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1974 A lucky find An
Historic home on Point
Loma,San Diego, CA
Decades before “DIY” house flipping became popular
the young couple agreed that this was the sort
of work they most enjoyed
While working at the San Diego prison, Judi’s warden revealed that a new federalprison was
being planned at Bastrop. They’d been yearning to get back to Texas and had heard about
the history-laden town and its setting near the Lost Pine Forest on the Colorado River. So,
the Hoovers took time off and cranked up their bedraggled El Camino
to take a look.
Arriving in 1975, viewing Bastrop
for the first time, they liked what
they saw, which was mostly opportunity.
“It was puzzling to drive
the neighborhood and downtown
streets and see all the historic
homes and buildings that were
abandoned and in need of serious
repair,” Judi recalls of their visit.
“We couldn’t understand how that
could happen”.
Terre Haute, IN
Returning to San Diego,
Tommy and Judi
devoted all their spare
time for over two
years to restoring the
hillside cabin, adding
a guesthouse, broad
decks and landscaping.
In 1976, they
sold it, wowed that
their investment had
nearly quadrupled.
At this point – decades
before “DIY”
house flipping
became popular –
the young Hoovers
agreed that this was the sort of work they most enjoyed and by which
they might actually make a good living. But not quite yet.
From San Diego, the Hoovers aimed the El Camino for a cross-country move to Terre
Haute, Indiana, where a new, more challenging position with the Bureau of Prisons
awaited Judi. While living on the prison grounds the couple invested in a sagging 1920s
bungalow close by. Tommy decided to take on its rehabilitation full-time.
With Judi helping as she could, he labored on the house for the two years they remained
in Indiana. They “took in” the attic by adding a stairway and two upstairs bedrooms and
bath. Downstairs, they removed a wall separating two small bedrooms to create a large
primary suite. They re-plastered walls with sweeping textures and applied warm interior
paint colors.
From residential streets where
classic homes from every
19th-century period sleepily
gazed from leafy shadows, to
a three-block Main Street that
itched forreinvigoration, the
Hoovers foresaw nothing but promise. Deciding to stake a claim for their future,
she and Tommy purchased 54 acres in the pine forest a few miles east of town.
1976 Before
After