Tempting Fate

So.  I've waited a really long time to write about this.  Maybe as long as is humanly possible.  I've been keeping it inside, telling only close family members such as parents and parents-in-law and close friends.  Chad and I don't speak about it much, but the excitement about it fills every breath we breathe, every step we take.  We practically shiver when we talk about it together.  And now, these last few days, I haven't even had anything to write about because this is the only thing I want to write about, and I wouldn't let myself write about it.  But now I am.

We think we've found a house.

I know, you totally thought we were pregnant for a second, didn't you?  Sorry about that.  But with the cockroaches driving us out of our apartment and the dog running hog wild most nights after his walk, crashing into bookshelves and dressers and console tables, the possibility of a house is pretty much the possibility of heaven, right here on earth, right now.

My reasons for Not Telling are threefold: 1. Everything is VERY preliminary.  The house is not yet even on the market.  2. I am very superstitious and believe mightily in the possibility of jinxing good things if we talk about them too soon.  3. I knew that I would have to post pictures if I began talking about the house, and the pictures of the house are quite lackluster.  Because at this point?  The house is quite lackluster.

A couple of weeks ago a coworker of mine, Julie, told me that her elderly next-door neighbor had recently had a stroke, and that she would be moving to a long-term care facility.  The elderly woman is the original owner of her house, which was built in 1953, and her sons will be selling her home in the next few months.  That day, Julie took me home with her for lunch, and we walked next door to peek in the house's windows and sneak around like bandits.  The blinds were drawn in all windows except one: the kitchen window.  I hopped up on a stool and looked in.  And I saw original tile.  Beautiful terra-cotta porcelain tile on the counters.  I knew I had to see inside.

Two Sundays ago, Chad and I were able to see inside.  We walked around and took pictures and told the son of the owner of the house that we were very sorry to hear about his mother.  We had lots of complimentary things to say about the house, and we tried not to ask too many questions that would suggest the changes we want to make to it, such as "And there are hardwoods under this carpet?" and "Is this a supporting wall?"  We were able to figure out the answers, anyway.

I uploaded the pictures of the house onto flickr so I could show them to Julie, and almost every day since then I've been pulling the pictures up and clicking back and forth between them for several minutes, imagining the wonderful things we want to do to the house.  Meanwhile, we've been waiting to hear back from the sellers about the listing price.  But Julie heard from a little birdie that it's on the low end of our budget.

On Monday my coworkers took me out to lunch for my birthday.  We ate and gabbed for two hours, but little of the conversation actually involved me and my life.  I was more of a listener, because these women are older and wiser, and they had many old and wise things to share on this particular day.  But the entire time I begged in my head for one of them to ask me how the house-hunting is going, because it is ALL I WANT TO TALK ABOUT.  I want to talk to experienced homeowners who have already gone through this and know well the timeline of hunting/mortgage/inspection/contractor/negotiation/signing.  Because I don't know anything.  And websites aren't much of a help in these matters, because they're all selling something.  They never asked, by the way, and I just sat there like a dumb fool most of the time, quivering with excitement all to myself.

So that brings us to today, when the only thing I want to do is stare at the pictures and research things like shutters and Pella windows and fences online.  Chad and I have already gotten in a number of disagreements about the changes we want to make (I want to preserve as many of the original features as possible; he'd like to go more modern).  And we've already had to stop ourselves from calling it "Our House."  We've now taken to calling it, quite tactfully, "The Old Lady House."

Last night after my birthday dinner at Campisi's, we drove by to say hello to The Old Lady House.  We sat in front of it for a minute or so, sighed, and then drove away.  We drove past White Rock Lake, and bicyclers, and softball fields, and dog parks, and playgrounds.  Although the neighborhood is just a few minutes from downtown, it feels as though it's in the country, miles away from any tight spaces.  It feels so right.

So, without further ado, these are the pictures we have of the house.  A lot of things need to change, as the house has never been updated with the exception of new central heat and air a couple of years ago.  We plan to rip out the carpet and refinish the original hardwoods.  The orange kitchen linoleum has got to go.  It needs all new windows.  It needs exterior and interior paint.  It needs a fence.  But more than anything else, it needs us to move in and make it the house it could be, the house we imagine in our heads when we look at it with our eyes.

(Sorry the pictures are blurry--we took them quickly.)

The exterior.  We're thinking of painting the brick a muddy grey, the trim a brick red, and adding some brick red shutters on either sides of all the front windows.  And I keep wondering if the porch is large enough for a swing.  I think it is.

The guest room.  Not much to say, except that yes, we will have different window treatments.

The hall bath.  We're not touching anything here, as everything is in excellent original condition.  I love the honeycomb tile floor.  Except we will absolutely paint the walls white.  Too much pink is never a good thing.

The master bath, a rarity in 50s houses.  We're not touching anything here, either, except perhaps painting the cabinet white.

The master.  These beautiful hardwood floors are throughout the entire house, we believe, but this is the only place they're not covered up with carpet.

The hallway between the master and the guest room.

The den.  We're thinking of using this as the dining room.  It has beautiful wainscoting and a chair rail all the way around.

The kitchen.  This is that linoleum.  But I love the original tile.  We'll paint the cabinets white, and perhaps rip the doors off the uppers.  I didn't get a picture of the original stove, but we hear it's in perfect working condition.  Note the scallop detail over the sink.  It's also over every closet in the house.

Another shot of the kitchen.  Didn't get a shot of the fridge, either, but it's new.  The dishwasher, however, is not.  It's on wheels.  The door to the backyard is just to the right of the little table.

The living room.  Complete with two huge windows that most likely need to be replaced.

Another shot of the living room.  I propose that we'll use the dining enclave as either casual dining (I'm thinking round table for cards) or a desk and shelving.

Not pictured: backyard and detached two-car garage.

So we've found it.  Whew.  Now we just have to actually buy the damn thing.

P.S. Don't feel like you have to comment and say the house is cute.  We know it's not, but we also know it will be.