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Exterior Before
Ashley Goforth doesn’t mince words when she describes her first impression of the 2,500-square-foot home that she and her husband, Scott, eventually bought. “It was a total dump,” she says, with a laundry list of hideous details: green shag carpeting, wood-paneled walls, a sorely outdated kitchen and bedrooms stuffed with boxes à la Hoarders. Yet Ashley, an interior designer, wasn’t deterred. “For a 56-year-old house, it was in great shape,” she says. “You could see that it got a lot of light, and the rooms flowed together nicely.”
Plus, the Goforths were running out of options: Both grew up in Houston’s Memorial neighborhood and wanted to move back for its school system. But finding a place they could afford was proving difficult, even after six months of aggressive hunting. So they went rogue and contacted the owners of the ranch house, who neighborhood friends said were about to list it. “We wrote a letter to them, and they sold directly to us,” says Ashley. It took a dozen or so gallons of paint and some high-impact cosmetic changes to transform the home into something not only livable but also beautiful. “There are things about it that still aren’t perfect,” says Ashley, “but for right now, it’s perfect for us.”
