I think that there really wasn't that much actual work done to the interior of the house and it definitely could have been completed by small crew relatively quickly and I don't think that expensively either. She probably had had painters for the walls and cabinets, floor people, landscapers, and probably a general type carpenter for the doorways and trim. Keep in mind when you are ripping out flooring, painters can move in and patch and paint without have to tarp or tape things off. This saves huge amounts of time.The kitchen cabinets were left in place and merely painted. Likely the doors were removed and taken to a shop and sprayed. The face frames are rolled quickly. The new island has basic partial overlay cabinets mixed in with some beautiful architectural details like corbels and applied panel molding. Looks harder than it really is. They may even be slab drawers with applied molding. Prefinished floors would only take a few days to install. Demoing the existing would be 2 days probably. Baseboards are popped off and replaced easily, then nail holes are filled and painted. The bathroom demo would have been the most time intensive but I think tilers would have easily done the whole thing in a week. She may be waiting on glass for the shower; that is usually a long lead time for custom. I think she did a beautiful job and has a great eye. She probably had a lot of the furnishings already. The whole time the interior was being working on, the landscapers were clearing, cutting and placing the stone. The house had great bones, just needed a facelift!

So glad to see you're under contract TR, hopefully closing will go smoothly and you'll have the relief that not only did the house sell, but to someone so appreciative of it. When we were looking for a house and viewed the one we purchased, the original owners were here, an elderly couple who bought it when the subdivision was just built. It was '09 and a buyer's market mostly (Texas didn't have the huge highs and lows other regions did but still, this was a nice house that had been on the market for 6 months or so). They were selling to move into assisted care living as the elderly gentlemen had several medical problems, they showed us around the place, introduced us to 'Christine' the water fountain out back that "was staying", my hub liked them as much as the house, we made an offer very close to asking and they accepted. We talked on the phone several times, came over twice, for inspection and then to hash out when they were moving (they didn't want to leave before closing), other details of the house they wanted us to know, everything very friendly. The Mrs. had given me her e-mail address so we could stay in touch, I did sent her an email after we'd gotten moved in, no reply, I called her cell, no call back. Then problems with the house started occurring (rapidly), the sanitary line needed replacing, doors started sticking and the foundation needed levelling, the whole back fence line that looked perfectly fine until you put your hand on it and it bent backwards needed replacing, the first two years here were an endless series of expensive things that had to be done. We bought it as a forever house and it likely will be, we've sunk so much money into it it probably has to be. lol I'm getting ready to paint my computer room a rosy coral, nothing bad has happened in maybe a year so I feel like celebrating. :)

Thomas unfortunately the HEB by my house does not have anymore of them. Trust me everytime I go to HEB, I make sure to see if they have more. I have one more lime left at the house so I am hoping for some more seeds. The site that I listed on my post is the name of the farm that the finger limes I bought from HEB came from. it looks like you can order from them directly (the fruit that is) from them but you have to pay 14 bucks for the shipping. Prices are not bad, just the shipping is a bit high for some limes that do not weight that much. I also called uscitrusnursery.com and spoke to someone there that said they will start shipping outside their area in March. I plan to order one from them if they have the pink or red color finger limes. I already have 5 of the green ones and have another 11 seeds germinating. hoping to have at least 15 of these plants so I can share with all my friends and family. I am just not sure how long it will take before they start to produce fruits. because of this, I may buy one from uscitrusnursery if they are more mature and already have fruits.

@Diane R – We’ve got out budget range. So I think location is the next place to go like you said. I had a private message suggesting that we go look at as many open houses as we can. At budget, over budget, under budget. In dream neighborhoods, and ones we want to avoid. Looking at “bones” and the like. I think it will also help to see how real people decorate vs a stager/ designer for model homes! @Kingsway Plans ltd - The education aspect is very helpful. I am uninformed… when I was young my parents handled all that and I just got dropped off at the bus stop for the right school. The district made arrangements for us to attend different schools when my parents bought property to build on. Mom wanted us to “start” with the incoming classes so we switched schools between elementary and JR high for me, and Jr and Sr High for my sister so we weren’t “new” kids, since everyone poured in from smaller schools. The first house is way out of budget my husband and I set (If we went up to 500K we would want some acreage and I wouldn’t be able to be a stay at home mom like I am currently planning). I like that it’s fully renovated – it’s very “on trend” and some of the features are nice (no corner fireplace). Additionally, we would like 4/3 instead of 3/2. But it’s nice to see a real example. Southlake is a very nice part of DFW with average homes WAY outta our budget, and most START in the 600s! Gota love those 10/10 schools tho! My mom worked a very prominent private school (K-12) (MLB players, music executives, property developers and high on the food chain bankers were the typical parent types) and I had a few friends there who transferred in and got free tuition because their Dad worked at the school. It can happen anywhere, but the access to money these kids had—75K “first cars” designer everything, exotic family trips every school break, housekeepers, nannies, 5 star dining, amazing house parties at mansions with more booze and drugs than I could imagine- I did tag along to a few of those parties – but I was always scared to get in trouble or disappoint my parents so I played the “Designated Driver.” I sure did like seeing a little of how the other half “live.” I don’t know if I wanna be the “weird, broke, ‘have-nots’” in the neighborhood. If you got the money, awesome for you!!! Now if I was right in the middle of the annual income for the area, I would say bring it on! For grins I looked up the average household income. I expected the average income to be about 2x what ours is, since the houses are 2x what we feel is responsible to spend. Not even close. I guess I am way more conservative than I thought! The district locater you provided, I’m gonna trust that way more than Realtor / Trulia!! Thank you! The second, home! It’s one I really like. I’ve seen it before. On that property, there are so many up and down stairs for different rooms – is that really a deterrent to most home buyers? To me it seems like something you can never really work around it - I know I can’t account for future needs in a home, but I do think of aging parents or heaven forbid a disability with a child or myself – I know moving is always an option but if I have the concern wouldn’t others? Price point is pretty close to where I want to but depending on updates/ reno we could go a little higher. I do love the trees! I really liked this one (but there is no gas which is HUGE to me, and only 3 bedrooms but it does have 3 baths which I like so guests have their own bathroom, it does have a raised/ sunken living room also but only 1 step instead of 3/4) https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1102-High-Meadow-Dr_Allen_TX_75002_M77620-78441 Or https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/32-Edgemere-Dr_Trophy-Club_TX_76262_M88071-71166#photo16 I would like to find a place with good bones but horrible paint colors so other buyers are scared off. I don’t want to pay someone else for easy fixes. How much work is the realtor suppose to do as far as weeding through all the options? Do they have better parameters for MLS to filter things such as school ratings, gas stove? Or would they just be flipping through the houses just like me? I’ve seen plenty of decent/ acceptable options but most of them leave out the gas.