A new house...

Okay, first things first, though. The Census Bureau finally contacted me last Friday, but I wasn't able to call them back until Tuesday this week. After talking with someone at the office, it turned out that I didn't get the Recruiting Assistant job I had wanted. They were willing to offer me one of several clerk positions, but I'm not going to take it. The major reason is that they are only paying clerks $8.25 an hour, which is what I'm making now, and since I've been with Hobby Lobby for a year, I'm due for a raise pretty soon. I had been hoping that I would be making more with the Census Bureau, so that I could maybe set some aside. If I was to take this job now, there wouldn't be any extra money, plus there's no guarantee that the job would last longer than a year. So come Christmas time next year, I'd be looking for another job. Thanks for all the good wishes though! : )

And now for the actual subject of this post! Yes, I'm sure you're all so excited! lol

So...our landlord told us early last week that we needed to get the house clean because he was having an appraiser come to inspect it so that he could refinance it. He said it would need to be in the next couple of weeks, which, theoretically, would give us plenty of time.

Uh-huh. Things didn't work out like that. The appraiser called on Thursday, and wanted to come check out the house on Saturday. Dave politely told him that he'd been sick, and could we please reschedule for Monday. This was no problem, and we spent the weekend cleaning furiously. It's good that the house is clean, but it just reminds me how much junk we really have.

But I digress. Our landlord (Mark) told us that he would buy a house that we could buy from him, as a contract for deed. Naturally we were very excited, since we've been talking about moving to a small town or at least to a smaller house for a while now. Mark told us about a couple of houses, and I went to look at them a couple of days ago.

The first house I don't have pictures of, but it was definitely LITTLE! lol It was built in 1930, and I think it was meant for a family of very skinny giants. Seriously! I went into the kitchen, and the cabinets were so tall that when I stood on my tiptoes and stretched my hand up, I could reach the front of the third shelf. And there were FOUR shelves! AND a smaller cabinet above that! Every cabinet in the place was the same way...and it was just very very tiny. Not quite right for us, I think.

The second house I went and looked at, I fell in love with. I took Dave with me tonight to see it, and we took pictures this time. I'll give you a bit of a walk-through, though the pics aren't that great.

This is taken from outside the front door. The first thing you walk into is a mud room, where you can leave your outdoor stuff and muddy shoes and such. Then there's the door into the main house. The lady in the doorway is the realtor, and the girl lives in the house currently.



This is a picture of one side of the mud room--there are windows like that all the way around. That's actually true of the whole house--there are windows everywhere, which makes it very light and airy.




This is the living room, which is actually a pretty good size, I think. There is a loveseat over on the left side of the picture, and over on the right is where there's a couch. I didn't manage to get it in the picture. (I said they weren't very good pictures...lol)



This is part of the living room, also. I lovelovelove those built in shelves--I already know I'm going to fill them up with all my knicknacks! lol We're debating whether we're going to keep our table and put it here, or get a breakfast nook to put in the kitchen. I really hate to get rid of the table we have now, because it's actually big enough for everyone to sit around, but if there isn't room for it.....*sigh*

This is the bathroom--mostly the bathroom cabinets. I gotta say, it fascinates me, how much storage this house really has. Someone built cabinets and storage nooks everywhere--it's great! Anyhow, the bathtub and shower are over there on the right, and that brown cabinet is above the toilet.



This is the laundry room, which is just off the bathroom. It's not very big, but there's a dresser in the room for storage (I've no idea if that's staying, but I'll worry about that later). That door on the left goes to a storage area that connects to the kitchen, but just on the other side is an upright freezer. I figure that's where we'll put ours.


This is only one view of the kitchen, but I didn't take more than this one. I wanted to show off the window, and the green counters. Dave doesn't like them, but I kind of do. I'm thinking a bluer green might be better, though.




This is the doorway to the master bedroom. It's not huge, but I think it's big enough for us. And the best thing is that it's on the main floor, which means that Dave doesn't have to worry about going up or down stairs. This is a major bonus!





Okay, this is one of my favorite things about the house. This tiny door goes to a storage room right above the master bedroom. I'm right next to the door, and my head is brushing the ceiling. Walking through that door makes me feel like Alice in Wonderland--it's great! I don't think Matt will like having his room upstairs, though--he's over 6 feet tall, and he'll have to duck every time he walks through the hallway! lol

This is the inside of the storage room. It's been insulated, but there's no sheetrock or anything else on the ceiling. I'm thinking this would make a great craft room for me! : )





This is the front of the closet in what would probably be Heather's room. Currently there's no bar for hanging clothers, but that can be fixed easily enough. I like the idea of hanging curtains in front, instead of having doors.




This is the same room. Heather's arm is over there on the right, the rest of her is attached, don't worry--it's just not in the picture...(yes, that was silly) Anyhow, the room is smaller than the one she has now, but I think it will be okay for her.



This is the closet in the other upstairs bedroom. And Dave, of course. :) Notice the built-in storage on the other side? Very cool!






Okay, this is one of the trees on the property. It's perfect for a treehouse! We've never had a treehouse tree before! And it even has a tire swing--every kid needs a tire swing!




And this is one of the garden patches outside--this one is on the left side of the mud room. Currently it is occupied by garden gnomes, but I don't know if the will choose to move with the family that lives in the house.





Oh, and I promised Netti a picture of snow. This is the remnants of the snowfall we had last week, taken from my driveway (that's my front yard). Next time it snows, I will take better pictures, I promise!



Okay, that's all for now. Sorry this was so long. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well with getting this house--I'm very excited about it!

G'night everyone!