As the Headline reads, I do love to restore homes.

The passion for houses/homes + their structure or beauty, was cultivated by my Grandparents, my Grandfather, Gordon R. Exley,Sr. was the Director of City Transit, Mayor's Cabinet, and he designed a significant 5 bedroom log mansion in Marshall's Creek, Poconos Mountains, Pennsylvania. We grandchildren  found the drawings of the home on five acres and my Grandmother, Anna, described how my Grandpop did not want to use "nails", he used wooden pegs to secure the logs where he could. We would stay at the "Ye Olde Damsite" as the log home was titled,with my Grandmom in the summers, our vacations. We would question how the tourists could knock on our door to ask "if they could look" inside our home? Now I understand, they wanted to see it and were not embarrassed to ask. LOL

Anna Exley, the mother of 9 children described how she,pregnant with her first child, would carry buckets of water up from the creek in the Coal Mine area of Mildred, PA to my Grandpop who was building their first home. This was a time many years before they left coal mines, and the family farm. Gordon's voracity for knowledge, his love of education, self taught, and dilligence eventually moved him to his appointment to the Mayor's Cabinet in Philadelphia.

These stories I held dear to my heart and although I was young, I appreciated the beauty of architecture and the love of  Real Properties.

When we moved from Philly to New Jersey, it was a new housing community and my father had added a two bedroom addition to our home. We were a family of seven children, a 3 bedroom just wouldn't work, LOL.

My mother was an avid home decorator, she could make something out of almost nothing and it was a work of art . Although we were a large household, it was always artistically and tastefully done.

While in High School, my first real love, Richie G.,shared my interests, he was a successful Real Estate Salesman; drove me to School in his Silver Corvette,and was the chosen Realtor when we moved from Jersey. My family and siblings followed through the years while obtaining Brokers/Sales Licenses, buying/selling properties as we moved to Florida. Eventually the family worked with prominent developers and put up the first Condominum on our property on the Gulf, Madeira Beach.  

There are also groups of historic homes in our neighboring counties who open their doors to the public, it is educational to see the types of architecture of homes built over a hundred years ago, some are truly stunning.

There are multiple shows on restoring Real Properties, like "Flip this House" series, we watch these shows and compare them with our restoration projects, rentals.

One of the Hosts of "Flip this House" is Armando Montelongo, who resembles my first love Richie, shared his family's journey to Texas on their last tank of gas prior to his successful Real Estate Business. The picture I posted is of Armando on his TV set. The series has many "Hosts" in different states.

You should watch the series, they are often funny as well as informitive.

Here is a link and article,

http://armandomontelongo.com/about/one-family%e2%80%99s-remarkable-story/