House hunting: Welcome home

Part 1    Part 2  -- Read those first if you haven't already


While I am a fan of a good cliffhanger, I actually didn't do this one on purpose.  I wanted to make sure that we actually had the house before I went and wrote about it.  I didn't want to be all excited and be like Hey look at our new house! only to have to come back and be like Hey look at the apartment we're staying in because we didn't actually get the house!


But we got it!  The seller signed the contract late Sunday night, our realtor got everything early this morning and we are officially under contract!  What's more, the buyers of our current house agreed to all terms and we're under contract here too!  It's happening you guys, it's really happening!


*Desiree.  Shut your face and show the house already.*

All right all right!  Meet our new house!

She's such a cutie!

So, to tell you how we arrived at the 1960s ranch....And wait till you see the pictures!


I really liked everything about the house when we first saw it.  The hardwood floors, the main floor laundry, everything all on one level.  What I didn't like was the size.  Specifically, the master bedroom - it was teensy and I was nervous.  For the past three years, we've been spoiled with a bedroom *and* sitting room and I didn't know if we'd be able to squeeze it all down to one bedroom, much less one that was smaller than the one we currently have.


We went back and forth between the ranch and the storybook stone house.  

This one

The stone house was in a great neighborhood, but it was on the upper end of the surrounding houses.  We'd have to be careful about any work we did so we wouldn't price ourselves right out of the neighborhood.  And remember, the kitchen needed to be completely gutted and that's $$$$$$.  Doing that, creating closets and redoing the bathroom from scratch would put us dangerously close to the most expensive house in the neighborhood and from what I understand of real estate, you don't want that.  I'm not sure why but you just don't.  

With the ranch, there were million dollar homes just around the corner so no matter what we did, we definitely wouldn't need to worry about that part.  Plus, this was a flipped house so everything was already redone.  Any work we did would be purely aesthetic and that's a-OK.

Additionally, we're looking at living in this house and maybe even in Reading for only 5-7 years.  We were going to have to put a lot of work into the stone house and to do that only to move seemed wrong.  The ranch is move-in ready and if we decide to stay, then we can undertake a big project like a room addition to make it a little bigger.

Plus, with it being move-in ready I get to focus on the fun part of DIY -- Decorating!  I don't have to mess with living without a kitchen.  We don't have to stay in a hotel while the floors are getting redone (yet.  In the future, I'd like to restain them darker.)  I get to jump straight into making it a home rather than taking the time to make it simply livable.

Not that there aren't tweaks and changes I want to make and PS, get ready because this is about to be an epic post!  So let's look at some pictures!!

The seller bought the house in April and got to work right away.

SCAR-REE!

Ahhh, much better!

That living room is the HOTNESS!

Although I like this living room much better.

And how 'bout that DINING ROOM!  My favorite are the macrame planters.  

I think the pom pom on the bottom gives it something a little extra, don't you?

Of course, this dining room is a billion times better.

Yikes *and* wow with a side of WTF

That linoleum and wallpaper almost made me miss the countertops with the matching backsplash.  There is just so much awesome happening here.

Although I still want to make some changes to this kitchen, 

I can actually stand to be in it without dry heaving.

Because, DAMN.

I'm actually looking forward to having that little desk thing because I'd really like to have a dedicated place for my computer that's not the bedroom floor.

It's a pink bathroom y'all!  Have you seen those pictures 'Save the Pink Bathrooms'?

Apparently, pink bathrooms were big in the 50s and 60s and people want to preserve them for their kitsch factor.

I'm GLAD this one didn't get saved because pink shell sconces?  Really?

Even though this isn't my style preference, at least I can take it seriously.

These are the kind of pictures that I would rant about when Drew would make me look at houses.  Like, they KNEW their house was getting photographed for SALE that day, right?  I mean, you'd THINK they'd at least move the paper bags out of the shot.  And maybe empty the trash.  It's like they wanted people to SEARCH for reasons to buy their house.

Clutter free, but still smaller than our current bedroom.

And THIS is where the magic happens.

Check out the pimp-tastic bar!

Although I can't even lie, we had a sofa like that when I was a kid.

Thank god, the seller cleared all this out, ripped up the carpet and left us with a nearly 1000 square feet basement to finish.  PROPERLY.

 It's just shy of a half acre lot and there's lots of room to expand.

But we could leave it as is, and that would be fine too.

So that's the hizzouse!  I've been going nuts pinning design ideas and if all goes well, we'll close on the house August 26th.  We have our temp housing until September 15th and we plan to use that in-between time to do work on the house.

What work you ask?  Oh, let me show you.....

No cliffhanger this time.  I'm hitting publish and getting right back to writing!  Please please let me know what you think!  You've been on this journey with me this long and I'd love to hear your thoughts!