Goodbye, Texas

Leaving our house in Texas was tough.

 I felt like we did so much of putting ourselves into it, that every piece going out the door was the slam of opportunity leaving us. Painting the kitchen brown to cover our super cheerful lime green was tough.

Discovering our bed had hidden some truly awful wall damage that we'd forgotten about was okay, though. It only took a couple hours to paint that room.


It was gratifying to hear from the rental management company that our house was in 'perfect move-in condition and clean.' Even more so since I'd forgotten to keep the mop head away from the movers and it got packed, so I had to mop our wood and tile floors on my hands and knees.

Before



After

 

Our living area. It looks small in this photo to me, but with furniture you can see it's really a massive space. The entirety of the living/dining and kitchen area is 23 by 26 feet. While Paul was deployed I painted the whole space, and installed all those energy efficent window coverings. I had the contractor change out the ceiling fan with one the right size for the space, and did the floor.

 

Before

This is the same angle as the picture below, before wall removal.

 

After

 

In the dining area, we removed the wall from the kitchen to the dining area, textured the kitchen walls to match the living room wall texture, and had the whole ceiling in the common area scraped of popcorn, re textured, and over a three evening time span, Paul repainted the ceiling a clean white. We also replaced all the trim around the walls in the common areas and replaced this light fixture.

 

Before

 

After

 

With the help of some good friends, I ripped the wall paper out of the kitchen and painted the walls a cheerful lime green. Once we knew we were PCSing (moving for Paul's work), we repainted the walls a neutral brown. With the help of another friend, I painted all the upper cabinets white, and used the help of a contractor to replace all the bottom cabinets, the counter top, sink, faucet, and install the dishwasher. Obviously I also replaced the stove and fridge. And installed door handles.

 

I haven't included the pantry, but for such a small space, it sure caused a lot of trauma in my life. It also got wood flooring, along with the sealing of drywall gaps that went all the way into the attic, all new shelves, new paint, and even new baseboard trim. I did all of that myself.

 

Before

 

After

Our guest bath got a new light fixture, tile flooring to replace the carpet it had when we moved in, wall paper removal, painted cabinet base, and a over toilet cabinet replaced with open shelving.

 

 

 

Our master bath got some paint, a new light fixture, and a new larger mirrored medicine cabinet.

 

I didn't include the bedrooms (although they all got new paint, and the master got a new ceiling fan) or the hall (which got a new light, paint and new flooring) or the laundry room (new tile flooring, new paint, new light fixture, new baseboards) but you get the idea.

 

We were in this house just under two years, and everything got updated, even if all the garage got was a good cleaning and some old cabinet removal.

 

Even the front.

 

Before

 

After



We love our house and neighborhood, and I know we hope to return after our military adventures. In the meantime, if you know of anyone looking for a house for rent in Temple, TX.... email me.