Thursday, October 18, 2007

Well there's a red house over yonder, that's where my baby stays.


Nothing like a little Hendrix to start your morning eh?

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We just put an offer down on another house.

This one was built in 1927, and is a three bedroom, two and a half bath with a huge formal dining room, kitchen with a breakfast room, a den (which we will be treating as an office with a daybed for occasional guests), large living room with original marble fireplace, a full unfinished basement and a walk up attic. It's got a lot of cool features, such as a huge triple armoire-styled closet in the master bedroom that's all lined in cedar, arched glass french doors throughout the house, hardwood stairs and railings, etc. There's a huge walk out deck on the roof over the attached garage that is accessible from a door in what would be the guest room. The house is on a corner lot and has a huge fish pond and fountain in the large shady back yard. The hardwoods in the house are all original and in immaculate shape. The same couple has lived in the house since the 1940s, and honestly - while they took great care of the home, there is a lot of work to be done. The master bathroom will have to be gutted almost immediately. There's 1960s wallpaper up in the kitchen that will be torn down (though I'm keeping the vintage metal cabinetry), and we'll have to tear up the carpet in the kitchen. WHO carpets a kitchen anyway?

We're planning on redoing a lot of the decor in "Hollywood Regency" style - think old Hollywood from the 1940s. It will be a long, slow process but I think it will be worth it.

Outside, our first projects will be ripping down the metal awnings, and the horrendous antenna, changing some landscaping (we're not fond of the large bushes up front but those would have to wait until next spring to come out at the earliest - to keep the snow from building up around the basement). Eventually, we'd like to finish out the basement and put a family room and children's play room down there - as the basement is dry and utterly massive.

We're supposed to hear something back on our offer by 6 p.m. today. We're keeping everything crossed. We bid just about $29,000 under asking price (based on the updates we're going to have to do) and we're nervously excited. Thankfully, our mortgage broker just called to tell us that rates had dropped .125% today, so we're in better financial shape than we thought.

As the house is vacant, we also asked for closing the week before Thanksgiving. Patrick's parents are coming up the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and we'd love to be in the house (albeit in boxes) when they get up here.

We'll have to find someone to lease our apartment, as the lease isn't up until April, but we decided to go ahead with the house now and see what happens. I didn't want to be moving at 9 months pregnant.

In other news, I've hit 12 weeks. Feeling tremendously better as the morning sickness seems to have (mostly) left - and I'm not so exhausted anymore. Our first trimester screening is tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to seeing Baby G.

And I promise, I'll bust out the camera for some ring pictures this weekend.

5 comments:

Shinny said...

I hope you got good news on the house. How very exciting. We moved into our house last fall the week before Thanksgiving and actually had my family over for the holiday. Good thing we have a big garage and attic to hide all the unpacked boxes in. ;) Hope you get it and congrats on 12 weeks. So very happy for you.

Jess said...

A LOT of those old kitchens were carpeted because the floors were FREEZING...before you rip it out, put a candle on the floor (in a holder, natch) and watch the flame for a moment - that will tell you if you have huge ankle-high drafts.

(My grandma taught me that. She'd be so pleased I remembered!)

Congratulations on twelve weeks! I hope it's all easy-peasy from now on.

Ms. Pants said...

Pond = Mosquitos

And the house I grew up in had a carpeted kitchen. And that carpet was fuuuuuuuuuug.

Baby G? Izzard ref?

MsPrufrock said...

Oh my goodness. That house is making me feel all gooey inside, I love it! I'm a bit of a house pornographer, so if you get it I simply must, MUST see more pictures.

Good luck. Also, 12 weeks, woo hoo!

Dee said...

Lovely house; hope the news was good earlier this evening :-)

And congrats on 12 weeks, may it only get better and better...

P.S. Like Ms. Prufrock, I second the request for more house pics should it become yours! It's simply lovely from the outside, and I'm dying to see some of those lovely inside features (armoire, doors, etc.).