History Mystery

One of the benefits of any bozPROJECT is the thrill of discovering the history of the home. The problem - we do not have time to go to the county records and do our sleuthing the old fashioned way. Instead, we piece things together from the found objects between floorboards, in cabinets, in the attic...wherever we discover them.

"So," you ask, "what have you found so far?

Well, thanks for asking. We have found a little. A picture of the most recent owner, some false eyelashes, dental floss, riding tack, an award for years of service. What can one deduce from this? The previous owner is an eighty year old-ish male, respected in his profession, who enjoys riding. And his Dentist would be so proud! The eyelashes, I cannot explain.

To be fair, I already know the previous owner. Albeit, I only know him as a brief acquaintance. But I do know enough to know that the eyelashes probably belong to someone else.

"How did you know him?" You may be asking yourself.

Good question. Actually, how we knew him says a lot about how we find these investments in the first place. (You didn't think we just picked up a Scene or Tennessean one day and picked this house out of the 'lineup', did you?)

I got a call from my dear friend and fellow Realtor, Dee Davis, some months ago asking for advice on staging and pricing her father's home. I get a lot of those calls. I always say the same thing, "Tough to figure unless I can actually come by, do a walkthrough, calculate a little..."

We did the walkthrough and the math and we came up with a few interesting conclusions. They could sell it as is. For about a $15,000 investment in staging they could do a mini makeover that would make the house worth $50,000 more in profit for Dad. For about $150,000 investment, they could make the house worth $400,000 more in profit for Dad.

Dad was up for the staging, but not the massive renovation. Long story, short...Turns out the bozTEAM was up for the massive renovation. And Dad got to sell the house as is.

And he was nice enough to sell it to us at what he, we and the bank all feel is a fair price. And he was also nice enough to extend the financing deadline beyond what we originally planned while the bank made sure it was a fair price.

"So what?" You ask. "Sounds like he was nice."

Well, Sherlock, that's just the surface. If you are going to be a real detective, you need to dig deeper...

Check out Dee's last name again - Davis. That's Dee's maiden name. (Bachelors - take heed - not married, ironwoman...but that's another blog).

When I first walked into Dee's Dad's house, before I knew him; they had not yet packed or moved. So there were pictures - pictures of family. And just left of the front door was a beautifully painted portrait of a certain Mr. Davis. I recognized him from the news, from local magazines. A regular celebrity. A celebrity who was voted 'The person you least want sitting across the courtroom from you'. Maclin Davis. Of Waller, Lansden, Dortch and ...

When I walked into the house, I knew I wanted to buy it and restore it to it's original ranch-ness. As this house is telling me to buy it, my gut is telling me to buy it RIGHT, "Because, you do not want to screw up a legal transaction with Maclin Davis."

Maybe I was being silly to be scared. Maclin is so sweet. Heck, prior to closing, I was lucky enough to hear him and his lovely wife, Joan, play a piano tune and sing at a party. We even shared a martini - gin, dirty, stirred as not to bruise the gin...of course. But always in the back of my mind was , "Don't mess up."

And then, at the closing table, I realized I was not the only one scared. My banker took a look down at the name on the documents and winced, too. turns out he had seen that name before - on divorce papers. Yikes! Now that's scary!

But all that is behind us now. The papers are signed, the massive debt is officially our responsibility to spend wisely and payoff quickly, and I am lucky to have learned a little bit more about Maclin Davis from items found at the house.

In honor of Maclin, the house now has a name. All great estates need a name. This house deserves to be called an estate because it sprawls on almost an acre in the BelleMeade area. And this estate's name is Macnolia. A fine, southern name to honor a fine, southern gentleman!

We do not have time to learn about other past owners yet. We are busy taking down wallpaper and testing paint colors at the moment. That's where you come in...let us know who else lived in 407 Page and what you can find out about them. And if you are creative enough (I can go to the online tax records and look up my names on my own, thank you very much); there may be a prize in it for you. Yep, a prize! Something fabulous from among the treasures we did up at this old house. So blog us your stories about the past Page proprietors!

What does an architect see?

I don't know, but apparently it is from the front of the house between 45-60 degrees. Plans coming soon!

Peeling Back the Layers

Now tell me, please somebody...Why would anyone cover this floor with THAT? These are the layers that we uncover as we embark on these renovation journeys. This morning, I thought I would share a layer or two with you. Let's start with the guest bath. Under the lovely 1980's raised panel, wood and melamine vanity there used to be quite a different vanity. Hard to tell what, but it was the same footprint. We determined this by the tile below. It was never under the vanity. Each vanity had a small, built in wall cabinet above it - evidenced by the holes in the wall below the 8ft mirror.

And, oh, the tile! Under the quite common 1980's ceramic there is a treasure. Flat, impeccably installed, basketweave blue.

What to do with the tile? We cannot match it. Trusts me, I spent three solid days trying.

The new, more modern vanities will not cover the bare space below the current vanity. We will probably add a new layer. Shame, really. But we promise to make the new tile something spectacular. And we will always have the memories of this. Not to mention, it would be impossible to remove. Everything in this house was installed with the utmost skill and care. Which means this particular tile is embedded in about three inches of solid concrete. Not just your everyday, average concrete, but concrete harder than boz's own hard head! So the tile will stay below whatever we choose to add to the next layer.

And then there is the wallpaper. Top layer: A pale oriental toile scene. Expertly installed, once again. Below it, a child's print - clearly from the 80's. Bright, primary colored jukeboxes set on a black and white spotted ground. Nuff said. Then the next layer - green foil paper. 1970's? 1960's? My favorite so far. And finally, the 1954 fabric wallpaper with delicate, widely spaced flowers. We saved a few bits for the scrapbook.

Another layer - the tub surround. Ah, yes, the tub surround. A stunning plastic substance of some sort. I believe it was fabricated to look like stone (albeit, an unnatural brown/grey colored stone with very symmetrical veins. They were solid panels when last I saw them. Now, nothing more than broken shards in the hall on the way to the tightly packed dumpster.

There you have it. The layers peeled. We now have a blank canvas on which to paint our new masterpiece. And a blister. I also have a huge blister from wielding the wallpaper removal trowel.

Progress is relative....

While great strides have been made in the last few days, there is always more to be done. For all the wallpaper that goes down, walls must be smoothed and prepped for paint. When tile is taken down, new will follow. It's sort of like Newton's Law of Renovation: for every action (removing wallpaper) there is an equal and opposite reaction (cleaning the walls and painting).

bozPROGRESS

Progress takes on a whole new meaning when you are doing a renovation with a construction loan. The loan progresses, whether you want it to or not. In fact, we already got our first payment statement, not two weeks after we closed. Progress is relative, for sure.

Example: Certainly, boz and Robert made considerable progress completely gutting the steam shower in the old master bath. (Don't worry - it will go back bigger and better than ever.) We three girls made some good progress tearing up the old (new...not matching all the other old...at a higher level than every other floor in the house...stained the wrong color) hardwoods in the den. boz and Robert also made progress: tearing out crown molding everywhere, repairing plaster at ceilings, removing bathroom floors (and, oh, by the way, exposing the basket weave tile set in 2 inch concrete in the hall bath that, although in excellent condition, does not cover the entire floor, could not possibly be matched in the shower enclosure and may not be saved), removing vanities, mirrors and more in bathrooms. There is definitely progress. Even this weekend, boz and I completed wallpaper removal in the hall bath and most of the same in the old master.

But progress comes at a price. In our case the price is the mess. Because the dumpster arrived a day later than anticipated and after much of the progress occurred; it is not quite loaded. But the den is (loaded with cabinets and vanities and mirrors and wood flooring). And the old master is (loaded with carpet and molding and tile remnants). And the hall is (loaded with tile and plywood and showe surround paneling). Which brings us to this week's challenge. Packing that dumpster like the trunk of the car on a family roadtrip. Our first official expense this week will be hiring a team of workers to help with that. There are volumes of tile and mortar and molding and trim and carpet and tack strips and I could go on and on. Time to move 'em out and clear this space for the finishing touches.

Yep, you read right. At least two guest bedrooms are ready for paint choices. Any ideas? I'll be picking out some favorites and testing over the next week. By this weekend, you may see a finished room or two. And here we are, week two, without even a full set of plans. Progress is relative.