My wife and I record a lot of TV shows on DVR (the AT&T Uverse unit lets us do 4 shows simultaneously). We watch them at our leisure. We had just finished watching something that was recorded last Monday and decided to watch a half hour show before heading to bed for the night.
We decided upon Designed to Sell and watched an episode recorded last December which originally aired in Nov. 2008. It started out and I saw that it was about a home in the Montrose area of Southern California, where I lived from High School until I went into the military. And then it showed the house they were going to give their "$2000" staging project to.
As we were watching I told my wife "That looks like the house I used to live in". After a couple of more minutes it was "That is the house that I used to live in". What a shock!
Home in 1964
It had been built in 1961 and my parents were the first owners. They bought it for $22,000. We moved there in 1962. My dad made sure I learned how to build fences, do concrete work, paint interior and exterior walls, climb the roof to put up Christmas decorations, do interior remodeling, roto-till a yard, plant a lawn, do planter beds, etc. etc. etc. And all this while doing all of the stuff a high school guy normally does, sports, friends, girls, cars, sports, girls, etc. etc. etc.
The exterior looked much the same, the outside color was a a yellowish instead of a peach color, some trees had been removed, a cinder block fence had been put up on one side of the front. The back looked almost unchanged except for the lemon tree, which was small when I lived there but was now over 40 years old. The inside we only saw the living room, master bedroom and kitchen/dining area. The living room and master bedroom were much the same, only the paint color different. In the living room the carpet had been removed and hardwood or laminate flooring installed.
A Few Years Later
The kitchen had been completely remodeled. All of the cabinets had been replaced and a side door enclosed. There was still the double slider off of the dining area. The flooring was also replaced with hardwood or laminate.
Needless to say, I rewound and watched several scenes multiple times and I put it on do not erase until I manually erase the episode. After it was over, I dug out some old pictures that I got after my mother passed but have never really organized, just one big box. We dug through them a looked at faded 40 year old pictures of the house, my family, my friends.
During the show my wife pointed out the lemon tree and asked if it was there when we lived there. I said yes, and there was even a picture of it when it was about 3 feet tall. With some lemons on it. I called my sister to tell her about this and her first question was if the lemon tree was still there.
The Lemon Tree's Early Childhood
It was great to see something like that on television. I am still exited about it. How many people can find one of their old homes featured on a tv show? Now I have to go and sort out a bunch of old pictures.
My parents sold it in 1972 for about $34,000. It sold in 2008 for $699,000.
