Last night on Fixer Upper season 5, Chip and Joanna helped the Ramsey’s renovate a house they bought online. They have spent 17 years working and living abroad in Pakistan and are returning home to Waco. Brooke and Charlie haven’t seen the house and are only judging by the pictures online, but luckily they have Chip and Jo to help them out!
The house is a four bedroom, three bathroom house and it’s 3000 square feet. They paid $155,000 for it and their all in budget is $355,000 which gives them about $200,000 for the renovation. This is what the house looked like when they saw it for the first time!
Gallery: ‘Before’ Fixer Upper Photos
Before demolition, they find out that the house tested positive for lead so they have to wear special suits while they are demolishing the interior. There was a bit of a hiccup in centering the front door, there are wires and pipes in the wall there, but Chip can fix that. They move all the wires and such and center the front door.
There is a wall and fireplace that separate the dining room and den and after knocking the wall out to put in some doors on either side, Joanna thinks that maybe they skip putting the doors in and just leave it open with the fireplace in the middle. She wants to call the Ramsey’s but they have gone back to Pakistan to tie up some loose ends before making the move back to Waco. There is a 12 hour time difference. After talking to them, they have agreed to leave that wall open which will allow the antique fireplace to be a centerpiece.
There was a weird boxed off space in the master bedroom, behind that box, there is a fireplace. They are going to re-surface that and make it a focal point in the room. Speaking of fireplaces, the one that was between the dining room and den, the chimney to it didn’t go all the way up so it wouldn’t be able to be a functioning fireplace, just a nice decoration. The plan was to use some of the brick from the fireplace in the master to finish the one in the dining room/den, but there was a problem. They had to take it down because it was unstable, but they have kept the pieces and they can rebuild it.
With them rebuilding the fireplace, Joanna has decided that she is going to redesign it to make it really pop. In the backyard, they have redone the garden area for the Ramsey’s. The cabinets are in, the tile accents in the kitchen are going up and the finishing touches are being done. Chip is finishing up the landscaping and Jo is going to work her magic with the interior decorating. The Ramsey’s are flying in for the big reveal and when they get there, they are blown away! Here is what their farmhouse in Waco looks like now!
Gallery: ‘After’ Fixer Upper Photos
Not bad for a house that the Ramsey’s didn’t even look at until Chip and Jo did the walk through with them. They had a specific taste that Brooke told Jo she nailed. What do you think of this transformation? Let me know in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter!
You guys! You have no idea how many years I’ve wanted someone to buy and take care of this house the way it deserves! My parents and sister lived in it for about ten years from the early 80’s to ’91; we called it the old Corbin house. We spent many happy holiday gatherings in this house and always loved it and the peaceful acreage that surrounded it. My favorite room was the library; it was my mother’s library and painting studio (she is an artist), and I enjoyed the built in bookshelves and large windows and spent many hours escaping from the noise of large gatherings by curling up and reading in there. I can also remember a couple of incidents with possums getting into the bedroom next to the kitchen, and they had to be caught and returned to the great outdoors. And the wraparound porch? We always loved that, too, and I am so happy that the current owners kept the stained glass door and surround. Unfortunately, as my parents aged and my sister left home, the house and property became a little too much for my parents to handle alone and they moved to San Angelo.
So, what about the upstairs? I wonder what they did with those two ginormous bedrooms and the Hollywood bathroom? There was never a shortage of sleeping space for all of us up there! Thank the Ramseys for adopting it and loving it; I always thought it was sad to see it empty and run down.
Did this house have A/C? I kept looking for vents and never saw any. I can’t imagine spending that much and NOT having HVAC installed but I was curious. Waco gets hot, y’all.