House Preview

First off, thank you all so much for your sweet congratulatory comments on our good news!  I'm excited to share a little preview with you about our new home.

The house itself is an old one but with a sturdy foundation and has had the necessary maintenance and upgrades.  We're going down on Saturday for the inspection and our fingers are crossed that all goes well.  The fact that it's an old home means it has lots of character - which is something both of us required.  When I first saw the listing, I fell in love with the doors, porch and fireplace and knew it was a real possibility.

We saw the house one Saturday morning, where we actually met our agent for the first time.  We were scheduled to see several other houses that day and would see many more in the weeks to come.  We liked the house a lot, but weren't sure about the location (it's kind of far from where we were originally looking) and wanted to check out what else the city had to offer us.  So we looked, and we looked and then looked some more.  We liked some other houses, thought about them for a couple of weeks and then returned to look at them again.

I decided that we needed to look at this house again, along with one other house we had been interested in.  Before this, we had looked at one other house twice and didn't like it the second time back.  So we were skeptical.  But then we saw it again and loved it.  The location was perfect - it sits on an old country road with horses, a honey farm and a nursery.  There is a limestone quarry at the end of the road which we had been skeptical about before, but after going back we realized it was several miles down the road.  Whew!  The only downside (as of now) to this house now is that the husband can barely stand up in the basement.  But we decided that the house itself had enough square feet to make up for the fact that the basement isn't finishable.  So we spent a lot of time looking everything over, then moved on to the second house that we would look at twice.

We didn't like it.  At all.

Then we saw a few more new-to-us homes.  We didn't like those, either.

Then later that day, I received a phone call from our current landlord.  They had filed bankruptcy.  Sign? I think so.

Then I won some money at the Derby. Sign? Probably not.  Really, I just wanted to brag about that.  :)

We slept on it.  We enjoyed Mother's Day with my mother-in-law.  We drove back to Chicago.

Then we decided for sure - it was the one.  We called our agent and told him our decision.  Then we made an offer, they accepted and we drank some bubbly.  All in 24 hours time!  Now it's all I can think about!

So here it is, in all its glory ::

The picture was taken in February - which I think made it that much more appealing when we saw it in person.  The trees are HUGE and beautiful.  There is so much greenery in the area, it's really quite amazing.  It's a complete change from what we're used to here which makes us that much more excited about it all!  We're going to spend so many wonderful morning/afternoon/evening/nights on that front porch.  We're installing a porch swing ASAP.

I can't wait to snuggle up on cold winter nights in front of that fireplace (I can wait, actually).  Also, how amazing is that front door?!  Oh the decorating possibilities!  My dreams of owning a rustic old house have come true!

Last, the kitchen.  It looks so small in this photo but it's much larger in person.  Those pretty double doors are hiding the washer/dryer and the door to the left is the side entrance.  I really think that it will be amazing to cook in there, even if it isn't the huge kitchen like we hoped for.  It's still twice as big as our current one :)

There aren't too many updates we'll need to make when we move in - other than putting our touch on things.  There's a screened-in porch area in the back that we're planning to upgrade once we're settled and the huge backyard (we've got almost half an acre of land!) is a blank canvas for us to do whatever we please!

I can't wait to have your help with decorating ideas - it's going to be so much fun.

* All images via the KW listing, which I'd prefer to keep private