom upstairs, plus put some killer porch situations and garage back where everything got ripped off. plus all new everything else.
obvs, the front house is inhabitable. like for awhile? so the back house, slightly smaller and in considerably better shape (IN COMPARISON, NOT IN GENERAL GOOD SHAPE), will house the wilson-luebe's plus my office in the meantime. the back house was built by the current homeowner in the 80's, after she'd lived in the front house since the 60's. she'd "always wanted to live in a treehouse," so she (SHE = MERCER) and her partner built a giant treehouse, where mercer could focus on her crystal collection, butterfly sanctuary and gardening.* first level of the treehouse is a workshop and greenhouse/potting station, and the second and third floors include two bedrooms, two baths and a study. don't kid yourself-it is like, 900 square feet back there, but mercer sprang for the 1980's sub-zero and it stays, so i'm looking forward to that. it's going to be cramped when the wilson-luebe menagerie move in, especially since i work out of the house and have been adding employees left and right, but the current plan is to convert the ENTIRE back house into my office after we move to the front house, making this whole situation one big reverse mullet: party in the front, business in the back. and as my pal carolyn pointed out, deliveries in the rear? we are very mature.
here are some BEFORE pictures, which are entirely confusing, but i've broken them down as best as possible for your viewing pleasure.
view from the sky, with sophisticated macpaint scribbles for you:
front house:
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| road that goes through (which is the drive to the back house, carport for front house, and super redonk enclosed porch area with plexiglass ceiling. |
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| kind of the best view of the front? SO MUCH POTENTIAL, is what i say. also all this shit be gone. stay tuned for the demo post. |
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from inside the compound. the fence separated the front rental from the back house, and that is a kind of garage thing? that little room sticking out on the left is the laundry area, accessed from the dining room on the right. weird convenient! |
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| better view of weirdness from the deck of back house. the fence is already gone, the deck of the back house goes monday, and the magnolia is perf for a swing. PRIORITIES. please also note how that garage door structure will keep the middle of your car dry/safe! but not the sides. makes sense. |
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| front door on the left, and this huge space is entry and living room. or entry, sitting room and living room? the opening on the right is into the dining room. |
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| from the fireplace wall. creepers enclosed stair, double door to side deck (which might pop out to be a direct route the kitchen. wood floors under this carpet are totes not salvageable - EMOTICON SAD FACE. also worth mentioning that at the top of that stair landing, there are four identical steps down into the kitchen. |
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| dining room. opening leads to powder bath and kitchen. or you know, go out the doors, outside, for laundry time! |
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| kitchen. ZZZZZZZZZZ. |
back house:
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| back house tree house. under the deck, there are three carports. road that goes through the property is on the left. entrance to potting area is on the left, and the woodshop is under the portion on the right. |
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| entrance to potting area. rickety stairs. |
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| more of the same. this is approximately 1% of the terra cotta plant and pots situation. |
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| up the stairs, entrance to living room. please note giant crystal rock formations and cacti, which were left behind and are MINE now. |
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| living room, currently getting a heavy dose of benjamin moore's decorator's white on all walls and ceilings, plus those 45-degree pine floors and open stairs are all getting painted. PAINTED, y'all. and i went with black because i couldn't talk myself out of it. the tree is like, 35 years old and they left it, but we are not sure it will live through the termite gassing, or live outside in houston's hot as balls summer while we gas, but we will try to save it. there's a door behind the tree that goes to the downstairs bedroom. PLEASE NOTE COPIOUS AMOUNT OF CRYSTALS. |
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| living into dining. fireplace. hats. skulls and crystals ERRYWHURRR. louvered doors go to downstairs bath (and are now a solid door, privacy, WTF), opening on the left is to the kitchen, doors on right are out to the deck. |
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| mas living room hats skulls crystals. |
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| kitchen. cabinets getting some white paint and we are adding open shelves and cabinet hardware. in a dream world, i swap out the counters and fixtures, but for now, we are focusing on the front house. |
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| downstairs bedroom. no me gusta beds on angles. |
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| upstairs bedroom, larger than it looks, but becomes office. bathroom to the left. |
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| study upstairs, which is open to the bedroom. those ghetto shelves are gone and that creepy closet is where you go when you are very, very naughty. |
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| upstairs bath, with the cutest tiniest clawfoot tub ever. that mirror thing on the wall is gone, that sconce's days are numbered. |
*TOTALLY NORMAL, right? we never did meet her partner, who had already
moved, but during the purchasing process, we did get to know mercer and
her man lover/brother/man friend/on-site helper/part three of a love
triangle/WE HAVE NO IDEA, but he lived there too, henry. mercer is one
of the most bizarre and delightful people i've EVER met - she has thus
far told me stories about the frequent alien visitations that occurred
during the 60's and 70's, her previous career as a muralist painting
cloudscapes in NYC penthouse rotundas, the massive healing crystals
collection she has compiled over the years, and the biggest weiner she
has ever seen, plus also a litany of LSD trips she enjoyed over the years. mercer smokes virginia slims, is always wearing sunglasses and UGGGGGGs, and wrote LOVE GRATITUDE on EVERYTHING, even inside the refrigerator. mercer also tucked bird feathers into just about every doorway; does anyone know what this means?
