Farewell 5302 Graystone

When I was 5 years old, way back in 1970, my parents purchased a new home in a new neighborhood. 5302 Graystone lane, Houston TX, 77069. I grew up there, went away to college, bought my own house, got married, had kids, saw them go away to college - and all the while my parents still lived at 5302.

This is going to be a long, rambling, sentimental post - and I doubt anyone but me (and maybe my kids one day) will read the entire thing, but it's a cathartic process for me to get it all out - and I've enjoyed going back and looking at all the old pictures. SO - here's the story that I've held off saying anything about until everything has been resolved and settled.

About a year ago, after Christmas of 2023, we got a call while we were at the ranch that my mom had fallen. Long story short, her health declined and she eventually moved into an assisted living facility. My mom had been living alone, and taking care of the house and everything since 2014 when my dad passed. So for the first time in over 50 years, the house was empty. As you can imagine, my mother wanted to return home should her health allow, and neither my brother or I wanted to try to talk her into selling the house ....until...we got a call from one of my mom's neighbors that water was pouring from the front door. Somehow, the toilet upstairs had cracked, and completely flooded the house. It was a mess. We had ServPro come out and remediate as best as possible, but extensive repairs would be needed.

This was the catalyst for making a decision to sell the house. If we were going to spend tens of thousands of $$'s repairing the house, it only made sense to repaint in neutral colors, and install floors that would appeal to new home buyers. My mother's health was not improving, and she reluctantly agreed it was time to sell. Well, that was the start of a long process. Were do you start? The house was full - over 50 years of documents, pictures, furniture, stuff my mom cherished, my dad's office, photo albums, VHS tapes, DVD's, electronics, and most every kitchen appliance you could imagine. My brother and I made an attempt to clean - but realized we were in way over our heads. We needed help. Thankfully, there are folks that specialize in estate sales. They told us not to worry about the trash. Only take what you want, and they will handle the rest.

So over a period of a few weeks my brother and I, with help from our wives, divided up the stuff we wanted to keep. We also packed up the stuff we wanted to put into storage - stuff we wanted to keep but didn't have a place for it like boxes of pictures, the famous sideboard, some family antiques, etc. After that, the estate company came and auctioned off anything of value, and trashed the rest - completely emptying and cleaning the house. This allowed the contractors to begin work on the repairs. It took them a few months to repair the sheetrock, paint the inside and install new floors. After that, the house went on the market. We are grateful the house sold quickly and for asking price.

While it was bittersweet selling the house, my brother and I were both relieved it was done. It was hard to maintain the house from a distance, and there was always a risk something would happen while it was empty.

This page documents the initial flood, restoration and repair of the house, ending with the listing photos that included 'staging' the house with new furniture. On a separate page, I've gone back and documented over 50 years of memories from 5302. There were so many I had to break it into it's own page.

OH NOOO!!
The neighbors had a key and were able to shut off the water, but this is what greeted me when I arrived.

It had flooded the front room, the entryway, the hallway and the kitchen

Just a little bit here....doesn't look too bad...

This area was the hardest hit

Yeah, that's a mess....

The blue color bled from the rug to the carpet.

Not good

This area was completely soaked

I was told this desk was an officers desk from a ship....oh well..

And the pool is a mess too - Ahhh!

We called in the experts to help with the clean up

They pulled up the carpet and ran fans to try and dry everything out

Had to remove the baseboards...

Bags of trash from upstairs - wet carpet and stuff

The original linoleum floors were still under the carpet

Entrance to my room upstairs

...and Bills room.

Pop's office

Upstairs bath

Time to remove all the wet sheetrock

Trying to contain the dust...

After ServPro did their thing, my brother and I had to go through the house and decide what to do with everything.
We spent lots of time talking to my mom with questions like - who's in this framed picture on the wall?

The famous side board has been moved to storage, along with everything else we wanted to keep.

All that remains was sold at an estate sale

It hurts a bit to think how many of these things were precious to my mom and had a story behind them - but neither me or my brother had room or wanted them, so they were sold or trashed.

And just like that, the house is completely empty.

This spot saw many a Christmas morning, and many more happy times.

After the house was empty, the contractor went to work. Everything was repaired, painted and new floors installed. Before the house was listed for sale, the agent staged it with new modern furniture - which my mom thought looked terrible. However, it must have worked OK, as the house was sold only a few days after going on the market.

Here are all the listing photos.

The new owner may want to update those 50 year old faucets

Farewell 5302 Graystone