House Update...for Susan

Susan wanted a house update, so here it goes.

We do have the house/got the house. So hooray!

The picture above is a random house Ali saw on the listings and she liked it so much she put it on the blog. No, just kidding, it is our new house in Glen Ellyn.

We had the inspection last Thursday and everything went really well except one small thing - we forgot to take pictures. I took both cameras out there to get shots and video, but when we were leaving dinner after the inspection, I said to Ali and her mom and dad - "We didn't take any pictures." It was stupid and idiotic, but I can't do anything about it now. Sorry about that.

So let me describe it to you...

Close your eyes and envision...

Walk in the front door and to the right is the living room, hardwood, built-ins on each side of the fireplace, windows on the front wall with interior shutters. Straight ahead is the bath on the first floor which is attached to what is supposed to be the master bedroom and closet space. Just before reaching the entrance to the "suite" is a coat closet. To the left is the dining room - with a ceiling fan that we will replace with a chandelier - since we are fancy and all. Again, windows with shutters on the front, two windows on the side. If you turned left and walked into the dining room, the stairs to go up are on the right, walking past the stairs is the entrance to the kitchen. Currently painted a crude yellow-ish gold, the kitchen has white appliances, white cabinets and blue countertops. Yes, blue. It really is too bad we have no money left. The kitchen is big, has a lot of counter-space and cabinets. At the end of the kitchen the counter raises and juts out a little for a two-seat bar-type thing. At the end of the kitchen (behind the two-seater) it opens into a breakfast eating area - big enough for a table and four chairs and a buffet. If you go to the back of this area, it is a three-door full glass window with a slider out onto the deck (to be described later.) If you take a right, you go down about 4 stairs to a door that leads outside to the driveway, or you can take another right and head down about 6 stairs to the basement.

As you are walking into the basement, there is an office to your right, about a 10x10 room so good size - we will turn it into a playroom. You walk a little further and down a half stair, the room opens into a "T" shape which is living space. On the right is a walled-in storage place that will be about 10 times the size of our current storage situation. There is a full bath in the basement along with another smaller room with the mechanicals. Ceilings are low, but Ali is still thinking we can fit a treadmill.

Turning around and heading back upstairs, if you go out the slider you go out onto a 10x5 deck that is big enough for a big grill and two chairs. Four stairs lead down to a much bigger deck with a built-in bench. The deck space is covered by a huge locust tree that will provide ample shade. To the right of the deck is the two-car garage that has plenty of space for me to break something then attempt to fix it. Left of the deck is the side yard/back yard. The yard is huge, I couldn't throw a football from the front to the back of the lot - and since we are on the corner, its all ours. There is a playset that is staying for Ethan.

Going back inside, walk through the breakfast area and the kitchen and just as you enter the dining room, take a left to go up the stairs. Watch out cause the railing is just a little wobbly. The wood stairs have a carpet runner coming down. When you walk up you are met with some of the ugliest interior decorating this HGTV watcher has ever seen - even uglier than most of the stuff they do on Color Splash. The carpet is bad, really bad. The paint, ohh, just wait. At the top of the stairs, take a right and walk back along the railing. There is an open space to the left and if you make a right turn at the end of the railing, you see the bathroom on the 2nd floor. Small is an inadequate description. We have plans of reframing and adding space in the future. Baby blue is the color I think. If you go back to the hallway and walk back towards the stairs there is a bedroom on the right, painted a very purply-purple. It's bad. Its a long narrow room with three windows looking out the front of the house. Going back to the hallway there is a bedroom just at the top of the staircase on the left - another long skinny room, this time painted some grosstastic shade of orange/gold/yellow/poo. Not sure how else to describe it. If you went to the end of the hallway, you find the little guy. The little room - no more than 10x7 with slanted ceilings because of the roof. Not sure what kind of blue it is, maybe periwinkle or something. Mix it with the salt and pepper carpet and you want to get out as soon as possible. This room also has one of the kid multi-colored ceiling fans. I can't say that Ali is a huge fan. Of the fan.

By the way, did I mention the master bedroom is painted a deep purple. I would rather have it painted with a lifesize portrait of the band Deep Purple.

That's the tour, you can open your eyes.

It's an old house - 1921. Inspector said it had a fire in the basement, probably in the 30-40's - I can show you when you come over - it's actually pretty cool (at least I think so). The floors are creaky. But, it does have character and its the house that when Ali walked into she loved. And we compared every house we saw with this one - so we made it our house.

I am pretty excited for Ethan and his future sibling(s) to grow up here for a few years. Lots of room to throw the ball around, both the elementary and the middle school are right down the street. There is a sledding hill next to the elementary. The park is a two-minute walk (and it has a rock-climbing wall - which I think is cool.)

So that's it. Susan, I hope that suffices. We will get some pictures at some point, during the walkthrough maybe.

We are closing on the condo on May 29 which means movers are coming May 26 (two weeks.) It's nuts when we think about it.

We close on the house on June 15, but they are renting back until the 24th. We will get in and paint for a few days, then have real painters come in to do some trim and ceiling work. Hopefully get the carpet replaced upstairs. We are figuring on moving in on July 3, but I haven't told the movers that yet, so we will see.