By Juan Carlos Villareal
You know how you always have that special place in your memories, the place where all the beautiful moments in your childhood with your parents happened, where you made major decisions that shaped your life into what it is now? Well, that’s what this house has been to me.
I will never forget when my parents and I first saw this place in 1982. It was nothing but the foundation and frame. It had begun as a project for a gentleman who had backed out of the sale and was being sold as a work-in-progress for a new owner to take over. My parents jumped at the idea of being able to shape this brand new house to their own taste. In 1982 their plan was to have this house become their United States home, since dad had been working overseas for Chevron in Guatemala where I was born.
The building of the house was finished in May of 1983. My mom was fascinated with the color peach. I remember Easter week in 1983 picking everything in that color—from carpet to wallpaper, window coverings to the furniture from Strouds in Harlingen. The interior of this house remained frozen in time literally until April of 2020. Both my parents passed away while living at that house— dad on April 19 of 2019 and mom on April 18 of 2020. The era of memories in this, my beloved house had ended, or so I thought at first….
I had been living and working in Dallas as a real estate agent and an Interior Designer Consultant. Sometime had passed after my parents had died before I arrived in Harlingen from Dallas to arrange my parents’ things in Harlingen—which included the sale of this property. When I opened the front door and entered my childhood home— this crazy thought came to my mind of selling my home in Dallas, moving to the Valley and restoring this house. And so, its second life began.
My main focus was to not change the floor plan or knock down walls. I wanted to preserve the original, beautiful, simple floor plan it had, and transform it into a fusion of my taste and my furnishings from my house in Dallas combined with the beauty of my mom’s taste and style of 1983, then blend it together—making it look it look seamless. Well, that’s what the home on 2810 Mariposa Lane is today. It is a place where old heirlooms and furniture of yesterday and modern state of the art comforts have become one…
my beloved home for years to come.
Before and After Photos can be seen below.
