Modern Farmhouse Makeover Mountain City couple takes DIY home journey BY SAHAR CHMAIS Walking into the Painters’ home, revamped to resemble a modern farmhouse, a smell of warm spices, vanilla and pumpkin fills the air. It’s a scent paired perfectly with the rainy day, foggy windows and silver sky, a scent that whispers fall is around the corner. The cozy yet modern home tells the eyes a story about a house that is being remodeled; new floors, a new kitchen, a complete facelift on the outside with details in every corner. But looks are deceiving because the remodel is not being done by a contractor, instead, the owners had to do all the work by hand after a contractor took the couple’s money and skipped out. “It’s been stressful,” said Monica Painter, the executive director of The Equality Alliance. “In the beginning there was arguing and we were sleep deprived because of the baby. We were supposed to be done in June, but the contractor left us in the end of May.” When the Painters decided to buy a new place, they had to make a decision between an expensive house with a small property, or a cheaper house with a bigger property. They went with the latter in order to provide their child with lots of space to play. Their thought on 4 | Hays County Echo | Fall 2020
AFTER
BEFORE Monica and Jennifer Painter, left, were faced with the challenge of renovating their Mountain City home after their contractor skipped out on them.
the matter was that they could hire a contractor to fix up the home and move in within two months. It has taken two and a half years to get to the point where they have almost finished everything in their home. The recent coronavirus-infested months gave Jennifer Painter, softball head coach in Round Rock High School, a chance to a finish a big chunk of the remodeling project.
That may seem like a long time, but with work, a twohour commute and limited resources, it was difficult to catch up on the destruction left behind. The contractor gutted their home by ripping up the old floors, taking down a load bearing wall, leaving electric wires exposed, ruining their plumbing and more. After paying him his price, he never came back and left their lives in danger with all the exposed wire and a roof that could cave in any moment. Mountain City residents showed their benevolence by coming to the Painters’ home, helping them with the wiring process and other things they did not know how to fix. One resident and contractor helped them place a beam to balance
their ceiling; he also helped them place sheet rock in their home so they did not have holes open to the outside. Soon after, Jennifer picked up the habit and Googled videos on remodeling. She redid all the floors in the living room and kitchen in medium brown wood grain tile. In the laundry room and bathrooms, Jennifer laid a black and white modern-vintage tile. “It came to us learning how to tile floors,” Monica said. “Jennifer tiled almost our whole house, her hands were numb toward the end.” But fixing the basics was not enough; they gutted the kitchen and rebuilt it, built mud lockers in the laundry
DIY MAKEOVER, 6
