Some assembly required
Hrm. Remember that project afoot that I declined to mention? I'll understand if you don't. I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind. By the way, you spouse told me to remind you to get milk on the way home. Anyway, the project was operation find a bigger house. It appears to have been successful.
We've made an offer on a house in the same municipality. It has been accepted. Now I actually have to finish the kitchen. Rats. (no, there are no vermin in the kitchen unless you count the cat)
Lets compare the two houses:
Current house-
Bedrooms: 3 Sort of. You see, the 3rd one is "captive" to the 2nd one, which means you have to go through one to get to the other, which means that no matter what we do the girls will be waking each other up at 2 a.m. Like last night. Oh, and again at 3 a.m. And then at 5:30.
Dining room: Just big enough for a small table and my piano. DH points out we'd have room for a great china cabinet if we didn't have that piano taking up space. The piano is non-negotiable.
Kitchen: Miniscule.
Garage: The house has a garage. It is 9' wide. You could, theoretically, put a car in it. You'd have to stay in the car though, because there'd be no room to open the car door.
Closets: Two. Well, more like 1.5. The second one is in the captive bedroom, and is halfway up the wall. It's an odd house.
Bathroom: One. Not for tall persons. It's squeezed under the cape cod roof, so we had to get creative putting in a shower. Most people do not have to cut portions of their shower curtains off to account for the ceiling.
Basement: Good for storage and laundry, but not big enough to bother finishing.
Yard: Mostly level, standard suburban lot
Age: House was built in the mid 30's.
"New" house-
Bedrooms: Four at the moment, subject to change when the master bath goes in. * Three of them have fireplaces. **
Dining room: half of a big, open, sunny greatroom that is open to the living room and perfect for entertaining. Plenty of room for both a piano and a china cabinet. And a buffet. And a big table. And a desk.
Kitchen: Nice and big. Not eat-in per se, though there's room for a small breakfast table. Currently missing a ceiling. ***
Garage: two car detached. Needs a new door. I don't care. For the first time in my life, I would have a roof over my car in the winter.
Closets: The house has closets! What a concept!
Bathroom: Here's where this one fall short in the near term. There is one functioning bathroom. By functioning, I mean it has no tub, which is sort of a must for washing small people. However, eventually* the house could have 3.5 bathrooms.
Basement: Big enough to stand up in. Big enough to finish.**** Has a laundry shoot.
Yard: Big enough to possibly merit a riding mower, but small enough to manage.
Age: According to the info in the posting, it's approximately 197 yrs old in spots.
Remember that post I wrote about liking old, fixer upper houses? Oh, maybe you didn't read this blog back then. I could link to it, but that would require effort. It appears I may be getting my wish in spades. And yet I have a very strong sense of ohcrapwhatarewegettingourselvesinto. Not that that has ever stopped me.
The whole thing isn't a done deal until we've sold the little casa. I've got a soft spot for this house even though we've always known we'd be leaving it. It's going to be an emotional ride no matter what happens.
*Two bathrooms have been gutted to the studs and need reinstalling. A half bath is half installed on the main floor. There is a great clawfoot tub in the basement that is intended for the upstairs gutted bathroom, and the current homeowners planned to build a large master bath in the fourth (tiny) bedroom.
**The house has six fireplaces, some of which work. At least two of them need their mantles replaced, but mantles are included with the house.
***A dropped ceiling was removed from the kitchen and allows access to the plumbing for the planned master bath
****There was a finished room and a full bath in the basement, but it's gutted at the moment.
Gutted is a running theme in this house.
I like to think of myself as not superstitious, but I've got a thing against February. Bad things happen in February. In an ideal world, this house wouldn't have been listed until spring. Spring when I could get a look at the yard without 4" of snow on it. Spring when our house is at its cutest for listing, with the crabapple and cherry trees in bloom looking all quaint and cottage-like. Spring when it's not so frigging cold and dark and dreary. I'm having a hard time accepting that this whole situation may happen and that, theoretically, we could be living in a new house before summer. I'm afraid February will mean things will go wrong. Or that things will go right, we'll move in, and decide we made a terrible mistake.
So hey! La la la! I can't hear February! I'm on row 25 of Cromarty!
We've made an offer on a house in the same municipality. It has been accepted. Now I actually have to finish the kitchen. Rats. (no, there are no vermin in the kitchen unless you count the cat)
Lets compare the two houses:
Current house-
Bedrooms: 3 Sort of. You see, the 3rd one is "captive" to the 2nd one, which means you have to go through one to get to the other, which means that no matter what we do the girls will be waking each other up at 2 a.m. Like last night. Oh, and again at 3 a.m. And then at 5:30.
Dining room: Just big enough for a small table and my piano. DH points out we'd have room for a great china cabinet if we didn't have that piano taking up space. The piano is non-negotiable.
Kitchen: Miniscule.
Garage: The house has a garage. It is 9' wide. You could, theoretically, put a car in it. You'd have to stay in the car though, because there'd be no room to open the car door.
Closets: Two. Well, more like 1.5. The second one is in the captive bedroom, and is halfway up the wall. It's an odd house.
Bathroom: One. Not for tall persons. It's squeezed under the cape cod roof, so we had to get creative putting in a shower. Most people do not have to cut portions of their shower curtains off to account for the ceiling.
Basement: Good for storage and laundry, but not big enough to bother finishing.
Yard: Mostly level, standard suburban lot
Age: House was built in the mid 30's.
"New" house-
Bedrooms: Four at the moment, subject to change when the master bath goes in. * Three of them have fireplaces. **
Dining room: half of a big, open, sunny greatroom that is open to the living room and perfect for entertaining. Plenty of room for both a piano and a china cabinet. And a buffet. And a big table. And a desk.
Kitchen: Nice and big. Not eat-in per se, though there's room for a small breakfast table. Currently missing a ceiling. ***
Garage: two car detached. Needs a new door. I don't care. For the first time in my life, I would have a roof over my car in the winter.
Closets: The house has closets! What a concept!
Bathroom: Here's where this one fall short in the near term. There is one functioning bathroom. By functioning, I mean it has no tub, which is sort of a must for washing small people. However, eventually* the house could have 3.5 bathrooms.
Basement: Big enough to stand up in. Big enough to finish.**** Has a laundry shoot.
Yard: Big enough to possibly merit a riding mower, but small enough to manage.
Age: According to the info in the posting, it's approximately 197 yrs old in spots.
Remember that post I wrote about liking old, fixer upper houses? Oh, maybe you didn't read this blog back then. I could link to it, but that would require effort. It appears I may be getting my wish in spades. And yet I have a very strong sense of ohcrapwhatarewegettingourselvesinto. Not that that has ever stopped me.
The whole thing isn't a done deal until we've sold the little casa. I've got a soft spot for this house even though we've always known we'd be leaving it. It's going to be an emotional ride no matter what happens.
*Two bathrooms have been gutted to the studs and need reinstalling. A half bath is half installed on the main floor. There is a great clawfoot tub in the basement that is intended for the upstairs gutted bathroom, and the current homeowners planned to build a large master bath in the fourth (tiny) bedroom.
**The house has six fireplaces, some of which work. At least two of them need their mantles replaced, but mantles are included with the house.
***A dropped ceiling was removed from the kitchen and allows access to the plumbing for the planned master bath
****There was a finished room and a full bath in the basement, but it's gutted at the moment.
Gutted is a running theme in this house.
I like to think of myself as not superstitious, but I've got a thing against February. Bad things happen in February. In an ideal world, this house wouldn't have been listed until spring. Spring when I could get a look at the yard without 4" of snow on it. Spring when our house is at its cutest for listing, with the crabapple and cherry trees in bloom looking all quaint and cottage-like. Spring when it's not so frigging cold and dark and dreary. I'm having a hard time accepting that this whole situation may happen and that, theoretically, we could be living in a new house before summer. I'm afraid February will mean things will go wrong. Or that things will go right, we'll move in, and decide we made a terrible mistake.
So hey! La la la! I can't hear February! I'm on row 25 of Cromarty!
