Selma native gifts parents a new home for Christmas

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

A Selma couple is starting the new year off — without rent or mortgage payments — after getting a house for Christmas from their daughter.

The gift was actually over a year in the making — and the whole family unknowingly had a hand in making it happen.

This white two story home with the bright red bow on it — is a dream come true for Krystal Hardy Allen. As a child — she always dreamed of buying a house for her parents.

“Back in the 3rd grade I wrote it down in an assignment in class that one of the things I wanted to do when I got big and grew up was buy my parents a home,” she said.

The Selma native is now a successful businesswoman and best-selling author — living in New Orleans.

She bought the house for her parents in secret in 2022. Then hired her contractor father and brother to renovate it for her — supposedly so she could flip it — or rent it out.

“When we first started working on the house — we was asking her man, why you buy this big house to start off with for your very first rental property,” said her brother Arthur Hardy III.

“It’s a big, big house to start off with you know.”

But in the midst of the renovation — the house received major damage — when a tornado hit the city on January 12th.

“Got a message from my dad, and he’s pretty blunt and straight up,” said Allen.

“He’s like, the house is gone. And I was like, gone? What do you mean, gone? And he started sending me pictures, and I was just like, broken. I was like, this is not real.”

“Five trees fell on this house. Two of them landed inside,” said Arthur Hardy, Sr.

But after a lengthy clean up — and rebuild, Allen surprised her parents with the keys to their new home during a fake open house on Christmas Eve.

“I said somebody’s going to have a good Christmas,” said Denise Hardy.

“Because we was waiting to the people come and view the house not knowing all the time that we were the people.”

“I was hired as her contractor, so, I got paid for doing my own house. Can’t beat that,” said Hardy, Sr.

“It’s 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, over 2000 sq. ft., 2 offices, a sunroom, it’s a beautiful property. It’s a dream home. And they deserve it.

The new house makes the couple first-time homeowners.

The family plans to use all that rent and mortgage payment savings to buy new furniture.