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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

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