Introducing...OUR House!!

 YOU GUYS!!!!!!

I'm so excited to introduce you to our much-eluded-to-on-social-media-and-everywhere-else home sweet home!!! Let me tell you, the process of getting the keys to this baby was so excruciating and stressful that I don't know if I will ever relive them by writing them down. The short of it is, we came this close to losing both the house AND twelve thousand (yes THOUSAND!!) hard-earned, long-saved for dollars due to an incompetent lender. I also lost 7 pounds in as many days, 2 partial days of work and my sanity (which thankfully I think I found again). So if you've been wondering where we disappeared to the past month, consider yourself informed!

Enough of the drama - let's give you the tour! I must say, it is so exciting to share these pictures with you because the interior of the house no longer looks anything like this. The good shots are borrowed from the original listing and the dark ones were taken by us in a hurry before we started poking holes in the walls. We dove head first and are doing what I call "de-90-fying the house." In plainer English, we are taking the 90's out of it. We have had it in our possession for a mere 16 days and and I can't wait to soon be able show you the "after" photos to see the transformation. But first, the before.

Welcome to our living/dining room area! Through the arch on the right you can see the french doors (well you can really only see one door) to MY office (I called dibs!) and then down the hall to the left of the office, is the powder room and then the kitchen. If you came straight down the stairs and kept going, you'd head out the front door. 

 Here's another view of the living room, looking out toward the front window (lovely, built-in valance, eh?)

 And now the dining room and it's *cough* unique ceiling touches.

A nighttime shot of the office I mentioned. In the daytime hours, it is FLOODED with light.

The downstairs "powder room" which is not going to be altered much during this first phase of remodeling. Dang, someone left the seat up! I blame a male.

 And now the kitchen. To get your bearings, the downstairs has a circular floor plan. The hall to the powder room and office is not pictured but to the left and you can see the dining room chandelier through the door next to the fridge. Alas, the 90s will live on here in for another couple years until we can save up a pretty penny. Hang onto your hats for a big kitchen reveal some year, someday soon. 

 Here is the kitchen eating area with the kitchen in the background. It's important to note here that that wall you see on the left is the wall to the laundry room which literally bumps out about 3 feet into the eating area. Also, just out of the picture (those sneaky real estate photographers!!) is a half wall and post separating (and perfecting caging in the blocking the flow of traffic!) this eating area from the family room. 

 Now we're standing in the kitchen eating area looking into the family room and that half wall is directly to the left, just a hair outside of the scope of this shot.

We almost didn't buy the house because of this little number here: the laundry room. It's placement couldn't have been poorer and though we only had about 10 minutes on Graham's lunch break to tour the entire house when it first listed, I spent about 8 of them standing in the kitchen staring this little room. Even after we made an offer, the wretched laundry room haunted me and made me thing we should bail on the whole thing. 

I'm gonna throw in one of my own pictures so you can get a better idea of how the floor plan really urked me. Here is that half wall and post with the laundry room poking out to the right. If one were to put a table of any size in the eating area, BAM! Goodbye access to the family room.

But I digress....now let me take you upstairs!

There are 4 bedrooms and this first one is going to be Jack's. The kids' rooms are all pretty similar in size and there are hardwoods throughout.

 The kid's and guest bath. Please note the ceiling is also painted this lovely shade of blue!

 I LOVE our master suite! It is situated on the south side of the house and so gets tons of natural light. The entrance to the master bath is not pictured but is off to the right.

 The master bath will someday get a makeover but don't expect to see many changes here during phase 1 of our remodel. You can see the reflection of the entrance to the large walk in closet in the mirror. This is also Jack's temporary resting place whenever we are over there working on the house. Poor kid, he'll have an actual bedroom soon!   

 This photo does not do it justice but this is the bonus room of all bonus rooms! I think it might be around 600 square feet and was a major selling feature for me because, not only is it big enough to hold tons of toys and even a couch and sitting area, but we can also create some sort of guest accommodations in the little alcove there. If anyone has an ingenious idea how I can make it look like there ISN'T a bed in the middle of the bonus room, I'm accepting idea donations. Also not pictured are the two giant double-wide closets to the right. 

 And last but not least, our sweet little deck and backyard. It's large enough to play in and host parties on the deck but hopefully still small enough for us to keep up with without taking over our life. If you look closely you can see a little white porch swing hanging from the eve of the house. :)

For all wondering minds, no we have not yet moved in. We made haste in taking the move-in-ready but dated home to a currently-totally-unlivable-wires-and-nails-everywhere-but-coming-together-beautiful-disaster. Our hope (pipe dream?) is to be in by Christmas but that might have to be a Christmas miracle. Don't spend much time memorizing these pictures I have shared with you - I'm hoping you will hardly recognize the place when we are finished with it. We have made some amazing changes already and I can't wait to share them all with you!! Stay tuned!