Garden Ave

by

Garden Ave was actually a sad blue color, like a little boys bedroom, when we first purchased it. One of the first projects was to paint it green, which at the time had no signifigance, it was just the color we picked.

Then a crazy thing happened. I was working as an agent at a modeling and talent agency and came across a casting for a home makeover show being shot locally. It was an untitled project, but came with the attached star power of Leslie Segrete. A few months earlier someone had run their car through the fence surrounding my yard. The fence and yard were destroyed,  it looked pretty busted. The insurance company was dragging its feet and the city was threatening fines if I didn't clean everything up, and fast. I was single at the time, broke, and working round the clock at a demanding job. Getting on this show was something that just had to happen. And it did.

I have a DVD copy which I promise to find and upload (but I have two kids, so don't hold your breath) but if you want to look it up it was embarrasingly named: "Ugliest House on the Block" ( yes it was ugly, but ugliest?! Ouch) and I am episode 5


 The show never made it past the first season (probably because no one wants to be on a show called the UGLIEST HOUSE ON THE BLOCK ) but here is the Imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1159897/
and here is what it looked like after the show:
I'll have to dig out some "Before" pics, but back then I was using a film camera (remember those?) so I'll have to find them, scan them, upload... ugh, I'm tired already....

What they don't explain to you when you sign up for this, however, is that they make it look good for TV, but then they roll everything up, and move on, and your left with a house that's only painted on the front half. 
Eventually I had to deal with this and by the time I got around to it,  Mike had come into my life. Being the voice of reason, he decided we should paint the whole house over, instead of my solution, which was to just hope no one noticed. 
We decided on a key lime green with grey trim coral pink doors and pops of white because it's Florida, and we can get away with things like that. Here's the closest approximation to the house colors:
 

And here's what it looks like on the house

(pictures to be added)

Garden Ave is currently rented to a lovely family that fits perfectly with the layout of the house. It is actually split up like a 3/1 with a MIL suite, and they have grown kids that wanted their own space. It's a great family  home with an open floorplan and the location is really fantastic. Great neighborhood for walking with wide sidewalks, parks, close to Antique row, downtown, the beach.




Leave a Reply