Sam and Aaron Alexander made a “Hail Mary” offer when they found the house they wanted in Collierville.
“I had seen the house on Craigslist, but it was listed above what we wanted to look at,” Sam, 24, said. “Maureen (Fraser, our Realtor) said it had been on the market so long, they would probably take a lot less than they had listed it for.”
Photo by Mike Brown
The couple plan to add a porch and flowers to make the front of the home more inviting.
Photo by Mike Brown
The couple plan to remove a wall leading to the kitchen. “We want to make a pass-through from the dining room into the kitchen and make it one area,” Sam said.
Photo by Mike Brown
A carpeted living room features wood panel walls. Sam, who is methodically painting each room, spent two weeks removing wallpaper in every room of the house.
Photo by Mike Brown
The master bedroom off the colorful hall features a brown and green color combination.
“We pretty much took a shot in the dark and went with our budget,” Aaron, also 24, said. “If we didn’t get it for that price, then we just wouldn’t get it.”
Their offer of $100,000 was accepted, and since closing at the end of March the young couple, both students, have busied themselves making it their own.
“The home they purchased was a foreclosure that needed some work. That did not faze them, and they saw it as a challenge,” Fraser, of John Green Realtors, said. “They realized the potential of the home.”
“I just fell in love with it. I liked the potential,” Sam said. “It was full of wallpaper and bugs.”
“We liked the uniqueness of the layout. It was a strange house with a lot of character to it,” Aaron said.
For two weeks Sam removed wallpaper from every room in the four-bedroom, one-and-one-half bath, 1,700-square-foot home.
She’s still in the process of painting.
“She takes care of the painting on the inside, and I take care of the outside,” Aaron, a FedEx Ground employee, said.
Some of the rooms are two-toned, including one spare bedroom the couple uses as their dressing room, which she painted purple and gray, and the master bedroom, a brown and green combination.
“I like to paint one wall a different color than the others. I think it gives it depth,” she said.
She hasn’t made it to the two other bedrooms yet, one of which she plans on making her craft room.
“I like to sew, paint, and make little doodads,” she said.
Aaron has his own room too, the familiar “man cave,” where he keeps his computer, musical instruments, shelves of movies and the like.
“We’re going to move the chandelier into the dining room. He’s so tall he keeps hitting his head on it,” Sam said.
They decided to make the entry room the dining room and plan on removing the wall leading to the kitchen.
“We want to make a pass-through from the dining room into the kitchen and make it one area,” Sam said.
As far as Aaron’s domain concerning the outside, for part of it he sought the help of professionals.
“The back doors were rotting, and it needed new windows, so I got contractors to do most of the stuff. They fixed the roof and put in new shingling,” Aaron said. “I used the Belk Brothers, and I can’t say enough nice things about them.”
Other plans include resurfacing the ceiling of the walkway from the back door to the garage.
“They popcorned it, which doesn’t hold up with the weather,” Aaron said.
They also plan to add a new porch.
“The front of the house is kind of bland. There’s not much going on with it,” he said.
“And of course flowers,” Sam said.
Lucky for their two babies, Gilly, an eight-month-old Labrador, and Luci, a four-and-a-half-year-old terrier mix, the house came mostly fenced.
“We just had to put up a little fencing in on the side,” Aaron said.
The garage houses a pool table, and the breezeway a patio table and grill, so the two are ready for the summer.
“For the Fourth of July we’re going to have friends over for a little shindig. You can see the fireworks from Powell Park,” Aaron said.
“It will be our official housewarming,” Sam said.