Welcome to the Land O' Crazy

Though this journal has been here since last year, I've only recently discovered Houseblogs.net. I'm looking forward to reading about all of the adventures (and misadventures) of other homeowners within the ring. What's the saying..."Misery loves company"? hehe

My name is Kim and I'm married to Jeff and we have three girls ages 4, 5, and 10. We bought our home (our first home!) two years ago and began ripping it apart last fall. Though I *wish* that we could have bought an old farmhouse to restore to it's former glory, we ended up buying a sweet little home that really does look much smaller than it really is. Here is the story of how we found the house, followed by what we plan to turn it into, bit by bit. You can look back through our archives to see what we've done so far. I hope you enjoy and please let me know that you've stopped by and link to your journal so that I can keep up with your progress!

One Saturday in the spring of 2003, we passed a cute house for sale in our town. We did stop and pick up a flyer in the yard and while it sounded and looked nice, it seemed small. It looked tiny for a 5 person family, so we didn't give it a second thought.



On Tuesday, our agent called me and told me he just toured a home that we had to come and see. He said it looked small on the outside but was much bigger on the inside. He told me where it was and it was, in fact, the same house we passed on Saturday. He was very excited about it so we agreed to meet him to look at it. I pulled up into the drive of the neatly "groomed" unassuming little house.

Then I went in and thought..."Wow!" It was much bigger on the inside! The living room wasn't huge, but the ceiling was tall with a nice beam at the top. And there's a fireplace, which was one of those things that I thought would be nice but not a neccessity.



The 3 bedrooms are a good size, too. The 3rd bedroom was used as a masterbedroom and it is small for a masterbedroom (12 X 13 I think). It does have a tall ceiling with a wood beam, which is very nice. It has a half bath and a walk in closet. Ordinarily, a smaller master bedroom with only a half bath wouldn't work for us, but what made this home so sweet is that there is already a huge new masterbedroom under construction in the bonus area above the garage! It has 4 huge windows and a full bath...and huge closets. It's already plumbed and wired...It just needs sheetrock and carpeting, toilet and vanity. Soooo...this would be our bedroom, and the old masterbedroom would become Sydneys. Anyway, the living room/bedrooms have berber carpet that is in really good shape...still remnants left in a closet!

The dining room, kitchen, and sunroom are relatively new additions to the home. Kitchen is a nice size, plenty of room for an island in the future. From the kitchen (and from the current master bedroom), you have access to the deck.





Off from the kitchen is the sunroom...the room where our computer will go. This area can be accessed from the outside without necessarily having to walk through the house. Great for when we need to meet with clients. It has sliding glass doors on both walls, tall ceilings with additional little windows and also skylights...It's very cheery! And I love the tile floors. Out one of the sliding doors you have access to the deck...out the other side, you have a view of a flower garden.




The home has a 2 car garage and also a workshop in the backyard....



It's so funny how much bigger the house looks from the back compared to the front, lol! In this pic, the two big windows above that garage backdoor would be our future masterbedroom.



When we put in our offer, we added that we would like to keep the riding lawn mower that was in the garage. We got it! And we'd need it for the yard...1.1 acres! It's just perfect!



So...the house looked pretty A-OK when we moved in, but mind you, what I really *wanted* was good a old-fashioned farmhouse or an artsy little cozy cottage. So this is our story - how we've begun turning this house built in 1976 into one that's a little more timeless and charming - a colorful yet tranquil, earthy, and simple country home. :)