Our house!

We bought a house.

I love this house. It has almost triple the space of our last home. Maybe closer to 2.5 times, but whatever. This is so perfect for our family of 5. Tim will be working from home now, so we need more elbow room. The kids are getting older, we'll have more guests now than ever, we just...felt like we should buy a larger home than our last.  We'll actually have a place for guests to sleep that doesn't involve a couch or a wood floor! 

We closed on it yesterday. I'm shocked by how painless the whole process was. I have to say, we've been insanely lucky to have nothing but positive, seamless experiences in the process of buying (and selling, though only one) the two homes we've owned. No delays, no hiccups. The inspection was awesome. 

I keep describing the situation as just "at peace." There has been zero giddy excitement. You'd think that would make me upset, but actually? Totally the opposite. Our first home, I felt all sorts of giddy excitement. Everything was shiny and new. Our house had been flipped (very poorly) and in the end, all that shiny new stuff blinded us to the quality issues and serious hidden problems the home had. 

It's why we were in love with the farmhouse, but walked away. The farmhouse made me feel all giddy and excited inside, but it had been flipped...and physically moved off its foundation and put on another. Insert scared face here.

This house just gives me peace. I know it's a really well built home. It feels solid and the inspection confirmed that gut feeling. It's huge. It'll fit our family so well. The only downside to this house is also an upside. It's all builder grade. Just very basic, bottom-of-the line, cheap finishings and materials. I say it's also an upside because it means I get to be the one to personalize it. It requires a huge element of patience because it's not like we can swoop in and make every change I want right outta the gate. But that's okay. I'm up for the waiting game. In the mean time, I get to brainstorm all the ways we'll make this house our home.  :)

Each kiddo gets his/her own room! What?! And we have a giant bonus room upstairs that will be a great kids playroom and function as a family room and guest room, too, since it's giant and has its own bathroom. 

It has a master downstairs, which I dig. And like a kids room sized closet! 

It has not one but two pantries, which is a massive step up from ZERO, which is what our last house had until we gave up the coat closet to turn into a makeshift pantry. And one of my favorite aspects of the house? The size of the kitchen! It puts my last kitchen to shame. Unfortunately the linoleum is, like, really bad. And the formica countertops are not in the best shape ever. So...that's step one after we get our stuff moved in and walls painted. Tim and I each had important must-haves when buying our house. His was location, proximity to things, bikeability and an office. Mine was a screened-in porch (hello, I am a mosquito magnet and this is the south) and a nice kitchen because I practically spend my entire day in that room. So many of the homes we saw in our price range had granite, wood floors, fancy appliances. This house has none of that. But it has SIZE. And it has a good neighborhood, a screened-in porch and all the things on Tim's checklist. And since it was also the cheapest house of all we were considering, we knew we could take some of the profit from our last house and use it to spruce up the kitchen. So we're currently in the planning stage and I am having WAY less fun than I ever could have imagined because I've changed my mind exactly 639 times in the last 7 days alone. 

The cabinets are getting painted white Monday and then the granite is going in...sometime. When I can decide on a color. And then Tim and I will tackle the floors and backsplash ourselves. Lots of blog posts to come, I'm sure! 'Cause that's how I do.

Now let's talk about my second favorite part of this home: the screened-in porch! Ah, swoon! 

We'll install a ceiling fan and then you can find me in the screened-in porch 98% of the spring, summer and early fall. 

Our living room is a decent size. Someday I fantasize about wood floors, because carpet is something I'm not at all used to anymore. I love the vaulted ceiling and the fact that the kitchen opens right into the living room. Last week I snagged a PB Basic sofa on Craigslist for $125 because the covers were all stained, so I replaced them with a $49 Erktorp slipcover because it fits the PB Basic PERFECTLY. What what?! I'm excited to put together my vision for this room. :)

And last but not least, we have the office, which we're turning into a joint office and I'm uber excited about that! 

And the dining room. Which I was totally griping about having, because we are not dining room peeps, but I scored a $150 solid wood dining room table and chairs on Craigslist that I'm refinishing and I am totally giddy about that. Now that I'm working out the logistics, it'll be sort of fun to have a fancy room.

That's a wrap! Welcome to our new house. Many, many decisions and blog posts to come. Probably over the next few years. ;)