Our Home
It’s finally time to introduce my home to the blog. I’m hesitant for a lot of reasons. We have very few quality pictures of the home from when we first moved in - we were so overwhelmed by the entire process and by our gratitude to be out of the city that we didn’t pay much attention to capturing things as they were. When we visited for the first time, we thought this house was the cutest darn thing we’d ever seen. It was big, it had a nice silhouette (especially compared to some of the other, boxier homes in our neighborhood), and it was kept up with throughout the years. It’s funny how your first time in your new house is almost like a first date… you’re just so excited to be there that the red flags go pretty much unnoticed.
That being said, this house did meet essentially all of our criteria. I wanted something as old as George Washington, Ben wanted something that was structurally sound, read: newer. I wanted a fixer-upper, Ben wanted something that wouldn’t need a whole lot of work our first few years in the house. Somehow, this gal met all of our criteria. Because of this, we overlooked some pretty obvious flaws, like the world’s tiniest front yard, a street where no one drives the speed limit, and a super questionable location for our “garage”. Not to mention, it is basically on top of the house next to it.
*All photos in this post are from the Zillow listing for our home when we bought it. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing the updates we’ve made so far!
The front of our house right after we moved in - we live on a gigantic hill, so it almost always looks crooked!
But these are all things we’ve learned along the way. The things we loved when we first visited still hold true. We have nearly a half acre backyard, with birds and deer and all kinds of delightful and annoying wildlife. There’s an enormous deck for entertaining our loved ones, and for curling up with a good book or a good movie on the projector. The interior structure is sound as can be, and the big things (like the roof, boiler, etc) all need very little attention right now.
The deck off the back of the house, where we’ve already made so many memories (and the questionable garage).
View of the house from about the halfway mark in the backyard. So inviting!
Of course, we love our backyard endlessly, but it comes with a drop of about 25 feet from front to back, and almost none of it is flat. We did get to go sledding this winter, which was a real treat! Other than that, however, it renders the yard more or less unusable. Do you see a pattern here? Of the “this is great, but…” variety? Most of the house follows this same pattern. The kitchen is a great size, but it hasn’t been updated since at least 1992. We have plenty of bedrooms, but the layouts are all subpar. The old wood floors are fantastic, but the color of that stain makes my stomach turn. Sometimes it’s difficult to see the positives, especially since our renovation budget is nonexistent.
Sure, we may have been able to find a smaller house in a less desirable neighborhood and had more pocket change for renovations. That was a choice we consciously made after spending two years despising where we lived. Before, we sprung for the beautiful apartment in a neighborhood that didn’t match our lifestyle. We were miserable, and we were not about to do that again! Alas, here we find ourselves. In a pretty little home that needs lots of TLC.
Below, you’ll find most of the interior spaces, as they were when we moved in. The house is two floors, with the living room, den, kitchen, dining, mud room, and full bath on the first floor. The second floor holds the primary bedroom, office, two guest rooms, laundry, and another full bath. We have a partially finished basement, which seemed so great at first! Until I realized that no matter what you do, ten million crickets will find their way in and die all over the floor.
Our lovely living room that brings me SO much joy now.
The den, where we spend 99.5% of our time.
Our sweet, spacious dining room.
Our only photo of the kitchen - another room that underwent a huge overhaul!
Cute little mudroom that leads out to the back of the house.
The downstairs bath… the brightness almost makes me forget how dated it is.
The basement, AKA a luxury condo for crickets. Ask me why this picture is larger than the rest? I’d love to know.
The primary bedroom. Welcome to my carpet hell!
The main guest room. Fun fact - this was the original bedroom in the house ca. 1894.
The secondary guest room.
Not pictured were the office, the upstairs hallway, and the upstairs bath. I didn’t get to saving those images before the website took them down. Picture yellow walls and greige carpet, and there you have it. If I take off my interior designer glasses for a minute, this place looks cute as heck. If you’re feeling insulted because you feel the same way, don’t be! They did a great job making this home look happy, like it was a great place to start a new life or a family. Unfortunately, yellow is my least favorite color, and I see very little of my personal style in the house.
For the last year now, I’ve been working day and night to change that! You’ll see all of these pictures again as we examine each room and all of the updates we’ve made. I’ll tell you all about our exciting plans and keep you updated along the way.
Until next week,
Nicki
