It All Started With a Little Cleaning...

Midwest City: 1809 Sandra Drive

My oldest daughter grew up in Midwest City, Oklahoma, not far from Tinker Air Force Base. The neighborhoods there are former military housing: small, usually one bath but with vintage tiling, hardwood floors, good sized yards but hardly ever updated and very few have any curb appeal at all. It is a house-flipper's DREAM. 

I am dedicating my first blog post to Midwest City, and to the rent house we did so much work on in 2013, inside and out. 

The top photo is how we found the house after an irresponsible renter left it. It was full of trash, full of junk, and full of **POTENTIAL!**  The second photo is after we cleaned and re-staged it. Hard to believe it's even the same room.

Then we tackled the outside. The backyard was a wonderful size, but had been neglected for years. Embedded in the weeds we found all kinds of debris: silverware, bits of plastic, broken glass, old wiring, rusted tools, the list goes on. After disposing of the huge rolls of fence wire, I took a weed eater to the concrete patio to remove years of built up dirt and weeds. After treating the whole thing with round up and trimming the shrub beside it, I staged it with two outdoor chairs and an outdoor table, both of which were free (I am addicted to Freecycle.org. I will do another blog post on Freecycle... if you are not familiar with it, you should be!)  Total cost of this makeover: $0.00!

My youngest daughter agreed to help me create this flower bed. It runs the length of the back of the house. There's a story behind this garden. My oldest, Kelley, was diagnosed at age 19 with ovarian cancer. She was living in this house at the time. For her birthday, I asked all my friends and family to donate one plant to put in Kelley's new garden. Everyone pitched in, and we named it "The Giving Garden."  It was a lot of labor, but labor of love! Alex and I removed the old grass, trash and weeds, laid landscaping fabric, cut timbers for the edges, planted all the donated plants and mulched.  Donated plants included: monkey grass, bougainvillea, rose moss, some succulents, a crepe myrtle, black eye susans, a rosemary bush, another flowering bush, ivy, salvia and three agave plants. Cost for this project: timbers, fabric and mulch, about $50.

Kelley said the hardest part about leaving this house on Sandra Drive was leaving the garden behind. Personally, I loved that house. It had its problems, but with a handful of repairs it could be an awesome investment for a flip. 

Next Blog: Freecycle!