Jeff's First Retirement Project

Even before Jeff entered retirement, he has always had a strong interest in real estate investments. When we moved to Dubai we had to sell our rental property in northwest Houston, and Jeff has been anxious to purchase another one since returning to Texas. Once his retirement began, finding and fixing up a rental home was top on his list. After months of pouring over property listings, he purchased a nice 4-bedroom home in Cinco Ranch that needed some cosmetic TLC. For the next month, he spent every single day over there managing contractors and doing back-breaking work to get the house back to its former glory as a nice family home. Looking back, we are both so thankful that he had this project to work on as the Covid-19 quarantine situation grew from days to weeks to months.

The list of Jeff's projects at the house seemed endless at first - replacing appliances, replacing and installing all new kitchen and bathroom plumbing and lighting fixtures, repainting every exterior and interior surface, replacing cabinet doors/drawers, framing bathroom mirrors, acid-washing the floor tile grout, replacing exterior and interior hardware, repairing and replacing the exterior fencing, trimming the overgrown trees and replacing all front landscaping, replacing all light bulbs and smoke detector batteries, and most of all, deep cleaning every surface throughout the house. Whew, I'm exhausted just typing all of that!

In the end, Jeff's hard work was well worth it. When he brought our realtor over to view the house after he had completed his projects, she said that she almost drove by because she didn't recognize it anymore. When she toured the interior, she was floored and said that it looked like a brand new home. It was so gratifying for Jeff to hear that his hard work had paid off. Here are some before and after photos.

The biggest difference in the house transformation to me was the front exterior yard and elevation. Jeff and Kevin worked so hard on the landscaping to clear out the front yard and clean it all up. It went from hidden and overgrown to a bright and fresh exterior with great curb appeal. The exterior and interior paint was also a big improvement as was the interior tile/grout cleaning. It's amazing what a different tile grout makes! Here are some additional photos of the work along the way.

So proud of Jeff and his hard work! The house looks amazing and no doubt it will be snatched up by a new tenant or home buyer very soon.