Tonya Jones fell in love with the house’s charm once she got the keys

NEED TO KNOW

• Tonya Jones and her husband bought a 104-year-old home sight unseen in 2022
• They preserved original details like wood trim and blue bathroom tile while tackling mold and extensive cleaning
• Jones shares restoration updates on TikTok and says patience has been essential throughout the multi-year project

Tonya Jones didn’t know what she was getting herself into when she bought her house in May 2022.

Jones, 34, tells PEOPLE that she and her husband bought the 104-year-old house solely based on photos, feeling like it had “potential” and they could “bring it back to life.”

“I actually bought it without ever seeing it in person first, so I didn’t really know what the house was like until I got the keys,” she shares.

Despite not having set foot inside until it was officially theirs, Jones fell in love with all the little details.

“The wood trim, the blue tile bathroom, the little dining nook were a few things that made me want to buy it,” she explains, noting that it was important to her “to keep those details.”

However, when the Fort Worth, Texas, resident first walked into the home, she admits it needed a top-to-bottom clean. After seeing the state of the house, Jones worried she had “made a huge mistake” — but they put their fears aside and got to work.

“We did a lot of cleaning and painting, and I feel like that made the biggest difference at first,” Jones shares. “We ripped out the carpet and there were hardwood floors underneath, which was very exciting! We’ve had some of the floor professionally done and are saving up to finish the rest of the house.”

After deep-cleaning, Jones started fixing up the property, from restoring wooden floors to wood paneling the walls. Rather than rip everything out and renovate, Jones has focused on restoration and trying to keep as many original features as possible.

“I’ve always wanted an older home because they typically have a lot more charm and character,” she explains. “So it’s important to me to keep those details that make it so special and unique.”

Jones shares that “it’s been a work in progress” in the four years since they bought it. Rather than furnish the home with brand-new furniture, they’ve also tried to buy second-hand pieces whenever they can, matching the home’s vintage vibe.

“There is still so much left to do, but it all takes time and money,” she admits, noting that they’ve spent around $10,000 thus far.

“My husband is very handy, so luckily, he and I have been able to do a lot of updates ourselves,” Jones shares. “We had to replace the blue tile in one of the bathrooms last year because there was so much mold, but my husband and father-in-law replaced it and we tried to keep it as close to the original as we could.”

While she loves the character and unique details that come with having an older house, she admits that working on a property built in the 1920s means they’ve run into “more issues” than other homeowners typically face.

“So that’s been tough as well,” Jones shares. 

Jones, whose favorite room is their wood-paneled bedroom, has been sharing her progress on TikTok, with followers often applauding her for not gutting the house and removing the charm. Throughout the process of updating the home, she shares that one thing that she’s learned is “to be patient.”

“It’s taken a lot of time and I feel like sometimes the videos I share… it makes it seem like it all happened in a week,” Jones says.

Jones still plans to make a few changes to the kitchen, specifically the floors and countertops, and also plans to tackle the second bathroom. Although their journey is far from over, Jones says she is “really proud of how far our house has come along.”

“It definitely needed quite a bit of work, and it was the house that we could afford, but it ended up being worth it,” Jones tells PEOPLE.

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