Actually our neighbor that sold us the house was living in Washington state. He had rented it to a family and was an absentee owner/landlord. Unfortunately the renters did not take care of the house. They had kept 3 cocker spaniels...not housebroken inside, 2 cats and 2 teenagers and a very foul mouth mother. Father was always gone. She would stand in the yard and curse her children. We were pleasant to her anyway.....one time I found a used condom in a plastic pepsie bottle thrown over the privacy fence in my yard
...then came the trampoline and 2 televisions tossed over the balcony into the trash heap at the bottom....growing day by day.
We called our neighbor, Chris and he said he was planning on coming this way in about a month. He told the renters he was coming to town and they packed up and left quickly...leaving a mess. We had no idea it was that bad in there....It wasn't fit for the dogs much less the children. Poor Chris had biuilt that house, he was in tears. He was at a loss as to what to do. So we all got together and Chris started ripping out carpet, having dumpsters brought for trash removal, etc. After the place was gutted he was still overwhelmed. He decided he didn't want to put the money back into fixing it up. We bought it from him with the intentions of having it torn down. To later build garages, guest house and swimming pool to our house.
My daughter had some difficulties and needed some help so we bleached and disinfected the whole house. We painted, carpeted, linoleumed, installed stove and refrigerator, wired the balcony for her cats and serviced the a/c, heater, etc. She lived there for a year and a half. So we actually undid our own hard work. Hubby was able to recycle the new carpert and pad to another of our rentals, also the stove and fridge. The dishwasher stayed in the bird aviary kitchen. I think Chris, the original owner would be tickled... he really enjoyed my birds when he was visiting. He really expected it to be torn down by now. We still will demolish the building eventually., but in the meantime I am putting it to good use
I am enclosing a pic of the downstairs room that my husband has some stuff stored....you'll get an idea of the improvement this house has seen
This was actually the nicest room in the house....... I guess this was the kids party room and they painted Pink, Orange, Blue, White with FLOWERS. The carpet strip was left bare..... the entrance to the upstairs we redid to match the upper story. There is also a laundry room on the bottom floor. One day we will organize the main downstairs into neat storage...right now it holds 2 freezers (one for bird seed) and just a catch all for all and any junk.
So don't feel bad that we destroyed a house...we actually saved it and now are giving it yet again a new purpose
I volunteer to be the resident Strawberry, though I may be too old in finch years to produce any eggs.
With the murals you seem to get a whole new atmosphere, serene and beautiful 