Before and after

Really Nice Decoration.....

Thank you. I have a large room at the back of the house, not sure what I'm going to do with it, for now I keep the dog crates and tortoise tank there.

When I have the time I will remodel the room. So far all thats been done is the windows have been replaced with hurricane windows. I need to stucco the walls, replace the base boards and refinish the hardwood floor. Might start in January.

When do you close escrow next door? Are you going to do any work on it before you rent it out?

It's suppose to close this Friday. I don't have the time to do the work but I have a handyman friend who will be doing some of it. It really doesn't need much work. Painted on the outside, replace the kitchen and bathroom floors. I'm only concerned with the carpet, I'm going to have it taken up, hopefully there is a beautiful hardwood floor underneath, might just need refinished.

If all goes well and it closes on Friday it will be tinted on Monday!

Be sure to take more before and after photos to show off your work.

Oh I will!

I’ve already picked out the paint for the outside, similar to mine but just a slightly different color. One other problem, its on a double lot but not fenced at all. The only fence is the one that divides the two houses. So I will be having the backyard fenced. Whoever rents it may have a dog and I don’t have a problem with that seeing how I am an animal lover!

If you don't behave, I'm going to send you to design school so you can spend other people's money. (Not that you are spending money unwisely, I've no idea. But I see you as always ready to go.)

When I first studied design, I was all over redoing our house. Luv a duck, such super ideas. No way we could afford that, which was a good thing, as I was at least partly nuts. Today, or over this last weekend, long past that first design play, I saw yet another architectural team turning a local to me california bungalow into sleek modern inside a cab envelope. I'm not opposed to new wiring - but I've become resistant to change of the nature of the house. Not always, but in those particular conditions.

The starter architects in our neighborhood who later became extremely famous did that, which made the rest of us interested. A lot has been lost, with all that play that I was originally all for. Much now on the obnoxious side - tastes change, arch modes change.

I and a pal have photo'd where loss happened, before it did, at an in between time. The assumption was, for all of us playing in the beginning, that places are now better. When we photo'd that neighborhood, it was clear the change was both part of life and decimating of a culture. I suppose she and I should still write about that.

Husband and I did eventually remodel but mainly circulation changes, and kept the architectural mode. It became my baby house, to speak sentimentally. It about killed me when new owners, young architects, sleeked it up, and the next people bungalowed it again - between them making it no longer a small cottage. Sort of house torture. I admit I started it. But I think of the house as a battered animal at this point.

My cottage garden, that people used to walk by on purpose - appropriate, it was a beach cottage - became a place with a circle in front and banana plants (in a semi arid desert).


JC, I'm not trying to stop you, which sounds impossible anyway. But - you have an interest in design, I hope you explore it.

For a look at a housing tract that may interest you, look at the Gregory Ain houses in Mar Vista.

I've a friend who played with one of them, but didn't change the house nature.

Thank you Jo! I do love design but I just never seem to have the time.

I actually got my bachelors degree in finance so I do have a keen eye in investment analyst.

Who knows? If the house doesn’t rent right away I just might have the time to do some of the work myself. It’s actually a cute little home, two bedrooms, one bath, nice little den and a fireplace in the living room. Nothing has been done as far as landscaping in years. The only thing growing in the back yard is a giant oak tree, which needs trimmed. You can’t remove them in Florida, they are protected here but you can trim them back.

The lady who owned it lived there for 17 years before the bank foreclosed. We only spoke a few times, she just up and moved out one day.

They built a lot of homes in this area out of old Florida pine, termites can’t eat it, it hardens like steel over the years!

Your cottage sounds beautiful!

Yeh, I'm just yelling at you to appreciate the nature of what you've got, however decrepit, before changing it to other.

http://marvistatract.org/
look at the photos - no arches.

What no arche? lol

I think I’ll do the landscaping on the house. It has none at all. Two palm trees in the front by the street and a few bushes but nothing else. Like most houses in the area people don’t do much landscaping and after two years living here I figured out why, it’s a full time job to maintain it! But that doesn’t bother me because I love working in the yard!

Good! that will be fun..

Good golly you're enthusiastic!

I admire that kind of enthusiasm, I do.

Yes, an enthusiastic loon.
His escrow closed at 10:00 this morning. He better get busy now.

After having the kitchen tile cleaned it didn't look bad and doesn't need replaced. My carpenter friend suggests I have the rental house tinted after having the kitchen remolded. That way the new cabinets are treated. He started on it yesterday.

You mean tented, or tinted?


(so far, so good..)

Are you going to paint the ceiling beams an accent color or do the whole thing monotone?

Oh I mean tented for termites

Something like that, going to photoshop the kitchen photos and play around with them a but.

I had to get on Antonio's computer, having some issues with mine, must be a virus, keeps wanting me to download antivirus software, and wants my credit card, damn scammers!