waiting

waiting.  waiting. waiting some more.  we placed an offer on friday for a home and received a counter from the seller on sunday.  we counteroffered on sunday and now are waiting to hear back from the seller again.  lots of counters and offers in this equation.  i hope that one eventually leads to new digs.  wish us luck!

glorious sunshine

What a beautiful glimpse of spring we are having here today. Glorious sunshine against a clear sky.  The temperature has reached a balmy 60 something.  My hands did not require mittens, gloves or heat packs when I returned from walking the dog.   My mind and body could use a good spring cleaning!!  Cheers to spring...please hurry!

land of ikea

I fancy the ikea edland line of bedroom furniture.  Something about the little metal pulls and arched legs.  So quaint this line is.



an era of wood panels

We went for a second showing of the house yesterday. It was imperative to see the house in the stark light that only daylight can provide.  Luckily for us, the daylight hours revealed no new surprises. The windows, roof and overall foundation of the house seem secure according to the naked eye.  What lurks beneath only time and a home inspection will tell.  

I brought the canon powershot along to snap a couple of pictures of the faux wood paneling that currently covers the walls of 5 rooms.  That's right...5 rooms are adorned in faux wood panels.  Four of the rooms have been painted and one still has the original log cabin look.  The kitchen and the bathroom have been covered in a half wall of wood panel.  The ceilings in several of the rooms have been tiled too.  Linoleum flooring has covered up the hardwoods in several rooms.  There will be many hours of ripping out paneling and flooring in my future. 




laundry room



teeny tiny powder room off the laundry room




muted salmon paint slapped on the paneling



pebbled linoleum flooring in laundry and bathroom



tiled ceiling





corner of linoleum






 


wood paneling ensconces the main bath



 more wood paneling




views of the neighborhood from the third floor





And so concludes our tour of today's home.  The house is in really good shape just dated.  It is an estate sale and seems to have been maintained well.  Updates seem to have been made to the home in the

 80's or 90's with lots of brass lighting, paneled walls, floral wall paper and linoleum flooring.  All easy peasy fixes or so it seems.  Wish me luck as we are waiting to hear back from the realtor on the area comps. 

housework hell and other chores

Tonight I am trapped in housework hell while I run the dishes, do the laundry, make dinner, vacuum, clean the bathroom, take out the trash, sort the recycling, pay the bills and on and on and on and on. Tonight I vow to tidy up the house and tidy up my mind because I have been neglecting both.

I have been tied up at the office with long days of meetings, clients, inspections and other random visits from people that shouldn't be visiting.  Early to work and late to home make this suburban wife unhappy. 

Weekends and evenings have been reserved for this suburban couple to scour the real estate listings looking for homes.  We spend hours poring over demographics, taxes, crime stats and swim clubs.  Hours researching appliances, flooring, crown moulding, tile, etc.  All of this research barely leaves time for anything else.

Finding time for yoga has been a stretch.  I spend 16 hours on the weekend in yoga training.  During the week I am finding it extraordinarily difficult to carve out the time to practice.  Between the office, the house hunt and the chores I have barely had time to sleep.  This housewife needs a good savasana.

 With all of this activity and hustle and bustle around me, I am maintaining a mostly gluten free diet.  The supermarket is just one more chore I have had to carve time out for.  My stomach thanks me.  My bank account wants to divorce me.   That's enough blogging for now...back to housework grind for this housewife.

golden arches

We are going for a second showing of the home in yachtown this weekend. If all goes well this weekend and we like what we see, we plan on putting in an offer.  We have brainstormed the kitchen and are on to brainstorming the arched doorways that connect the dining room to the kitche and the living room.  

The dining room is carpeted and the arched doorway can be seen by the chair in the picture below.  Not a fan of the carpet or the arched doorways.

I prefer the look of the crown moulding and doorway moulding as seen below.  The picture moulding is also  drool worthy.  Some hardwood floors to replace the carpet ain't too shabby either.

kitchen konspiracy

Despite my natural tendency to dislike oak cabinets I found the images at Bluesky and am re-thinking my kitchen remodel.  The remodel for the home I don't yet own....that one....

bitch in the kitch

I don't know if I have been convincing myself that I love this home in yachtclub town that I looked at on Friday night or if in fact I am falling in love with this home.  When I walked out on Friday night I felt a huge wave of disappointment.  The home was not all that I had imagined it would be.  Then the practical side of me took over and made a laundry list of all the positive points of said home.  Boy, did I come up with a lot.  I made a bullet point list of all the undesirables in the home and what I would change.

For instance, the kitchen is bathed in rose paint, wallpaper, corian counters...this is where rose goes to die.  The faux wood paneling and faux oak door didn't help the situation in the kitchen.  What you can't see is the floral border above the kitchen table.  I threw up a little in my mouth when in the kitchen.  The overwhelming rose turned my stomach and burned my eyes.

However, the kitchen is actually in pristine condition...not counting the rose overkill.  Take the above mentioned pictures with rosey goodness and picture something more like this.....

Some white paint, new hardware, subway tile, dark countertops, stainless steel appliances and we're in business.   The total transformation is possible without gutting the kitchen and staying within a budget.  The possiblities I am starting to envision within the plaster walls of this house are promising and make me hopeful that I could be taking up sailing by spring.

what makes a house a home?

Busy, busy, busy.  We have been scrutinizing every house we come across to see if maybe it's the one for us.  We reviewed our short list of homes and realized that they were not the homes for us.  So it was back to the drawing board. 

Friday night was date night with our realtor.  He took us into a small sleepy town in Main Street, America to show us a house.  The living quarters seemed a little tight in areas but overall was more than my husband and I actually need.  It had a very small yard but big enough for the terror with teeth.  It came equipped with a porch, small deck, first floor laundry, eat in kitchen, finished attic, basement and three bedrooms on the second floor plus your standard bathrooms, living room, dining room.  It was updated in the mid 80's and so perhaps the laura ashley floral borders need to be removed and the cheap bathroon fixtures.  Other than some minor cosmetic work, it looks to be in pristine condition on the outside which is much more important.  Yet, I wasn't in love with it.  It didn't feel like home.  So what makes a house a home?  Is it the feeling you get when you walk inside a house?  Or the feeling you get when you walk inside the home that actually belongs to you?  Is it the neighborhood?  The town?  The sweat equity of fixing up your own house to make it your home?  I'm left wondering....

In the meantime, I have been looking at the desirable qualities of the town and seeing if it is really someplace I could live.  Most of my answers are a resounding yes....

The town hosts an annual fourth of july celebration equipped with a parade, house decorating contest, greased pole climbing, river raft race, soap box derby and the list goes on and on.  I love a town that boasts good flavor and 1950's values!

Since the town is situated along the river, it is home to one of the country's oldest yacht clubs.  No great shakes to me personally but I suppose that the husband and I could always take up sailing or we could just watch from the shoreline.  I suspect the latter of the two.

It is also home to beautiful stone churches and victorian gas lamps.  My heart sings at the pictures below. 

It has a small main street but nothing that I love.  That area seems to be lacking in my opinion.  After much thought about the main street, I came to the conclusion that with less restaurants and stores, my husband and I had less opportunity to walk into town and spend money frivolously which is a bonus!!  It has a yoga studio that I have actually practiced at with two of my favorite teachers only a short walk from the house!  Yet with all of the benefits and bonuses of the house, the town, the proximity....I have reservations.  Reservations about the house?  The town? Maybe just reservations about the commitment that comes with buying the house?   I'm not even sure.  I suppose this is only natural though....

short list

These homes have also made my recently acquired short list of homes to tour.  We are calling the realtor to set up an appointment today.  They are in better neighborhoods and are comparably priced to the one we have already looked at.  As you can tell, I have a knack for the the Main Street America house and town....

home inspiration



what is...




what could be...



I don't know that we would re-face the brick underneath the siding necessarily (although if my husband let me I would!) but I have the above picture on my desktop at home for inspiration.  I have always had a love of capes, bungalows, victorians, etc.  When I find one that sings to my heart I usually save a picture of it.  I love the garage door in the second house and think it is so quaint and charming.  The planter boxes and the small shrubbery also suit the house well.  Can you see the potential?