Our house, in the middle of our street

Leo had to talk me into even seeing it at first. It technically only has three bedrooms, but he said it had a lot more rooms and space than one might be led to believe. I saw the picture online, the same one you saw in my previous post. Even though now I think when I see the picture "OH MY GOSH, IT'S GORGEOUS, AND IT'S OURS!!", I wasn't impressed one way or the other with the photo at first sight. But Leo seemed crazy about this house (he'd already seen the inside), so I thought, what the heck, we've got nothing to lose.

I have an inkling, just a hint, that this house is different even before we walk in the front door. To the right of the entry is a little meditation garden, a small fountain coming out of a rock and a bench to sit on. You can't really see it in the picture. But it's there.

We walk in to a tile-floored vaulted entry way. The tile also covers the floor in the dining room to our right, as well as the room on our left, which has double glass doors. It's an office, or a library, as it's called on the listing sheet.

Possible first-floor playroom: check. Non-carpeted dining area: check.

The living room ceiling opens above us, and hardwood floor stretches from the living room to the kitchen on our right. The kitchen looks appealing, but I have developed a method. I go first to the left, to the half bath and then to the master suite. A gas firelplace sits on the back wall of the living room.

Fireplace: check.

I gasp when I see the wallpaper in the half bath. Natural beige-y brown...with muted red Chinese characters on it. Not overdone. Very subtle and casual looking. I look at Leo. He looks at me. He already knows.

Asian-themed permanent decor was not on my list, but: check anyway.

On to the master suite. Neutral carpet with a few different colors blended in. Will hide dirt and cat hair well. Check. Large bedroom, big enough for a king bed, plus room for a crib AND bedside cosleeper, if Aislinn is still in bed with us when the baby comes.

Large walk-in closet: check.

Master bath. Bright, lots of natural light, wooden blinds for privacy.

Garden tub: check.

We walk back through the living room to the (large) kitchen. Lots of counter space and cabinets. Uh oh. Fake pantry. Bad news. I really really have been wanting an actual closet-type pantry, not just an over-sized cabinet. Then I noticed instead of just one or two doors on the "fake pantry", it has three. I open one. Leo shows me that the shelves swing out, revealing more shelving behind them. Um. Wow. I think it has more room and is more accessible than the closet pantry I currently have. I'll accept it.

Gas stove: check. Bonus: premium stainless steel hood above the stove, essential for Chinese cooking because of all the smoke and grease it produces. Breakfast area (sans carpet): check.

Continuing through the kitchen to the laundry room. LARGE laundry room. Very much like the one in the first house we almost got, but decided against (I've already forgiven him for that, especially now!). The garage enters into it, and there is also an outside entry into the laundry room. Lots of counter space. Leo tells me we could remove a section of counter if I wanted to put a desk in there and use it as my command center.

Command center: check. Coat closet by garage entry: check. (And I forgot to mention: also a coat closet by front entry: check.)

I haven't even seen the upstairs or the basement, but I already know.

We proceed back through the living room again, to the stairs to the second level. A large wooden cabinet (for linens? More than enough room for linens, and then some) stands at the top of the stairs. A catwalk looks down over the entryway and living room and leads to the upstairs rooms: two bedrooms and a full bath. One bedroom has a built-in desk. The other one, we soon realize, has magnetic paint on one wall (a magnet on the wall is the give-away). The kids would LOVE that. It will be easy to display Audrey's prolific artwork on the whole wall, top to bottom. The carpet on the catwalk and in one bedroom is textured, and again, will hide dirt and cathair well: check. The carpet in the other bedroom is an ugly blue and a little shabby looking. Oh well; can't have everything.

Down to the basement. It's finished, a bit rough looking, but can be used immediately. Leo's cell phone actually gets reception down there. CHECK! He can have an office down there, so I CAN use the upstairs office as a playroom until all children are mobile enough to navigate stairs safely (and the doors on the office-cum-playroom will hide the mess from company). One room is currently a wood shop, which unfortunately we have no use for. It has wonderful daylight windows. The machinery and tools may even come with the house. If the owners don't take all the stuff with them, we'll have to sell it or give it away. There is a bedroom-sized room, sans closet, but we tell each other we could put a closet in it if we ever want to sell it and market it with another bedroom. Another large room that does have two closets is billed as a "media room." The paint is cheap, there is a small TV on a stand in a corner, and two old, unmatched easy chairs in front of it. Well, whatever. We'll update the paint, put in a ping pong table and call it a family room. One final room in the basement makes me cackle. It has a door and stairs leading to the outside, presumable so the woodworker of the house can bring lumber down without dragging it through the main part of the house. But what makes me laugh is the wallpaper on one wall: it's one of those panoramic wallpaper sets. The view? Manhattan. With the Twin Towers. Um. No. It will have to come down, or be painted over. Every time I see an image of those towers, it makes me shudder involuntarily. But as before, this room is a decent size and could serve a variety of functions if needed. There are also additional closets, storage, and utility rooms in the basement. And in case we are worried (we aren't) the owner has put in not one, but TWO sump pumps, both with battery back up (I think this is because of the cellar-type entry from the September 11 room. In any case, we're covered).

Finished basement: check.

The garage can admit two cars, but technically has room for three; the doors are situated, for some reason, just to allow two though. No matter; we only have two cars. We'll call it a two and two-halves car garage. A riding lawnmower sits in it, which we later negotiate into the deal. Because....

...The backyard. Is HUGE. The land is very nearly one acre. Out the back door is a patio, and past the patio is a deck. Fantastic. Nice deck for entertaining, but nice concrete area for kids to play on their ride-on toys. A permanent gas grill sits off to one side. All around, landscaping (as did other permanent interior decor) hints at Asian themes. The grass is long and unmowed, but it doesn't stop us from walking out in it towards the large, dense patch of mature trees and foliage at the back line of the property. My feet in their sandals are wet before long, but I am beyond caring. Most of the trees are on the other side of a nearly invisible (hidden) chain link fence, but a few, including one huge...maple? Oak? sit on our side of the fence. One large limb from the big tree hangs down nearly to the ground. I tell Leo it will make a great natural playhouse and hideout for the kids.

Backyard big enough for swingset: check. Mature trees: check. (I had just about given up on this item on my list, to be honest).

And the back of the house is attractive, with nice windows. No flat-backed house with unbalanced windows here. Check.

It's all there. Everything I really really wanted, and some things I had been hoping for, and even some things I didn't realize I wanted.

There is also possibly space over the garage that could be made into a bonus room or even another bedroom. If it can be built, the nomenclature will depend on whether we can make it accessible from the second floor (tricky) or from the garage (more likely).

We close on September 15. I CAN'T WAIT!

(I'm still working on adding more pictures of the house. We had a Publisher file with pictures of the house on it, from the seller, but can't. find. them. on this blankety-blank computer at the moment!)