BEFORE AND AFTER: Home Transformed from Mawmaw to Mod in Lakeland Hills

Casey Barton and Raymond E. Graham are real estate renaissance men, working their magic in East Dallas homes.

The pair have been renovating and selling houses together for eight years and own the company Barton-Graham Home & Design Firm. They’re both general contractors and interior decorators, and Graham is a Realtor who in the process of earning his broker’s license. They’re all set up to offer comprehensive services to clients.

We’ve featured their phenomenal work here and here, and today’s Thursday Three Hundred is their newest renovation at 6229 N. Jim Miller Rd.

This house is in Buckner Terrace, specifically in the Lakeland Hills neighborhood, near John West and Buckner Boulevard. It is 1,860 square feet with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms (they added a sleek powder room).

If you need to be convinced of their talent, take a look at the before-and-after photos throughout this post. It went from “mawmaw” to mod in a whirlwind 11-week renovation. It’s even more impressive when you consider that the pair got married last week and completed this reno in the midst of planning a wedding! (Huge congratulations from us at CandysDirt!)

Now, about the neighborhood. If you’re not familiar with Buckner Terrace, you should be: the real estate there is hot: Realtor Vince Leibowitz with LTZ & Co. Real Estate identified it as one of the city’s top emerging areas last year. In part, it was for access to White Rock Lake, the Arboretum, and other East Dallas awesomeness.

The neighborhood is full of pleasant one-story pier-and-beam houses built in the 1960s and 1970s. The lots tend to be bigger and price tags smaller than what you’d find in many other parts of East Dallas.

“It’s crazy to me that you can live within a mile or two from the lake and the Dallas Arboretum and buy a house in this price range,” said Barton. “In other parts of the city, this would be a $500,000-plus property.”

Graham listed the house yesterday for $325,000.

“We’re having an open house on Sunday from 2-4 p.m. and I hope we will be reviewing offers that evening,” said Graham.

I think there’s a good chance they might see an offer before that, if past successes are an indication of their popularity with buyers. One of their Buckner Terrace renos went under contract in three days earlier this year!

Part of what makes a Barton-Graham reno stand out is their signature design elements, like a reflective address plaque mounted on the front of the house, a marble-and-granite mosaic tile address numbers on the curb, and a contemporary glass front door with a painted frame, usually a pop of color like turquoise or lime green.

“We renovate homes with our personal taste. We don’t do what the average ‘flipper’ would do and we take lots of risks,” Graham said. “We always say that we don’t care to appeal to everyone, we only need two or three people that ‘have to have it.’”

Other exterior changes include removing those horrid burglar bars, painting the brick a soft gray, taking the landscaping from zero to manicured and colorful.

“Casey built the pole on the front porch and we’ve had comments that it looks like a modern totem pole or a giant Lego, both of which we thought were cool!” Barton said.

They also created a great visual element on the new oversized front window by painting the criss-cross elements on the window black, and using white sheers to go behind it in the interior.The “before” photos above give you an idea of what a drab, forlorn place this was before Barton and Graham got their hands on it. They blew out several interior walls to create an open-concept space with two large seating areas and full access to the now-fabulous kitchen.

Two of their signatures are evident right away, the dark hardwood floors, which run throughout the house, except the bathrooms, and the interior palette in four soothing shades of gray (you will never find beige anything in a Barton-Graham reno).

They added recessed lighting and ceilings and staged the home with Midcentury-inspired furnishings.The dining area and second living area are staged flawlessly for flow and to show possible function of the areas. Another signature you’ll find is in that second living area: a wallpapered accent wall in an eye-catching print. They’ve also taken a blah, burnt-out fireplace and given it a new, large surround, ebony mantel that matches the floors, and marble hearth. The kitchen was a total gut (there was nothing there to save), and they installed top-of-the line Kenmore Elite stainless steel appliances, including a gas cooktop. The counters are quartz, which sparkle when the light hits them, and they chose the high-gloss lacquered white cabinets with espresso trim and espresso bottom cabinets. The backsplash is a high-gloss white wave oversized subway tile, and the bright green wall is another signature, and adds a fun pop of color to the space.

Throughout the house, you’ll find chrome fixtures and hardware, never brushed or satin nickel (a “no no” in their renos). All interior doors are painted a high-gloss black, as well.
In the top photo above, you get an idea of how blah the bedrooms were. No more! They feel modern and open (and the broken ceiling fan blade has been replaced in one bedroom).

The bathrooms are now works of beauty, major overhauls for Barton and Graham.

“We gutted the master bath and took out the tub and added a tub in the Jack-n-Jill bath,” Graham said. “The master bath now features oversized subway tile, a seamless glass door, black marble double sink counter, and marble flooring.”

In the new half bathroom, the laid marble flooring, which carries up the wall and creates an unusual, elegant look. They also made the light that hangs in the half bath, a blend of Midcentury (the sputnik shape), glam (the crystals), and punk (the chrome spikes).

“This fixture encompasses our style and design aesthetic as designers,” Graham said. A new fence and landscaping shine in the backyard, which, like the front, had nothing much going on when they purchased the property.

Looking at other comps in the neighborhood, Barton and Graham are on the high end of the spectrum, but a similar renovated home nearby sold three days ago for $325,000, at a dollar more per square foot than they are asking ($175 vs $174). Comps range from $111 to $175 per square foot.

Given the scale and quality of renovations they made on the formerly mawmaw house, I would not be surprised if they do indeed entertain an offer after Sunday’s open house.