I've posted here and there, asking for help for our home. I've made jokes about the awful state my in-laws left it in, but my husband and I were always on the same page - it was bad. My mother in law also acknowledged that it was pretty bad, while my father in law thought the house was perfect and move in ready for a family of 4.
Anyways, this house was built in 1968 and my in-laws have owned it since the 70's. They gave it to my husband as part of his inheritance and moved out of state. We no longer have a house payment (HUZZAH!) so that is a miracle in itself, but we've had to put a lot of money into the house to clean it up (we do pay insurance and taxes on the home, though). It was bad. Bad, bad. We moved from a brand new home (moved in the day after it was done being built) to a home that was so run down, I literally cried every day for a good 6 months. We moved in 2 1/2 years ago and finally started to really concentrate on the outside, because, damn it, I like fire pits and s'mores and wanted to have a nice area for my kids to play in.
And I was tired of the neighbors always giving us that look - you know, the one that says, "THAT is an ugly damn house."
I'll eventually post more pictures of the inside, but today - this is about the outside. The inside was a whole other animal, and it was what we tackled first (because let's be honest, when you live in Florida, you spend more time indoors than out in the summers).
Most pictures have the before shots on the left, current pictures (taken this weekend) on the right. Pictures were taken as close to the original spot as I could get. The house is being finished being painted as I type this, so the front door/porch area isn't done.
You couldn't see the house at all when we moved in. My father in law thought the yard was immaculate and planted...stuff...everywhere. It caused a lot of issues with the septic system, the house itself (critters able to have easy access to the soffit and tearing holes in it - the rat stories are for another day). When you look at Google maps, you literally cannot see the house. The day I ripped out the crap by the front door (which was barely accessible), my father in law was hella pissed at me. Oh well.
The color was originally a peachish pink, with green siding and shutters. The funny thing is, there was a wall repaired 6 months before we moved in and the contractors were able to perfectly match that hideous color somehow. We changed it to these colors: Valspar Homestead Resort Tea Room Cream (for the main exterior), Almond Cream (siding/soffits), Swiss Chocolate (shutters), La Fonda Antique Red (will be the door when that is done). The house was covered in vines, spider webs, wasp nests, random wires that didn't do anything, etc.
That green plant by the front door? Well, apparently that's an indoor plant. It morphed into this thing that was a bitch to tear down. All stumps that you see in the yard will be ground down in the next few weeks. We took off the "eyebrow" things over the windows because as someone said in an older thread when I was asking for paint help, they just looked odd. No one else in this area even has those items on their windows. (Remember - front porch/front door area isn't 100% done yet, it's being painted today). This grass and landscaping will be taken care of at a later date.
When we originally moved in, my husband didn't remember there being a full driveway there. Years of my father in law letting the yard debris/dirt/etc took it over. It took 3-4 hours to uncover that, and I was surprised it was as long as it was. We have to spend time fixing the end of it, but that's for another weekend. Middle picture is when we originally uncovered the driveway 2 years ago.
To the right of the driveway:
Excuse my lovely Disney Cruise Line chairs back there We are eventually buying nicer chairs. The blue thing is a blow up pool; nice little set up we do with the playground for the 5 year old.
Left side of the driveway:
Unfortunately, grass is never going to grow here. For starters, we have a well and no sprinklers set up - the well is VERY TINY and we're looking at a $5-10k bill at getting that upgraded. Anyways, the 30+ years of leaves on the ground have made the ground too acidic for grass, so we're going to have pine needles put down as a decent looking landscape option (we've had 4 different landscapers come out and tell us the same thing about the grass, so it's a lost cause there, apparently). A few more of those trees in here, the smaller ones, have to be cut down and hauled away. They are causing issues and all 4 landscapers and 2 tree removal places all recommended getting rid of them.
Another shot of the left side of the driveway:
I forgot to go get a shot from where this original picture was taken, I'll do that tonight - but this wall of bushes (yes, bushes) was to the left of the driveway.
The roof was nasty. There were tree branches resting all over it (they were gone in these before shots, but the black areas are where they were resting), and in some areas, trees were actually GROWING on the roof. Acorns were falling off and growing up there. Ridiculous.
I'll have to get a few more shots in the next day or so of various areas of the yard, because the house just wasn't visible. The house was also covered in wires (we never figured out what they were all for), jerry rigged with random crap, and was just filthy. These two photos show the level of gunk on it - the siding was half cleaned before painted, and the amount of wasp nests (and a random wire that wasn't used for anything!) behind the "eyebrows".
We replaced the ancient light and doorbell with this nifty acorn looking one. And the doorbell has a neat LED light so you can actually see it at night. Yes, the door is a mess - that's being taken off today or tomorrow and sanded down/repainted/sealed. The door area is HUGE and we don't want to invest $3k on a door for that spot right now.
We did get the firepit in, and I was excited to have 2 nights of s'mores and quiet sitting outside. We live behind Disney and can hear and see the fireworks, so that was awesome to do on the 4th of July with a beer in hand. Again, ignore the chairs - we are chair shopping for new ones. And again, the grass is being worked on. The dirt on the pavers was because we've had non-stop rain the past 2 weeks, and it just pushes dirt everywhere - obviously have to fix that.
Basically, we're exhausted. We have a lot of yard work ahead of us yet (want to try and get grass in the front, plant flowers in some areas, put down a walk way to the front door, have to grind down stumps, hire tree company to cut down branches we didn't dare do ourselves). And this is just the outside. The inside was a totally different story (and worse than the outside, believe it or not).
We know this will never be a perfect, gorgeous home - but we think we're doing an okay job getting it cleaned up.
Wow, that is seriously impressive - the before and after photos are just incredible. I am assuming that your inlaws are a lot older and never really could see what the house truly looked like to others. It was like it was frozen in time to them for having lived there so long.
You have done an amazing job. I probably would have cried every day too if I moved there after living in a brand new home.
Wow, that is seriously impressive - the before and after photos are just incredible. I am assuming that your inlaws are a lot older and never really could see what the house truly looked like to others. It was like it was frozen in time to them for having lived there so long.
You have done an amazing job. I probably would have cried every day too if I moved there after living in a brand new home.
What plans do you have for the interior?
They're in their late 60's. My father in law was an engineer and honestly felt like things looked terrific. My kids were extremely angry for a good year after we moved, because we took them from a brand new house and a nice yard to...this. It was hard explaining to them that it really is a better neighborhood, better schools, it's a MUCH bigger home - but the home needed a lot of love and work. I felt like I was going insane on a daily basis because there has always just been WORK to do. I mean, the bedrooms had linoleum floors that had literally never been cleaned with more than a broom in 30+ years, dust all over everything, black mold in various areas....
The inside is half done. We have to gut the Florida room and completely redo it, have to get lighting in a living room, completely gut the kid's bathroom and redo it - it's literally 3 notebook pages long of work that has to still be done. As a small idea, this was another thread I was asking for help on: pandce.proboards.com/thread/343557/living-room-dark-suggestions
Wow. You have made such HUGE progress. I can't believe your FIL thought that all that filth and overgrowth was pretty. :\
He doesn't know what everything looks like right now. They'll be back in October for a visit. I anticipate fireworks. And I don't mean from Disney.
(it's our house, we are free to do what we want now, but still - you know he's going to blow a gasket)
I would send them pictures now..photos with the grandchildren in them to soften the blow. That way the fireworks might be downgraded to a sparkler by the time they come for a visit.
The difference really is amazing. Glad you removed the eyebrow. ;p
I LOLed at the first pic b/c you can't even see the house behind the overgrowth! Awesome job! Your FIL is nuts.
The day that we started clearing out stuff, people were LITERALLY stopping in the middle of the street and staring. A few yelled out that they didn't even know that the house was there, someone else wanted to know if the house was abandoned.
Of course, the nosey neighbor that is across the street from us comes over once a week to rave about the amazing work we've done and how horrid it looked before. Thanks?
Post by demandypants on Jul 9, 2014 12:11:38 GMT -5
I am tired just looking at those pictures! I can only imagine the effort needed to clean up that yard. Love the house colors you went with too! It must be so satisfying to look at the before photos and see how far you have come! (I know it is my favorite part!)
My dad has a similar mentality to you FIL. He thinks anything green and growing is a good thing. Luckily he lives in PA where things don't grow so fast as FL.
My dad has a similar mentality to you FIL. He thinks anything green and growing is a good thing. Luckily he lives in PA where things don't grow so fast as FL.
That's where my FIL moved to. They bought a farm and he has spent the last 2 years planting trees all over the place. I am scared to see what that place looks like now.
My dad has a similar mentality to you FIL. He thinks anything green and growing is a good thing. Luckily he lives in PA where things don't grow so fast as FL.
That's where my FIL moved to. They bought a farm and he has spent the last 2 years planting trees all over the place. I am scared to see what that place looks like now.
Oh my GOD. Generations of farmers who worked hard to clear that ground for farming must be dying a long slow torturous (second) death .
That's where my FIL moved to. They bought a farm and he has spent the last 2 years planting trees all over the place. I am scared to see what that place looks like now.
Oh my GOD. Generations of farmers who worked hard to clear that ground for farming must be dying a long slow torturous (second) death .
It was gorgeous land, too. My MIL said she knows there are at least 100 new trees. I try to stay far away from those conversations.
My dad has a similar mentality to you FIL. He thinks anything green and growing is a good thing. Luckily he lives in PA where things don't grow so fast as FL.
Pitterwoo, here's a sneak peek to what we were dealing with - this was the garage about a week before we moved in. (They left a lot of stuff there, the washer/dryer/millions of flammable items like those oil containers were all left by them.) This is the entrance to the house that is used every day. I don't have an after pic, but I can assure you, it's not quite this scary today.