I chose to incorporate a little of my nerdy scientist self in the title of this post, so please don’t judge! In the lab we refer to our stability studies by their time-points, you know t0 as the study start, t1mo for time 1 month and so on (nothing too novel here folks). And since my blog is dedicated to documenting how our home is changing over time, well it just seemed a perfect fit! If anyone from work ever reads this they will never let it go, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take (I know, I know, I lead a daring life).
To get this show on the road I want to share pictures from the first time I saw the house. After countless weekends spent with our patient realtor, it was the will of my mother who really set the tone for that particular day. She happened to be visiting for the weekend while Gus was away on a road-trip, and as she has done so many times before, she made one of those bold statements that you don’t believe for an instant at the time. It went something like this, “We’re gonna find THE house today, I just know it!” Pretty sure I mumbled something negative under my breath because I wasn't too excited about any of those on the list for the day. As we got in the car with the realtor, her first words were “I’d like to take you by a property that isn’t on our list for the day. It may be a little over your price range…..” Cue cringe.
As you may guess it was THE house, just like mom said. Seriously, why are moms always right? ALWAYS!?! Before we even left the property our realtor called the listing realtor, and lucky she did because there were already two offers in, and they planned to stop taking them on Monday! Eeeeks! Gus wouldn’t be home until Monday and nobody puts in an offer before their other half even sees the place….or do they? Yes, they do...I mean, I did. I knew he would love it, and it was unlike anything we had looked at (which was a good thing-I'll share some pics of those experiences sometime). It was really intimidating to put in an offer knowing there were already several on the table, but I had a gut feeling we were meant to live there, or here rather! The process was really smooth and because all the offers were for the asking price we were chosen only because we didn’t have anything of our own to sell (the one time when it pays to be a first timer!). The inspection went well (it was the first time Gus got to see the whole place!), and the previous owner remediated a few important findings like the Radon levels in the basement and a railing on the stairs headed down to the basement. The closing was set for September 11, 2009 (AKA t0) and thus began our adventures in creating a home!
So let's get to the goods! The house is a French Provincial built in 1937 and sits on a one acre lot which is shaped somewhat like an arrowhead. There are beautiful trees lining the property with two
We certainly weren’t looking for a pool, actually we were avoiding most houses with pools, but when you fall in love you sometimes forget about the perfect checklist you were hunting for ( I sound like an e-harmony commercial--eek). We got lucky because the pool was in great condition, and in the summer I get to ‘lay by the pool’ in my free time...ha. Here’s a view from the second floor landing window.
Alright, so here we go. Brace yourself for what was affectionately (note sarcasm) referred to as ‘Rainbow Bright’s House.’ I should take a moment to fully disclose that I certainly recognize everyone has their own style, and although I didn't really care for some choices made by the previous owners, I completely realize that someone may say the same thing about me someday!! With that said, as you enter the front door the living room is immediately to the right, and yes this color did in fact cause your eyes to dilate when you walked in. It’s a long skinny room with an entrance to the kitchen on the far end.
The color shown in this picture below rings a little truer, you can really see how it complimented the woodwork so well….ha. Actually, the best part of this picture is that to the right of the fireplace you can see a painted portrait of the property. It was done in 1963 and the previous owner left it to us which we really appreciated. I can remember a similar photo my grandparent and parents had of their properties, so I really cherish having this one of our first home. You can also see the kitchen door I mentioned above on the right.
The kitchen is nice and big, and as you can guess it's not original to the house. The previous owner added on the eating area as well as some nice features like granite counter tops, stainless appliances and a gas cook top. I can’t wait to share the current pictures, because that yellow color is G-O-N-E, and the space has a clean farmhouse feel to it now. In the photo the entrance from the living room is on the left hand side and the doorway on the right goes into the mudroom/office/garage.
Here’s a quick pic of the eating area. It's not the best view because if you turn 90 degrees to the left you can see out on the patio to the pool, but it gives you the idea. It’s a very sunny room and probably one of my favorite spaces in the whole house, though it can be a bit chilly in the winter with all those windows.
This isn’t the best picture of these spaces, but they’ll be some better ones shared soon. Please note, for your viewing pleasure we are now half-way through the colors of the rainbow! The door on the right is our half-bath, and boy was it a beaut!
I regret to inform you that this lovely wallpaper border is no longer with us. I know, what a tragedy! All joking aside I am very thankful to have this half-bath because most older homes in the area only have one full bath.
The dining room brings you back to the front door, which is nice because each of the rooms connects making the first floor feel a bit more open. Oh and of course the cats absolutely love using the whole first floor as a race track. They literally do laps chasing one another. Sounds more like a herd of cattle than two cats.
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| If you head up the stairs the master bedroom is on the left with the full bath and then two additional bedrooms on the right. You can see that the previous owner had installed some Berber carpet throughout the second floor pretty recently, but yeah that didn’t last too long….he gone! As I mentioned earlier, there are three bedrooms upstairs. The two that flank the staircase are really good sized and then the third on the northeast corner of the house (opposite the bathroom) is a bit smaller. The overall landing is huge which is a HUGE benefit because I can’t tell you how many houses we looked at where Gus had to duck his head throughout the entire second floor! |
Here is a shot of the master bedroom. Aren’t those window treatments just precious? On a side note, this is the only room in the house with popcorn ceilings….why?
One great feature of this old house are the two closets in each of the two main bedrooms. Not many old houses have decent sized closets, let alone two of them, but this gal a’int complaining!
Then there’s the full bathroom. It’s small, but it works! Plus, that Jacuzzi tub (also not a common feature in old homes, so yes the previous owner had kindly upgraded this space too) is quite a luxury in the winter! The one thing we didn’t don’t understand is why he chose one of those freestanding shower units! Oh well, you can’t have it all!
I don’t have any really good pictures of the basement, so you’ll just have to trust me that its half finished with a bar area and half unfinished with the oil tank, washer and dryer etc. It’s not a true full basement, since we do have a small crawl space, but it's pretty good sized.
Overall we are so thankful for how well the house was built. I can’t even count how many people have told us we got lucky, ‘because houses aren’t built like this anymore’ and we couldn’t agree more! This is exactly what we wanted, bright colors aside! For our first home, this house has truly been a blessing and when we leave PA someday (if you know us at all we talk about our home, Kansas, with every other breath) I will really miss it! I’ve already suggested we pick it up and move it, but Gus gives me that you can’t be serious look because he knows if he even gave the slightest inclination it was possible I’d try and make it happen!
So that’s it! A long overdue first look at the house on Green Pond! I can’t wait to share all the changes we made thus far because stylistically (nothing structural) it has changed so much...no more Rainbow-Bright colors!
BTW, I’m shooting for one post a week (this one took two because it was kinda long), but I’m not promising the schedule to be too regular because after all I do have this job thing I’m supposed to go to everyday, ick! All joking aside I’m thankful for said job, but would just like to know one thing….who said the week should be 5 days and the weekend only 2?
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