House #5 - Marvin Zindler's House!!!

Our next house is special because it was previously owned by Marvin Zindler. For those who don't know who Marvin Zindler is, he was an investigative reporter here in Houston. He got his big break bringing down The Chicken Ranch. Rent "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" which is based on that story.

Here is the front of the house. We are really lucky that the landscaping is such good condition. I am also thrilled that is has a WORKING sprinkler system! It is the little things that make me happy. Hahaha.

Here is the entryway. Off the entry is the dining room and parlor. The dining room is currently a step-down from the rest of the house. We plan on raising the floor to make everything level.

The family room is probably the most dramatic with the red carpet. In the picture below you can see the sun room. This will be a great place to curl up with a book once we move in.

In this picture you can see the kitchen. We are tearing down the cabinets overhead to open it up to the family room. We are unable to level the counter because the sink is on that side of the kitchen.

There was a built-in desk in the family room. We are tearing it out and this will be where the entertainment center will be.

Here are pictures of the kitchen. We are tearing out the cabinets that jut into the kitchen and rebuilding them extended along the wall. This should give plenty of cabinet space. We are also thinking about installing a wine cooler.

The house has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Back in the 80's they remodeled turning the 4 bedroom house into a 3 bedroom house. The space from that bedroom was used to expand the master bathroom and the master closet. Both are now very large for the area.

Here is the closet...

Marvin would take 2 hours to get ready in the mornings. I can believe it seeing the number of mirrors he had around the master bath and bedrooms. There was a mirror on each door in those rooms and several on the walls.

He even had a chandelier on the ceiling of his bedroom.

Here are some pictures of the 2nd full bath.

Here are some pictures of the backyard. The landscaping is in great shape so we really lucked out.

House #4 - The Work Continues

So I messed up and didn't make it over to the house with the camera before the work started on this house. Therefore I only have pictures of the progress. This house is mostly cosmetic but it wouldn't be home repair if we didn't come across problems. We recently found an issue in the attic that will hopefully not turn into a major issue.

The master bath shower had to be tiled.



The entry floor was redone.



The fireplace was stripped down and tiled.



The kitchen is a basic galley-style that we can't do too much to open it up.







The painters have started and will hopefully be done soon so we can put this house on the market!!

House #3 - The Bathrooms

We have been very happy with the way the tiling (the biggest part of this remodel) has gone. The bathrooms have turned out very nice.

Here is the master bath...



And the guest bath...

House #3 - The Fireplace

I have been extremely happy with the way the fireplace turned out on this house. Here is the before picture...



One of the guys putting the finishing touches...



And the final product...



I still need to clean out the trash that has gotten in there through out the remodel though!

House #3 - It finally passed!!!

We finally received the green tag to move forward with the shower in the master bath!! We received the first red tag because they issued the permit for the wrong address. And because Justin's license doesn't match the address of the house he couldn't get a homeowner's permit even though he owns the house! Can someone please explain that to me? Therefore we had to pay someone to claim the work that Justin had already done.

House #3 - Coming Along

Our third house is coming right along. At this point the painting has started and is just about done. The tile is currently going in. As you can see we took at the wall inbetween the family room at the dinning room. You probably can't tell from the pictures but the layout of this house is the exact same as the house on Burlinghall.


Paint as been completed.....well except for the baseboards. So the lights are starting to be installed.


This was a big delima.......what to do about the fireplace. When I first bought the house I was orignally planning on taking it out but then after removing the sheetrock and taking a better look at it, figured it can stay......Might have just been the cheap side of me coming into play but after it is covered in Travertine it should look pretty good.



It took a little long to finish the kitchen than I had planned.....probably because everytime I was off I kept getting called into work. I desided to move around the appliances in order to give it an open feel to the family room. The range used to be on the right and now will be in the cutout of the cabinets and the fridge will be on the right.

There used to be a makeup nook but that has been taken out to make room for a larger shower....

That is currently being held up because of the city's inability to issue a permit to the correct address. Government is great!!!

Below you can see that the tile has started going in. Now we tried to find a nice tile to make this place stand out......so of course we had to go with Travertine. Probably too nice of a floor for the area but oh well.

Here We Go Again - House #3

It is that time again...here are the pictures from House #3. We are hoping to have this one done quick since it is just a flip. As of right now we have no plans to move in to this house.

The utility room has large cabinets for storage.



The guest bathroom is going to be updated with granite countertops and new floors. We also refinish the tub.



The master bathroom is also going to be updated with granite countertops and new floors. We will also redo the shower and make it larger by removing the little makeup desk you can see in the master bedroom.







The hallway looks like a jumble of doors right now.



The entry way will change dramatically because we are taking out walls and the entry way closet (don't worry...there's a closet just inside the hallway).



The kitchen will be updated with granite countertops, new cabinet doors, and new floors. We will be adding a pantry.





The breakfast area.



The family will get a makeover with walls removed, new floors, and recessed lighting. We also have plans to run wires for the new buyer in case they want to put a TV above the fireplace.





The dining room and parlor will get new floors. The wall between the dining room and family room will be removed to open the house.







The guest bedrooms are typical for the area. They will get new carpet.







The outside will get a little sprucing. We will add some color to the flower beds.