FROM MUNSTER MANSION TO MAGNIFICENT

Above is the before and after pictures of our most recent renovation project that we refer to as "Indian Bend".  The home was very well built and sat on a well-manicured street in an affluent neighborhood with excellent schools.   In this particular area, city officials literally run around with rulers measuring grass and issuing citations for slightly overgrown grass, the former owner had obtained a "naturals cape" variance, allowing over 120 water-guzzling cedar trees to take root. After almost 30 years of neglect and hoarding, what was hiding behind the overgrown landscape was also not much of a “looker”.  

The home was built in 1987 and had no updating and, again was feeling a bit neglected.  Dining room:

Secondary Bedroom:

Master Bath:

Master Bath:

Study(Became the master closet during the remodel):

Guest Half Bath:

From kitchen doorway looking through living room.  Fireplace that we took out and replaced with windows is on the left.  This helped with the darkness of the room:  

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to buy the property, but when we got a phone call five days before the scheduled closing saying the house had experienced a significant fire during the night, we had to stop and re-evaluate the building challenges and investment potential of this property.  The structural damage appeared to be be limited to the garage, but there was smoke and soot throughout the whole house.  Having several decent-sized residential re-do’s under out belts (not to mention Virgil’s 35 years of building experience before we joined forces), we decided to go forward with the sale.  Naturally, the fire made a bad situation much worse.

 Another reason maintaining the grout around your tub is a good idea!  Smoke found its way out of every crack and crevice in the house.

 The part of the house adjacent to the garage included the master bath, master bedroom and kitchen.  Here are pictures of those areas after the fire.

 The former garage

Thanks to the fire restoration companies and the former homeowners' insurance claim process, we had a pretty detailed idea of what needed to be done to eliminate the smoke damage to the house.  Thankfully (we think!), we didn’t anticipate ALL of the challenges, delays, costs and setbacks we were about to encounter or surely we would have run for the hills after that phone call.  I’ll share only one “low point” during our adventure and spare you the daily, weekly and monthly ups and downs.  

A year after we had removed all the drywall in the house, replaced a significant number of framing members, sanded and sealed all of the remaining framing members with a specialized encapsulant for smoke-all expenses anticipated and mostly covered by the seller’s homeowners’ insurance-the house still smelled like smoke.  Alas, it was determined that the smoke had permeated the Austin stone on the outside of the house and the only way to get rid of the smell was to remove and replace all of that stone-an expense not covered by insurance. (Read:  Cha ching!!!).  We were already several months behind schedule due to delays in the insurance and fire inspection process and that expense was definitely not in our renovation timeline or budget.   Right after the deafening sound of all the "cha chings" ringing in our ears, there was a distinctive sound all the way around Indian Bend of all of the wind going out of our sails that day.

When it was all said and done, we had owned this house right at two years when we completed the renovations.  That's two years of fire investigations,  insurance negotiations, waiting for regular permits and inspections and special inspections and approvals required due to the smoke damage, after learning all the ins and outs of how to get rid of smoke damage and smells, property taxes, insurance, tormenting the neighbors, and most of all, tons of hard work by the two of us and our wonderful team.  Other than the two Halloweens we provided a very authentic-looking haunted house on the street, we’re quite certain the neighbors feared the nightmare on Indian Bend would never end.  We didn't see any dancing in the streets, but we imagined a giant roar rising up from the crowd as the last dumpster and work truck drove away.    The following “before and after” slide show represents the fruits of our labor.  We hope you enjoy the show.

To see all 50 "after" pictures in full size, along with a few panoramic pictures of this completed project, go to http://www.tourfactory.com/1401945

If the link doesn't work for you, copy and paste the url into your browser.  Thank you for looking!  Please check back to see before and after pictures of some of our other renovation projects.