New Year, New Post, New House!

It's so nice to be back after a little more than a year!

A lot has happened over the past year, some good, some not so good.  I will not dwell on the not so goods and celebrate the goods!

Best ever - we became grandparents to a beautiful healthy boy!! Meet Everett!  He just turned seven months old and completely unaware of how much joy he brings our whole family!!

But the more interesting blogging news is that we moved.  After watching our favorite TV show, Fixer Upper, we decided to take on Joanna and Chip's challenge.  Yes, we have the guts to take on a fixer upper, by purchasing perhaps the ugliest house in a different neighborhood!!  

My husband refers to our new house as the old haunted motel

Do you see any resemblance??

You may ask why? - why would we ever want to move from a beautiful home like this?

Well, we had lived there since our kids were little, they are all grown up now and living on their own.  It was a wonderful place to raise our children, but now it was time to move on.  Just walking by several empty bedrooms everyday kind of made me sad.   My husband had been driving 40 minutes to work everyday so that the kids were in a good school system.  The majority of our friends had revolved around the kids and their activities, there was nothing really tying us down to that community now.  It was time to do something different.  So we decided to move to a little lake that is 10 minutes from my husband's work. 

 And this is what makes it all worth it!!!

This is the view we have from each of the rooms in this ugly house!!

The whole house is a work in progress.  I will give you a little BEFORE tour:

All you really see from the street is the garage, not real inviting!

It is kind of hard to find our front door because it is around the side of the house.

The lovely green foyer is small with lots of doors and stairs.  There are stairs leading up to three bedrooms and stairs down to the living area and kitchen.

The kitchen and dining area are very dated.  The kitchen cupboards don't look that bad but they are being held closed with velcro!!

I love the openness of the living, dining, and kitchen - the only thing separating them is this two sided fireplace.

There are three bedrooms on the top level.  They are all very basic with the same ugly berber carpet, ceiling fans, and sliding glass doors to a tiny balcony - but spectacular views.

This is the only bathroom on the bedroom level - it has no shower, not even plumbing for one!

There is a lower walk out basement level.  It has some water damage and smells pretty musty.

This storage room is under the garage.

Here is the back of the house again showing the balcony with no outside access, and one very narrow broken concrete patio.

As you can see there is a lot to be done to bring this house up to where we would be proud to show it off.  I am almost embarrassed to show the condition it is in now, but we do see potential to make it a beautiful house.   We are not made of money, so some things will have to wait or we will have to make certain compromises to stay within our budget complete these renovations. We will be living in the house as we fix it up.  My husband is a pretty handy guy but he does have a full time job with more than full time hours, so some things we will take on and other jobs we will be hiring professionals.

 I hope you stop back occasionally to check up on our progress with our little fixer upper! 

I will probably be throwing in a few other projects and tablescapes along the way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ann

I am linking up to the following:
Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings-The Heart of your Home
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style
Feathered Nest Friday @French Country Cottage