Through Our Eyes

We toured the house for the first time with our realtor, and for the second time during our home inspection in mid-April. The property was a lot different then than it is now, thanks to the dense foliage that emerged in May. We drove by almost daily before we closed, just to see the property’s features develop, even sitting at our scooters side-by-side at the end of the driveway looking at it and making plans. We really loved this place from the moment we saw it.

You’ll note as you peruse the below photos that some of the exterior shots are labeled April 2013, and are accompanied by others taken yesterday to demonstrate the change in scenery.

The interior photos shared still have signs of the old homeowners; they had moved out prior to having the house on the market, but some of their belongings remained. I don’t normally like to photograph the interior of homes without the homeowner’s permission (except for another house we looked at where the seller had a killer 1950-something Lincoln Continental convertible that was comically huge–I’m not even a car person and I was impressed–and we definitely modeled in and around it for fun) but in this case, hopefully no one (the seller, or their children, whoever they may be, if they ever see this blog) will be offended or angered by Grandma’s bed and dining room set being shown on the interwebs. The furniture, I should mention, did not stay with the house, total bummer because I would have loved the yellow chair in the corner of one of the bedrooms. We are left with the memories of their presence in those early visits by way of these photos, and the deep-deep-deep marks they left in the carpet everywhere. The items (at least most of them) were sold at a heavy discount at a garage sale held at the house in May, or so we spied as innocent garage-sale-goers, wink-nudge, so I’m sure they weren’t precious or too personal.

Onward!

Our entryway leads into both the living room and dining room:

• Trying hard to identify exactly what type of stonework is on the fireplace and forming the planter box. I keep saying slate, but no one seems to agree with me.
• Beige. Beige carpet, beige walls, beige vomit.
• The living room is sunken, though the ceiling is the same height as the rest of the house. High ceilings for tall Christmas trees!
• The wood burning fireplace needs some TLC, as identified in our home inspection and a subsequent chimney estimate review. We’re still debating a switch to gas.
• Picture window happies being had for both the living and dining room.

The kitchen:

• More Beige-y McBeigeBeige.
• Got knobs?
• The floor is “newer;” we found remnants of the tiles in the basement. It’s interlocked and floating, which may bode well for its eventual replacement.
• Huge picture window above the sink. Really huge.
• Has an eat-in kitchen, and access to the sunroom.
• Loads of storage, though none of the drawers are on tracks, none of the shelves are adjustable, and no space is tall enough to hold the modern cereal box.
• Old appliances, newer sink and faucet.

We haven’t dined at the eat-in kitchen yet, because the sunroom is too wonderful to ignore.

• Fully screened in.
• Solid concrete foundation beneath carpeting.
• Shown with the seller’s furniture, currently houses one of our wedding tables.

There’s a small half-bath off of the kitchen too.

• It really isn’t anything special, except that Julia called it the toilet room in our video tour, so now we do too.
• It has a window that looks directly into the sunroom, which is only awkward if the window is opened and you’re peeing while people are eating.

Also accessed through the kitchen, the basement. 

• I have a basement video for you, fodder for another day. But check out how tall the ceiling is (photo taken in April during the home inspection).
• 2×12 joists and an I-beam that might rival the Empire State Building’s construction.
• Side note: Back left, there’s a vintage roller coaster-ramp-cart-type thing for kids. We all wanted to ride. It wasn’t left with the house, which is probably a good thing for our homeowners’ insurance policy.

Back upstairs, the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom has a special something:

• It makes me feel like I’m in a hospital, but it sure it might be a good sound barrier if we were to be partying hard after the kiddies went to sleep.

And here’s the charming 1950’s bathroom:

• Square tub with diagonal basin, awesome, odd, great. We would love to figure out a way to retain it whenever we gut this room.
• Separate standing coffin shower, score.
• Loads of storage. Deep drawers, medicine cabinet, tiny drawers beneath sink (so far, perfect for everyday items like toothpaste, hair brushes, makeup).
• So much hex tile that it makes my pupils go hexagonal.
• Maroon and ivory, beige and pink, which we can live with, no problem.
• Broken ceiling vent fan.
• Humungous mirror.

The master bedroom is as big as all three bedrooms at our old house, combined.

• We talk every night how in the world we’re ever going to use so much space, short of getting a king-sized bed someday, or building in a master bath.
• Two closets with lights that come on when you open the doors.
• Old curtains. I don’t even know where to begin with replacing them.
• Ceiling fan and light operated by remote control.

The other bedrooms. They’re much alike so I’ll lump them together:

• Corner windows are charming. I wish our master bedroom had them too.
• Nice closets, both with lights that come on when you open the doors.
• Cool yellow chair. It did not come with the house.

The backyard is wonderful. The grass was completely brown and toasted in April when we saw the house, but we’re pleased that it has come back lush and thick throughout the sunny parts of the yard. More like a Rogaine treatment through the shady areas, as one might expect.

• The last of the photos I’ll share with you today features that plant I asked you to identify on Instagram and Facebook a month ago. It had yellow-ish flowers then, and you clued me in to the fact that it was probably a honeysuckle. But then over the weekend we found that it bears 3″ thorns up and down each stem, and though I haven’t been here long enough to see the alleged berries, we have reason to believe that it’s an untrimmed Lycium Halimifolium, A.K.A. a Matrimony Vine. And it has spread all over our back fence. And it needs to be terminated. Huge, right?

Hope you enjoyed! Time to unpack more boxes…