Houston House
At the end of September we bought a house in Houston's Westmoreland Historic District, at the Downtown edge of Montrose. Built in the early part of the 20th century, it's classed as "Victorian" in style and is fairly typical of the neighborhood.
We loved the character of the house and could see a huge amount of potential: although there was a bit of work to be done, it was mainly cosmetic.
From purchase in October 2005 we kept track of the work being done with a photo diary. The main renovation took place in November and December 2005: termite fumigation, foundation tightening, moving some internal walls and doorways, installing a new air conditioning system, re-doing the downstairs bathroom, painting inside and out and refinishing the wooden floors.
The first quarter of 2006 saw work start on the new kitchen, new blinds were installed throughout, final touch-ups were done and we went about getting all the city inspections approved. Mum tidied up a significant amount of the garden in February and the kitchen was completed in April. In May and June we hung a few pictures and had some new light fixtures installed; in October our yard guys did quite a bit of work on the garden. It's been a year since we bought the house and we've managed to do all the major work and even most of the minor things!
Photos of the whole process are below: