Let the "Game" Begin!
TENNIS ANYONE?
Yikes ~ where has the last year gone? Somehow life got in the way & while I did remodel a "flip" house (& I have the pics to prove it) somehow I never put "pen to paper", or in this case, "fingers to keyboard" to "serve" up (the tennis stuff will soon become clear) what was the adventure that was the house in Bedford, TX.
Bedford, TX is a well-established "mid-cities" community between Dallas & Ft. Worth, TX. It's not a fancy town, more affordable than its highfalutin Southlake, Westlake, Colleyville neighbors ~ real
middle America. Without sounding like a broken "racquet", sorry record, the real estate market here is wild & finding a house to flip is becoming increasingly challenging. My agent called and said "I'm taking you to see a mid-70's, one story brick house on WIMBLETON CT, in Bedford". I chuckled to cover the desire to correct her. Clearly is was WIMBLEDON CT, a mispronunciation that makes my skin crawl. I was born in England to English parents, most of my family still lives there, coupled with how important tennis is in our family's life. - dot, dot, dot. I stifled the urge to say "Oh you must mean WIMBLEDON CT"! Well to add insult to injury, we pulled into the neighborhood & turned onto WIMBLETON DR & then onto WIMBLETON CT. A "double fault"! Really people?
The house was nothing to write home about from the outside, quite innocuous truth be told, as if its owners were limping along, just doing the minimum. It did look sad. I was reminded of a time my English mother was visiting us when we lived in Connecticut. My husband & I were in the market to buy a house & the agent called one morning to say she had a property to show me. Mummy joined me. We pulled up to a house to be greeted by the agent. In a way only my mother was capable said to the agent "Lovely to meet you. I do hope you have something more suitable to show Kirstie. If it's this dreadful on the outside, I shudder to think what it will be like on the inside". Needless to say, this Bedford house, like the Connecticut house, needed lots of work. I was up to the "match" uh, task.
The house had suffered from years of deferred maintenance and badly done updates, particularly in the kitchen & master bath; expensive to "fix", calling for creative inspiration ~ but I could do that! I also had to find a way to add a much needed 4th bedroom & bath without expanding the footprint or cheating into the garage, to be competitive in the market. Inside the house was dark and begging to be fixed. I turned my attention to the back yard, with all its overgrown landscaping, weed riddled beds & trees that were in desperate need of pruning. The bones were there for a lovely, landscaped private retreat. There was a large overhanging porch that provided much needed shade from our hot TX summers in this west facing garden. The porch overlooked a nice sized kidney-shaped pool. I sighed with relief that it wasn't a crumbling tennis court. The possible irony would not have been lost to me. But it would have taken the house from being down "2 sets to 3" & losing the "match" - or in this case the house! The court would have had to go. I wouldn't have been able to bare the absurdity. I remember thinking what would be worse, dealing with a deteriorating tennis court or with a neglected swimming pool with original 1978 equipment? Ah well, if it was to be this house it would have to be the old pool & equipment. I went back to my office, crunched some numbers, called my agent & we put in an offer. After some back and forth we agreed on a price. "Game, set" - no match yet!
To Be Continued...
