This is something that I haven't wanted to blog about because I'm afraid of "jinxing" things, but it's taken over such a large part of our lives that I think it's time it got a post! Some big news: I am about to have a baby AND we have decided to try to move! Simultaneously! Because we are crazy! :)
We have had our eye on a particular "country house" for a little while now, and finally went to the bank for loan preauthorization and signed up with a realtor and actually made an offer. Labor Day weekend was a thrilling, anxiety-ridden weekend full of counteroffers and a gazillion texts and phone calls, which finally resulted in... the country house accepting our final offer!!! Now our little house is up for sale. We have had 9 people look at it in the last 6 days. It's tough (scheduling showings around Sophia's school schedule, 2 works schedules, and nap schedules is quite the challenge!) and I'm a *bit* hormonal and emotional about the whole thing. I absolutely, completely adore our little house and I am going to be a bawling mess if/when we do leave! We have only lived there for 4.5 years, but it's where we have grown as a family and where we brought baby Sophia home to, and it's the only home that she has ever known. It's our first family home and it's darling and I love it, but we outgrew the house with this pregnancy (only 2 bedrooms on the main floor) and outgrew the yard when we bought a horse :) So... cross your fingers for us! For your viewing pleasure, here are the realtor's pics of our sweet little house:
There is no dining room, but we turned the main floor living room into a multi-purpose dining/living room, since there's a den downstairs! Who needs 2 living rooms??? I guess that's really common around here, but seems a bit indulgent to me!
The sweet little kitchen. We spent lots of time and money updating the appliances and revamping the kitchen to make it "just right." Sigh.
Our master bedroom. In the bottom right corner you can see a speck of the baby's changing table... the bassinet and changing table are in our room for now! Nowhere else to put those things!
The main floor bathroom that we just finished updating with a gazillion dollar sink and vanity and matching mirror and new paint and hardware and a custom shelf. Sigh.
Sophia's room, which I realize looks like chaos, BUT consider that I spent 40 hours painting her wall mural and that room is more "customized" and full of love than the rest of our house x100. Sigh.
Downstairs bathroom. For some reason the photographer didn't get any pics of our downstairs (guest) bedroom??? Our realtor said that's an oversight. Sorry... no 3rd bedroom pics!
The landing downstairs. Laundry room off to the right by the stair case.
The den
There's a little nook off of the south end of the den that we use as a work-out space.
The big, beautiful backyard! (You can't see my withered and dead garden very well in this photo, thank goodness! It's in the back of the yard where you see lots of shade... apparently produce needs sunshine to grow? Who knew?) :)
Our patio. Around the corner of the patio is the big outdoor/indoor dog kennel, which is another thing we'll really miss! The country house doesn't have a fenced dog yard, so that will be a bit of a challenge if everything comes together and we move in this fall/winter...
Now here are some pics of the country house! Of course the silver lining in this whole move thing is that we would be getting a much better house/space for our little family! It's really a sweet house. Not quite the remodeled farmhouse I was envisioning (this is a ranch built in 1978), but there are definitely perks to buying a "newish" property! (Like, skipping the sketchy wiring and lead paint and asbestos! Woo-hoo!). This house has the most acreage (10) at the shortest distance from the city (20 minutes) that we've seen yet. Good find!
Garage is detached, but it's an oversized 4 stall!
East facing screened porch, which Travis envisions sitting on while watching...
...the sun rise over 6,000 + acres of original, unspoiled prairie! This is a huge preserve right in front of the front yard. One of my favorite things about this place :) The house is also a short jog/drive away from a beautiful, wooded state park AND is next door to a really sweet town called Hawley AND is a short drive away from another state park that has horse trails. Another thing that I love is that this house is actually part of a development, so there are quite a few homes just west of this house. I wasn't too excited about the prospect of living in total country isolation, and Travis wanted to get out of the crowded city, so I think this is a very good compromise!
The family room is so open and light, with a cute little woodstove in the corner.
Formal dining room (we would probably repurpose this into a "multipurpose" room since there's good dining space right off the kitchen). The goal down the road would be to add a room or two to the house. It's currently a 3-bedroom, but I really like having a guest room for my family and it's nice to have a "junk" (office, exercise, etc.) room. Do I sound spoiled or what??? :)
This East-facing room would be Sophia's. There is another east-facing bedroom right next to this one for "Tadpole." The two kid rooms are right across the hall from the master bedroom. I want all my little ones to be less than 10 steps away from me at night!
West-facing master bedroom. (With it's own bathroom!).
The kitchen. Needs updating. Wah-wah.
Dining space off the kitchen. The sliding glass doors lead to the west-facing deck.
This is the deck, overlooking the little horse barn and fenced pasture.
So that's our exciting, crazy news... cross your fingers for us!
1 comment:
Sooo exciting! I am pretty sure that you are a different breed than I, to be able to handle all this, but I know you will do it as gracefully as you always do. Congrats and good luck!
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