My Personal Home: The “Before”
The story of our home, and how it came to be ours, is really a wild one. Lengthy novel made short: I stalked it. It was all but abandoned, and I was drawn to its decrepitness the moment I laid eyes on it, ten years ago. I desperately wanted to be the one to save it, for I knew its fate in any other hands would be an unfortunate one: a contractor-grade renovation, or total demolition (since there are no overlays that protect the property historically). Thinking that owning it was completely beyond the realm of possibilities, I always said I would chain my body to the porch the day the wrecking ball came. I was NOT about to let this 1907 gem get torn down.
And wouldn’t you know, all that dreaming, longing, and stalking paid off. We had to pay to buy the house completely sight unseen (literally couldn’t lay eyes on it until we’d walked away with a padlock key from the closing table) and make an offer that no other investor could justify as a reasonable investment…but our love-blindness paid off. The lawyer even told us there was a stack of papers a foot high on her desk from other hopeful buyers trying to acquire the property, yet somehow we walked away with the deed. And, to top it all off, the house number was 18 – our lucky number.
And yes, it was in REALLY rough shape. But I could barely even see the piles of racoon feces inside, the rotting box gutters, peeling walls and floors, or crumbling masonry. I only saw her potential, and the state of glory she could be restored to. So now that the Southern Living Magazine article has made its debut with the finished photos of our home, and you’ve seen the potential she was worthy of, I thought I’d give you a little glimpse into how it all started…Proud Mary’s “before” era:
And just in case you’re intrigued by our story and want to read a bit more, here’s a link to an article our neighborhood association published shortly after we purchased the property.
https://www.mentelle.org/2020/03/27/good-news-about-18-mentelle-park/
