We bought a house!
Brent and I have been looking on and off again for the last year, knowing that we loved our Lakehouse, but that we've both been anxious to own again. It's been the best way to house-hunt, in that it's such a seller's market right now, with great interest rates, but we didn't have to move if we didn't find the right thing. Well, we found it!
We've also been talking a lot about the possibility of income property, so we kept that in the back of our minds as we looked. We looked all over a couple of the smaller cities around here, knowing that they have some good neighborhoods and some not as good ones. We sure didn't expect to find our home just a few blocks away on the same street!
It's got really good bones, with great character and old, wide, rich woodwork. The basement is tall enough for my 6'3" husband, and is by far the best basement of homes we've seen in our price range. The home is totally liveable for us right away, and will also be improved by some of the work we'd like to do.
Here's a little tour for you! There are some pictures from the realtor's website, and others that I took in order to remember specific things before we move in at the end of May.
The current owners just put on all new siding and trim this past fall, but they did forget to paint the door red, which will happen soon after we take over!
You can see some of the character with the arched entryway, and you might also notice that there are coved ceilings -which I love! The front windows are all new as well. 
The wall they have their TV on and the one right next to it should be big enough for our piano and TV -exact arrangement to be determined. 
Standing at the front door you can see the arch to the dining room. 
The living room opens to the dining room, which opens to the kitchen. It's not the same as a square-shaped open concept room, but that's pretty hard to find in a character home. Standing in the kitchen I'll still feel like I know what's going on in other rooms. That door in the dining room leads to the 3-season porch. 
There will be plenty of room for my hutches! (I measured!) This picture also shows the door on the left that leads to what will be our office, and through the kitchen you can see the master straight ahead, and then the bathroom is on the right and the guest room on the left. 
Looking back at the living room. 
The kitchen. It's totally functional now, and we'll definitely be making some changes. 
The kitchen re-do can't happen first, but when it does I might make this a wall of pantry cupboards.... We'll see.... 
There's this half-wall separating the dining room and kitchen, and it bugs me. They raised the counters from the main counter, and since it hangs over on both sides there ends up being wasted space. We'll see what happens with this... 
The master bedroom. The closet is deep and organized in what seems will be a helpful configuration. This room was added on at some point so the two windows don't have the same great woodwork. 
I snapped this picture so I could remember just how much space there would be for our dressers. 
The guestroom will have enough space for a bed and dresser, but probably not much more than that. 
This is one room that will proabably stay that color, though, as it's one I like. 
We will also use this room as our office/library, but the white walls will go. 
This helps show the perspective that it's just off the dining room. 
I love our new porch! I am excited to get back to reading a good book a lot more often. 
Here is our first project. We'll focus on the upstairs apartment so that we can get it rented right away. At first I thought I'd quickly paint the cabinets, but now we're thinking we might just start fresh. I'm hoping to document our progress much better than I've been documenting life lately so you can see just what decisions we make. We've been watching a lot of Income Property on HGTV!! 
The space for a table and chairs. 
Here's a hallway leading to a back door only used for a fire escape. There's a 'butler's pantry' on the side with lots more space. 
Here is the master bedroom, which is really quite large. It actually has a sitting area as well. The photographer took this shot from the farthest corner and you can see the closet door on the left and the living room door on the right. It's really two rooms separated with that opening, but there's only one closet so we'll market this as one room. 
This is the living room and looking ahead is that bedroom you just saw. 
The other half of the living room, which leads to the kitchen and bathroom. The door frame on the left is for the second bedroom. 
The second bedroom with original wood floors. I can hardly wait to rip out the awful carpet in the rest of the apartment and see what we've got underneath. 
The bathroom. The yellow and white sponge painting will quickly be gone. It has a nice counter space, but I'm not certain what to do about the mirror height. Let's just say it would work for my mom, but not for my dad! Right now there's a medicine cabinet to the left of the toilet which allows people taller than my mom to look in a mirror standing up. I'll need to think about this one a while.... There's a nice shower behind the door. 
There you have it! I'm sure I'll take "before" pictures in an empty house the day we close, but we're hoping to start making some good progress right away on some of the changes we're invisioning.
Anyone want to come help??!!
