The Downstairs BEFORE

Our house was built in 1959.  There are lots of perks to buying a home from that era: they are generally well-built; the framing materials aren't flimsy 2x4s but rather thick, solid boards of wood; and they have a ton of character and charm.  I am fairly confident that I won't walk into another house that looks like this one.  And that makes me happy.  I want sturdy, quality materials and a unique home.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages to buying an older home.  Unless they have been updated over time they are very dated looking.  And that means a big investment for those who want to make the homes modern.

And that is exactly where we stand with this house.  It has a unique layout and look with many neat features, but there isn't a single square inch in the house that doesn't need updating.  And a lot of it.  So let's take a little tour of the downstairs as it was when we bought the house.  All the quirks and "what the heck were they thinking?" areas won't be visible right now, but I will show you just how interesting and dated this place is soon.

Let's start with the kitchen.

Above is a view of the kitchen from the family room.  As you can see, there is a wonky island that has a bunch of sinks at one end.  Makes a lot of sense, huh?  I guess the previous owners could wash dishes together as they gazed into each other's eyes.  Romantic.  Or not.

None of the cabinets are actual cabinets.  they are just cabinet doors placed over spaces.  That's the best way I can describe it.  There may be some shelves in some of them and some of those shelves just may or may not be supported by pipes.  There is nothing at all about this kitchen that makes sense or says, "functional".

Here is the wall to the right of the island.  As you can see, the appliances are nice, updated, stainless steel appliances.  Hooray!  And yet, do you see that beam at the ceiling?  That is the boundary of the kitchen.  So that means that the refrigerator is actually IN THE FAMILY ROOM.  See how it sits on wood instead of linoleum?  

Here's a view from the door that leads outside.  Strange.  Just very strange.

The family room is just behind the kitchen.  You know, where the refrigerator sits.

This is a pretty decent space aside from the fact that it is outdated.  The brick fireplace has a gas log (which will need to be replaced) and the wood floors aren't bad.  And the windows (there are three but I didn't get a shot of that wall) provide an awesome view of the Falling Spring.  The door you see leads to the screened in porch which we will be tearing down.

Now imagine that I turned around and am facing the opposite direction.  We now enter the butler's pantry.

There are two floor to ceiling - a.k.a. HUGE - cabinets on the left followed by what was surely the party zone butler's pantry back in the 60s and 70s.  But just like the kitchen, this cabinetry leaves a lot to be desired.  The shelves were just pieces of random wood placed on hinges, pipes, or other found objects.  It is a marvel of creative piecing together of materials to create something that resembles cabinetry.  All of this will be gone, of course.

The doorway on the right side of this space leads to what was a laundry room and what will be my pantry.

It doesn't look like it from this photo, but this space is big.  Squeeee!!!!!!!  I've never had a true walk-in pantry before and I can hardly wait to finish this space.  But for now, enjoy the vent hose, the slop sink, and the beachy wallpaper border.  All just gorgeous.

Off we go through the doorway at the end of the butler's pantry.  The door to the basement is to the left and to the right we have a closet and this classic beauty: the downstairs powder room.

Don't you wish you had this bathroom in YOUR house?  I mean, the pink tiles and matching pink sink, the retro curtain that matches the cabinet inserts, the awesome vinyl floor . . . it's all charming.  And it's all going to be gone.  Let's get out of here quickly, shall we?

If we kept going straight through the butler's pantry and past the basement and powder room we would come to this room: the living room.

I had a hard time getting a decent photo of this room because the lighting is really poor.  But let's take a look at the room.  Overall, not a bad space.  It's roomy, has these two floor to ceiling windows plus french doors that lead out to a deck on the right.  There is another fireplace as well.  But when you look closely you will see that the wood floor around the perimeter is exactly that: wood floor around the perimeter.  There is no wood under the carpet.  Interesting, right?  We'll see this again upstairs.  Must have been a trend at some point in time.  Plus, the carpet is covered in dog pee that STINKS to high heaven.  I'll be happy to get it out of there, along with the fuddy-duddy draperies.

If we turn left here we will be in the foyer.  And off the foyer is the next room. The office.

This is straight-up 70s, people.  Wood paneling, wood window seats, big bay window, built in gentleman's desk off to the left, and even a custom gun safe.  Except I'm not sure how "safe" it is since it doesn't actually lock.

We also find fireplace #3 in this room and closets on the right hand side of the fireplace.  Keeping with the style of the house, the closets have actual doors with hinges still attached as shelves, peg board for a back wall, and lots of pipes for extra support.  I can't wait to show you those fun details.

Let's head back out the office door and into the foyer.

This is a terrible photo but it was getting dark and there are very few overhead lights in the house.  Anyway, the living room is in the back and the office is to the left.  The front door is behind me to the left.  It's a really nice, spacious foyer.  But check out the slate floors.  This slate sits on a slab of concrete that has to be two inches thick.  So there is a little step down from the foyer into the living room, the office, and the room to the right: the dining room.

I have to say that the dining room is a gem.  It's a great size, large enough to hold a big table for 10+ comfortably and have room to spare.  But I can only guess that the previous owners took a trip to Williamsburg, fell in love with the old American town, and wanted to bring a piece of it back home with them.  That is the only way I can possibly explain this wallpaper "mural".  And you can't see it in this photo, but all around the perimeter of the ceiling is a gap where there was recessed lighting.  To set the mood and all, I suppose.  Then we have the swirly ceiling and more of the old wood plank flooring.  Lastly, there are the shutters that flank the opening to the kitchen.  I guess they could tuck postcards in the slats to display them . . . or something.

Okay, that's the quick tour of the downstairs!  I'll share all the little details and the things we discovered as we did demo a little later.  One thing is certain though: this house will look NOTHING like this when we are done with it.  I can hardly wait!

Here She Is!

I'm sure you've just been DYING to see the house we bought.  ;) I wish I had better photos to share, photos of the house in, oh let's see, SUNSHINE.  But since we have been deep in the throes of a hard, seemingly endless winter, these are the best photos I can get.

I mentioned in my first post that this is not the house we ever imagined when Cory and I dreamed of our forever home.  1950s Cape Cod?  Dormers?  Traditional style?  Nope.  Not what we were looking for.  We wanted something more like this:

KIDDING.  But wouldn't that be something?

Anyway, we really were looking for a modern, contemporary house similar to this one:

We both love the clean lines and modern materials in contemporary homes.  Our vision was to have an industrial modern home that had a mix of old and new.  But let's face it.  We live in small town America and this type of home is a rarity in this area.  A part of me is disappointed that we won't ever build a modern home that is totally customized for our family, but I've quickly embraced the possibilities that our new home offers.

So Cory and I don't LOVE our house as it is.  Why did we buy it?  Potential.  We see tons and tons of potential in the home.  It has ample space and many quirky features that we plan to transform a bit and highlight as features of the home.  I never thought we would remodel EVER again, but I admit that I'm a wee bit giddy about all the plans we have.

The REAL selling point for this house was not the house itself though.  It was the property.  Those of you who know us well may be shaking your heads and thinking, "Wait.  Didn't you want lots and lots of land?  Like, a FARM sized property?"  And the answer is yes.  Yes we did.  During our long and tedious house hunting experience one of the must-have items for us was lots of land.  We were looking for a minimum of five acres.  In fact, we put an offer on a property just a month before purchasing this house that was 20 acres.  But that offer didn't pan out.  Thank goodness it didn't.

Immediately after that offer fell through Cory said he wanted to look at a house in the borough of Chambersburg.  I thought he was joking.  Cory is a land man and he was the one who really had insisted on lots of acreage.  We also were leaning towards moving to a different school district.  So I was naturally surprised that he wanted to look at this house.

Then we went to see the place.  I think Cory fell in love as soon as we pulled into the driveway and all those gorgeous old trees welcomed us.  The house sits right in the borough but you would never know it.  It is surrounded by huge old trees, has a surprising 1.25 acres, but best of all is situated directly along the Falling Spring.  In fact, the spring runs the entire length of the property.  It is picturesque, peaceful, and enchanting.

There are views of the water from almost every room in the house. The one above was taken from the sun porch (which will be demolished . . . details coming soon . . . ).  And this one was taken from what will be Dixon's bedroom:

It's like a little slice of heaven.  The sound of the running water is so relaxing.  Ducks have taken permanent residence along the stream and the trees house many birds.  I could sit outside - or inside with the windows open - and enjoy this feature forever.

The property sold us.

So there she is, folks!  You've gotten a glimpse of the outside . . . . inside photos will come soon!

How We've Lived

Whew!  What can I say.  I've been dreaming of starting this blog for so long and it feels so awesome to actually do it today.  If you are reading this - welcome!  I'm so glad you are here and joining us for this adventure.  Honestly, the main reason I started this blog is so that my family has a permanent record of the experiences I'm about to share.  I know that so much of the next many months (years?) is going to be a hectic blur, so it will be good to get some of the details written down so we can look back on them when we are somewhat sane again.  But I'm also open to sharing our experience with others.  I love reading other people's blogs about their homes and lives so hopefully this will be a spot you come back to for ideas and inspiration.  Hopefully.

So, here's the condensed version of how Cory and I have lived for the past, well, years.  Almost fifteen years to be exact.

When Cory and I got married we lived in a tiny little rental in southern Virginia for three years while he finished veterinary school.  Living in that itty bitty house really taught us what it was like to be grown-ups with grown-up responsibilities.  Both of us grew up in comfortable, middle-class homes and to be honest, we didn't know what it was like to struggle.  But as two very young people just starting out in life together, we quickly realized that the middle-class life doesn't just happen.  You have to work really hard for it.  And living in that little house was an awesome way to learn that lesson.  I'll have to dig out a photo of it once we retrieve our boxes of photos from storage.  Did I mention half of our life is in some sort of storage right now? Yeah.  It's a blast.

Anyway, shortly before Cory graduated we started looking at homes to buy back in our hometown in Pennsylvania.  We literally looked at TWO houses.  That's it.  Two.  We went back to Virginia and soon got a phone call that our favorite of the two had an offer on it.  It had literally been on the market for over a year, so we didn't expect that to happen, and we certainly didn't expect to make an aggressive offer in order to beat out that other offer.  In the end, we got the house.  Yay!  We moved in immediately after my teaching contract ended that spring.

Let me restate that Cory and I were young.  Like, early 20s young.  We knew we wanted a family but we didn't know what it was like to raise kids.  We didn't know what to look for in a family house.  We simply bought a house that had a lot of space and a lot of potential.  Okay, I'll be real: We bought a spacious fixer-upper on the cheap.  It was 2002 and the housing market hadn't yet crashed, so even though we paid more than we wanted to at the time, we got a good deal.

Over the years we have done renovations both big and small.  At one point we actually moved out for three months in order to completely gut and remodel the downstairs and our master bedroom upstairs.  We've completed tons of projects and really made the house work for us.

But.  BUT.  We now have four kids.  Our house has three bedrooms.  You do the math.  Plus, it is not in an ideal location for how we live our lives right now.

When you have three bedroms and four kids you have to make some sacrifices.  One of the biggest sacrifices we have made is sharing our bedroom with kiddo #4.  Tessa is now 19 months old and she sleeps in her crib four feet away from our bed.  None of us have slept well at all.  In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times she (and I) have slept through the night during her entire life.  Just for kicks, let's figure this out: Tessa has been on this earth for approximately 575 days and has slept all night 5 times. We are tired.  We are grumpy. We want our bedroom back.

The fact that our current house isn't our forever home isn't a new revelation to us though.  Cory and I knew about five years ago that this house was not going to work for us much longer and so we started looking at real estate.  We looked at quite a few homes, but none of them felt right.  We thought very seriously about building our dream home, but we never found the right piece of land.  The longer we looked, the more desperate we felt.  It seemed as though the home we wanted just simply didn't exist.  At least not in the county we live in.  But.  BUT.

Now to the exciting part . . . after years of searching, debating what we want, and worrying that we would never find our forever home, we bought a house!  It isn't perfect, it isn't what we would have built had we built our dream home, and it isn't where we thought we wanted to live.  But it's so cool.  It's going to be so cool.  And here begins our journey to our dream home.  Follow along as we build not just our dream home, but our dream life for our family.  It's going to be quite the adventure.