Home Sweet Home

This is it. The new house. We got word this week that our offer was accepted. I fell in love with this house the moment I walked up the front walk. On the left there is a dog wood blooming and in front of the house is a red bud tree. My absolute favourite trees because they are among the first signs that spring is here.  It was like they were welcoming us home.

This is the newest house we'll have ever lived in. She was built in 1939 and is on the historic regester in a street of houses all in a historic district.  She started life as a parsonage and is pretty good sized with 4 bedrooms. I rather like that the cultural significance of the district is that it was built as a middle class housing alternative. Most of the homes in this street were built in the 1920's and 1930's and they are all different from each other. Some rather grand and others more modest, like ours.

Let me show you around. The front door opens into a small foyer with an original light fixture overhead. You can see the fourth bedroom at the back. The rest are upstairs. I'm not sure how well the dogs will like the stairs but I love having the bedrooms upstairs. The carpet on the stairs is going. It is ugly, worn out, and just too hard to clean. Those shelves you see in the fourth bedroom are going too. Have pry bar, will wreck.

At last, another working fireplace in the living room. I've missed the fireplace in our Melbourne house. We spent so many cold winter nights gathered around the open fire. It's nice to think that we'll be able to that again.

Yes, those are powder blue bench tops in the kitchen. They have got to go. But for now we have made a promise to each other that there will be no renovation for a year. Except for those shelves in the bedroom. They have to go right now because they are in the way of anything we might put in that room.

We are serial renovators and we are tired. We'll live with the house for a while. Get to know her a little better and let her tell us what she needs. I know that sounds weird but I do think that houses can speak to you if you open up to listening.

This is probably my favourite part of the house. The studio! I walked into this room and said, 'this is mine.' It's a great huge back porch that's been enclosed and had heating and cooling added to it. There are windows on three sides. So much light. The carpet will go. We have no idea what's under there but carpet just isn't going to work for me.

I'm not sure how I will deal with the distraction of the view from the studio. This is the back garden. It's so green out there. If you've ever been to West Texas, you'll know just how distracting all that green might be. It's calling to me. Come plant flowers here. Why not some tomatoes here?

Have a great weekend! I'll be dreaming of the new studio while I start to pack up the old one.