The first thing I made Brian do when he got home tonight was read these posts. That and the fact that I had gutted the dining room, seemed to do the trick. While he still hasn't risen to my code red level of excitement, he no longer thinks I've gone mad. I took four bids over the past two days and hired a contractor this afternoon. The rub was that he had a tight window. This project will be done by Monday. So I skipped out of work two hours early and flew into action. The contents of the dining room (and there were many) have been safely moved. Although the rest of our house looks like a giant flea market tonight...that dining room is clean. Contractors are a mysterious bunch. I'm not used to them, seeing as though I'm accustomed to doing the work myself. I was quoted a range between $800 and $1,800 (one laughable bid came in at $3,000 but that's another story). It turns out the guy who quoted $800 came with the most experience and recommendations. He was the busiest too. He's in the process of restoring the exterior of a Victorian here in town. I took an immediate liking to him. Let's hope my gut instinct pays off. I had a co-worker ask me this morning if I had it all over to do, would I buy this particular house. It really gave me pause. This property needed so much work. So many bad choices had been made over the years. We went blindly in thinking they were all easy fixes. But the answer was yes. I would do it again. This house deserved her face lift. Off to explore paint color! Steven

a. the tall skinnny evergreen might be sky pencil holly b. salvia greggii & knockouts (already mentioned) are perfect, i think, for those areas - both are relatively zero-maintenance - you'd only have to "climb up there" once a year c. i agree with the comment that the stonework/concrete will increase the ambient heat - native & drought-tolerant is the way to go if you want low-maintenance d. i've got some purple heart, if you want some - they do spread, but not in an invasive way - they're native to mexico & can handle the heat e. there's someone on our forum who describes their style as "native texas cottage" or something similar - who is that? not exactly an english garden counterpart, but similar - is it the orderly, geometric, trimmed "english garden" that you like, or the overflowing, miss marple "english garden" that you prefer? - that would help us make texas-friendly suggestions f. your structure would look wonderful with a local native flowering vine - have you already told us what part of texas? - that would also go a long way in lowering the ambient temp

I was in exactly your situation two years ago. We weren't really looking, but then found a house that was unique (it had won a major architecural award), and was perfect for us. And we knew it was not going to stay on the market long. We put in a full-price bid contingent on selling our house, and lost out to someone who made a full-price offer with no contingency. A week later our realtor called and told us the successful bidder had left the country on a business trip, and had not completed the deal before leaving. The seller was willing to cancel the winning offer and let us have it...if we went with no contingency. We decided to say 'yes,' even though we did not have our own house on the market. The only saving feature was that the house was being leased and the lease had 3 months to run before we had to close. We put our house on the market on November 1st and got an offer in the first week...that fell through. We got another offer in December...that fell through. We moved into the new house in January, with our old house still on the market. Even though the market was hotter 2 years ago, Thanksgiving, Xmas, and the first months of the year are not a good time to try to be selling. To make a long story short, it took 2-1/2 months after we moved to sell our old home, and it only sold because we agreed to come down in price by about 8%. Fortunately, we had no mortgage on the old home, but all of our equity was tied up until we sold. We had to take out a humongous interest-only bridge loan, and had about $2300 going out the door in payments each month for the privilege of owning two houses. In addition, we had utility payments and property taxes to pay for both houses, and had to drive across town to check on the old one a couple of times a week to clean up muddy footprints, clean sinks that had been used and left dirty, lock doors that had been left unlocked, and turn down the heat that had been cranked up. So how do we feel in retrospect? Great! We are really glad we did it, and still love the new house. It was nerve-wracking to have a huge (temporary) mortgage that we had to pay for out of savings, and it was annoying to have to keep checking up on the old house. But it was worth it. As long as you know what you might be getting into, go for it. Just have a backup plan. If the seller doesn't take a contingency offer, are you prepared to make another offer that's not contingent? (You could make an offer that is not contingent, but gives a closing date several months off.) And how long are you able to handle having two houses, both financially and emotionally?

I grew up living in apartments so I can’t relate to any of this. Me too (born in 1957). Our kitchen had a linoleum floor and was white: cabinets, fridge, stove, and enamel sink. No dishwasher, no garbage disposal (they were illegal then and are still rare in NYC.) Just about everyone rented back then, and redoing a kitchen was not something even on the radar screen. You took what the landlord gave you. We had hardwood floors and rugs in all the other rooms. I still have some of the rugs and a few pieces of furniture that my mother bought for a song at the old Parke-Bernet auction house. She had excellent taste, and classics last.