We're Buying a House!

Well, I can't figure out how to organize and narrate my photos in Google+, and I don't want to spam FaceBook with 35 photos and rhapsodic babble, so I am resurrecting this zombie blog to share pictures of the house we're buying.  I am SO EXCITED.

Many of you know that we've had a bit of a rocky road in the house search this summer.  We started looking in March, and we found one we liked in April.  We made an offer, got a verbal agreement after a few counter-offers, and then before we could get in to sign the modified contract, an investor swooped in and offered cash with no inspections.  Yoink!

Then in May, we found another house.  This one looked good in many ways.  It wasn't our dream house, but it had what we wanted functionally: fenced yard, fireplace, room for guests, and it was a great central location 2 minutes from Rick's work.  It was just a little small, just a little shabby, but we knew with time and effort, we could make it nice.

The sellers.... the sellers did not have their act together.  After weeks of uncooperative and downright obstructive behavior, they finally decided that they weren't ready to move after all and that they wouldn't sell.  That was a very unpleasant week, but we were reimbursed for our investments up to that point. So we reviewed our finances, began the search anew, and found THE ONE.

THE ONE was originally out of our price range, but it had just dropped for the 3rd time, which put it on our "maybe we can talk them down" radar.  And we DID!  Nobody had given them an offer for 8 months, which blows my mind.  This house is solid, spacious, and well-maintained, but it's a little weird.  I guess not all of DeKalb is willing to Embrace the Weird, but more fool them, because we're getting a heck of a deal, and we LOVE it.  There's nobody to outbid us, and it's already vacant, so we don't have to worry about the sellers getting cold feet.  I do believe the third time will be the charm.

Yesterday was the inspection, and we clambered all over and mentally placed furniture and made to-do lists and ooohed and ahhhed and generally bonded.  Prepare for the picture onslaught (and click on any you like to make them larger).  Some of these are grabbed from the MLS listing, some I took yesterday with Rick's phone camera, which is getting some clouding on the lens, so pardon the 80's-Mini-Series-Love-Scene quality of those.

Exterior front and back.  Built in 1970, brick and cedar siding, mansard roof.  And oh yeah, THAT DECK.  It's empty now, and when we move in it will have naught but our grill and some camp chairs, but there are many possibilities for the future of That Deck.

East side of the main floor: that's the front door.  Nifty switchback staircase on one side (it's similar to the stacks in the DeKalb library, which I love), all the wood you see is solid oak. On the other side is a family room space that flows into the dining room as you turn around  Double sliding doors lead from the dining room out onto the deck, giving  plenty of light (y'all know how I need my light).  Because there's an eat-in kitchen, we'll have separate tables for dining and for schoolwork (luxury!), and our academic materials and crafts and science kits and boardgames will go over here.

There's another view of the family-into-dining room area (the door to the garage is on the left), plus the view out that back door.  The landscaping is absolutely decadent, so I took several "views out the windows" pictures.

Moving westward from the front door, we move past the stairs into the living room:

The door on the right is a broom closet, and the one on the left is this groovy little half-bath, so very Mod:

Into the living room, behold the wood-burning fireplace, whose cheerful and crackling hearth will prevent me from turning into Jack Torrance in the winter.  The piano will go where those bookshelves are.  If the sellers leave the bookshelves, we will happily put them to use in the upstairs bedrooms.

The fireplace wraps around the corner, isn't that neat?  I didn't get a good shot of them, but there are two more sets of sliding glass doors that look out into the side yard.  Here, the kids explore while Rick admires the neighbors' impressive deck:

Meanwhile, that door leading out of the south wall of the living room brings us to some fancy additions that were made to the original structure.  Y'all, check out this bathroom.  Words fail me:

 

The toilet is behind the door.  Yes, the sink is missing (we'll put in a pedestal), but that's not really the point now, is it?  The point is that Seth and I will be arm-wrestling over whose turn it is to use the bathtub, there are no shower doors to clean, and I have privately named it The Key-Party Room, because I am classy that way.  :D

Just past the sybaritic bathroom is The Media Room (featuring more views out windows):

 

This room is enormous, and it's wired for sound, networking, everything you could possibly need for a fancy home theater.  Our little 25" flatscreen is going to look like a postage stamp in there, but boy, will it sound good!  We want to get a nice sleeper sofa in there eventually, so that guests can opt to sleep there instead of in the spare bed in the basement, if they so choose.  There are no bathrooms in the basement.

Our final stop on the tour of the first floor is the kitchen.  The lovely, spacious kitchen.  It was expanded when the additions were made; the area where the sink and oven are is original, and the eat-in area with the refrigerator is the expansion:

Soooo shiny!  I love the backsplash.  Behold, I will finally have a dishwasher!

Let me tell you, we have looked at a LOT of houses these last few months, and most "eat-in kitchens" mean "we've put a table in the kitchen and you can mostly squeeze around it."  Not so here.  Look at this space (and ignore the stupid wallpaper).  There's even a little writing desk area across from it where you can sit and do paperwork.  I'm seriously thinking of putting a little 10 gallon fish tank there.

And the view out the windows is lovely:

Yet more counter and cabinet space, just because. You can see the divide between the original and the addition here:

The view into the dining room area:

I hope the sellers leave that table.  We'll find out later this week.

Before we go upstairs, I just have to show you some goofy shots of the ceiling, because the more I look at it, the more I love it.  Plank and beam, all through the family/dining and living room:

Now, to the second floor!  Fewer pictures, because empty bedrooms are not very remarkable.  There are 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms up there.  Well, the master bath just has a shower, but that counts as full these days.  The master bedroom has this delightful little west-facing balcony:

I'm going to have a little container garden with herbs and tomatoes up there.  It has a screen door, so on nice days, the cats can enjoy fresh air from On High.

Here's the kids' bathroom (again with the goofy wallpaper, but I like the floor),

And here's the view from the top of the stairs.

Going aaalllllll the way down the stairs to the basement, I took this picture of the doorbell and 70s-era partridge print because it amused me:

I actually rather like that wallpaper.  It's RETRO.

The basement is mostly unfinished, but one corner of it is partitioned off with some faux wood paneling on the walls:

That's a radon detector on the stool.  We'll have the results of that test tomorrow (it has to run for 48 hours).  This room was clearly used as a spare bedroom, but it's a little cramped for our spare queen bed, so we'll probably just use it for storage.  We'll put the bed in the main area.  It's unfinished, but it's a lot more spacious:

Don't freak out about the cracks.  There were 6 vertical cracks in the foundation walls, but they've all been professionally fixed, and the inspectors recognized the business card and said that the guy does a good job and guarantees his work.  They also assured us that there would normally be no moisture issues around those settling cracks in the floor, but we've had a lot of rain this past week, and the float switch on the sump pump was stuck.  The sump well was nearly overflowing when we arrived.  The inspectors jiggled it, the pump kicked on and started draining it, and it's in good working order.  Sticky switches are a common issue, you just have to keep an eye on the sump during rainy weather.  After dealing with the CREEK that's been running through the basement of our rental unit due to a leaking window, this is really no big deal!

Following that wall around to the back, we have the house guts and laundry hookups.  I'll be delighted if that worktable and shelving stay, because they'll be perfect for cutting and curing soap!  I haven't made any since we moved up here due to lack of space.  We're going to have to get an electrical line run for our dryer, because the hookup is for a gas dryer.

AND THAT'S EVERYTHING.  What do you think?