Before & After: This $57K Ranch House Revamp Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Plants
RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino outfit their 1951 L.A. home with a backyard oasis—and roughly 350 potted plants.
RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino outfit their 1951 L.A. home with a backyard oasis—and roughly 350 potted plants.
After spending more than a decade together and sharing 10 apartments, Los Angeles couple RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino were ready to settle into a home and start a family. They adopted their son, Jordan, in July 2021, and as they made plans to adopt Jordan’s infant sister, all their household needed was a house.
In the San Fernando Valley, RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino updated the exterior of their midcentury home with fresh wood cladding for $5,000.
Photo: RJ Guillermo
The couple began their search in the fall of 2019, when the market was competitive to say the least: They attended more than 50 open houses before being outbid on their dream home, a 1,200-square-foot, 1954 ranch house on a 6,550-square-foot lot in the San Fernando Valley. Luckily enough, it landed on the market again a year later—and they pounced on the opportunity to purchase it, closing the deal in August 2021.
Before: Exterior
Its farmhouse blue-and-white board-and-batten siding "wasn’t really us," RJ recalls—but with its three bedrooms and ample backyard, "It had the potential to be the perfect home to raise our family."
After: Exterior
The couple spent about $11,000 on exterior and interior paint.
Photo: RJ Guillermo
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: This $57K Ranch House Revamp Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Plants
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