In an exciting turn of events, Chris & I are buying our first house together!
Currently we live in a fixer upper Chris bought before we met, and though there are so many things we love about our house, the view, the commute, the neighborhood, living in town but not too in town — Seriously I could go on! There are just some things it can’t give us. Like a finished basement for a gym, or a master bedroom. So after scouring the market last year, falling in love with one place that was quirky and wonderful but RIGHT on Rt. 11 and deciding that was a deal breaker.
We realized, we love where we live and we should stay put. But still! We needed more space! So we planned a gigantic addition off the back of our house that involve ripping off the current one our kitchen stands in with a combination of a “stooping” height basement and crawlspace, digging a new foundation to get our basement gym, coming out 3 feet further on two sides, and going up a second story to create a master suite. Don’t get me wrong, it took this house from just okay to dream house status, but it was a ton of money to spend, so much work, and we still have only a quarter acre lot, so not a lot of outdoor space.
Just as we were about to move forward on putting the remodel into the works, the house not directly across the street but directly across from the entrance to our small street came up for sale. We live on a little plateau in the middle of a floodplain in town, our neighborhood was built at the turn of the century to house the employees of the Rich Lumber Company, right next to where the trains used to go up into what is now the Lye Brook Wilderness (And our current view). Where we live currently was the regular employees, and across the main street is where the management lived, so the houses have just a little more detail and are just a little bit bigger. They also have an amazing view of Mount Equinox.
We knew we had to go look at least out of curiosity, but as soon as we did we fell in love. It had the master suite, and the layout was great, you could instantly picture your kids chasing each other in a circle through the house, a nice big garage, and a full basement. It even had gorgeous original federal trim details and some built in’s in the dining room that are at least pre-1930, they could be original but it’s hard to tell as they are very simple. It had everything we were hoping to get with the addition and more and it just needed some cosmetic updating which fortunately, we both happen to be professionals at! It does need a substantial amount of work but we are looking at it as an opportunity to put our stamp on it. And we each get a bonus we really wanted, Chris gets a big yard to mow, and Niki gets a pool (yes it has a pool! bonus!)!!!!
It’s not official yet, but we’re almost there, if all goes well we will swimming sometime this summer, watching the sunset right over the spot where Chris proposed on the top of the mountain, overlooking this place we call home.
So thats what we’ve been up to, plus things are ramping up in wedding land now that we are officially less than four months out!!! But that is for another blog post sometime next week. Later this weekend I’ll post about what is going to be happening with our current house before and after we move out and ALSO sometime next week we will be getting back into the new house and I can show you guys my plans for the revamp (It involves LOTS of paint in my two favorite Ben Moore colors, plus some other classics!) I promise I am taking this blog thing seriously (but not to serious!) so stay tuned! 😉
