Dreamin'

My last post shows the house as it is currently. Here is our "dream" plan.



The yellow lines represent the new walls that we want to add. The purple walls are ones that we either plan on taking down or, in the case of the third floor, represent the highest point.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly - Part I

Our new home offers a lot of great benefits, some really bad decorating, and some down right ugly features. First, I thought that I would start out by reviewing the characteristics of the house that we absolutely fell in love with.




The floor plan! As it is right now, it features five bedrooms, a first floor laundry, a dining room with a bay window, and a huge kitchen.





The home offers some beautiful moldings, which have all been painted. Once stripped of the paint, stained, and restored, they should look stunning. At least, I hope so! I also like the staircase - it evokes images of multiple children sliding along the banister railing. This of course will not be permitted or encouraged . . . but you know that the kids are going to try.





Pictures of the decorating that can only be described as bad will be featured on a future post, but at least for now, one can see how the list of project can get started and then, keep on growing.

A Matter of Fate & Faith

Our home buying process began over a year ago, on April 22, 2007. We fell in love with a victorian residence built in 1900 that had originally been the parsonage to the church next door. Unfortunately, our offer was bumped in favor of another family that already had financing. Our family was crushed . . . we had started to attend the church next door and became involved with the social scene, small as it was. Even after we lost the house, we liked the area and continued to look.

Sure enough, we found another beautiful victorian, a short distance away. This time, our financing was a little further along and we put in an offer. We continued to attend the church next to the first home and proceed down the trail of home purchasing. We were disappointed when the home failed inspection . . . not once, but twice. The home suffered the same tale of plumbing challenges as Gary. We finally cancelled our offer, but had to wait a year before we finally got our earnest money refunded!

Round three of home purchasing was the one that I originally blogged about . . . and which my last post informed all that we had lost it. After crying and feeling like giving up, we began researching the internet and made a few calls . . . on a victorian and a colonial, both built in the early 1900's. You can imagine my pleasant surprise when Dave emailed me a link to the "perfect" home the next day . . .

and . . .

wait for it . . .



it was for the first home that we originally put an offer on!

I contacted the realtor and confirmed that it was still available. It was! I put in an offer, on land contract, praying it would be accepted . . .

and . . .

it was!

WE ARE MOVING! WE ARE MOVING! WE ARE MOVING!

In 23 days.

There is so much to do . . . all the packing, cleaning, painting.

I will post pictures of the interior and our rough floor plan soon so stay tuned.

Bad News :-(

We just found out that the house we were negotiating to purchase has been sold to another party. If no one had purchased the home by May 5th, then we were going to be able to purchase the home. We were down to the last 7 days and thought that we were safe. We were being optimistic -- too much so. Now, we are crushed and have to start the whole house hunting process again.

I also have to figure out what I am going to do with all my little seedlings!

Planning the Garden

I thought that I would share the plans that I made for my garden. Hopefully, this will be more successful than my first attempt. Back in 1994, I tried to plant a garden. It was ambitious, especially since I planted literally every single seed for every single packet that I bought. I learned to my dismay that cucumbers can take over the garden and choke out every other living plant. Since then, I have been terrified of trying again. However, as my family continues to grow and the cost of groceries rise, it seemed foolish to not give it another shot.

This time, though, I am more prepared. I spent hours searching the internet for information about planting a garden in Wisconsin - what plants grow best, how to build a garden bed, and so on. I then made a detailed plan of how I want my gardens to look. The picture below is the primary garden of vegetables and herbs.

I also want an area for fruits and flowers. I thought that this would be best located on the rear property line.

Once I had determined the plants and layout of my garden, I researched Burpee seeds. This helped me to understand how many different options there are available. I then went to Stein's Garden & Gifts with my three oldest children. We purchased our starter trays, seeds, covers, starter soils, and even a hot pink watering can!

We filled the trays with the dirt and I placed the seeds where I wanted them in the trays. The kids took turns pushing the seeds down and covering them up. After they were in bed, I sat down and made a "map" so that when it came time to transplant, I knew what I had. I also made sure to save the extra seeds, just in case we had some that didn't make it.

I will be sure to keep you posted on how well this works.

New to the Team!

I am pleased to say that I am new to the houseblogging team. After spending the past year reading other blogs and websites about home renovation, I have decided to take the plunge and give it a try.

I hope to purchase an American Foursquare home, built in 1917. We are in the process of negoitiating for one and I am keeping my fingers crossed! To-date, our "renovation" includes the planting of our first garden. I started my seedlings in four trays - vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Hopefully, I will be able to plant them at my new home.





I have tried to include links to all of the sites and blogs that I have been following. If I missed you . . . "sorry"!