June 14, 2011

THE DATE WE CLOSE ON OUR NEW HOUSE!!!

To give you some perspective on why we're so excited, I think I only need to show some pictures.

These are some lovely pictures of our current kitchen, taken during our house hunt several years ago.

The reason you can't see the whole kitchen is that there's no place to stand to take in the whole kitchen.  It looks a little different now, mostly just messier, but certainly no bigger.

Our future kitchen will be this:

The rest of the house is lovely too, but this is my dream kitchen.  We thought about trying to renovate a kitchen in our current house or some other house, but the expected expense and possibility for marital destruction loomed large.  I am going to have to become a much better cook to live up to this kitchen.

Other reasons we're in love?  We're going from ~800 square feet to ~2200 square feet. We will be a block from a lovely park.  And so many windows.  The current owners renovated the house in 1992, adding this kitchen, an attached garage, and lots and lots of big windows.  There is so much natural light and space. 

There are a couple things we will need to learn to live with.  Notably, those black slate floors.  I love natural stone, but I suspect these are going to be a bear to keep clean.  Also, the kitchen is so big that it echoes, and our not-quiet-toddler is amplified.  I think there will be a need for some carpet on the floor to combat both of these.

A rough calculation suggests that I saw on the order of 70 houses.  I think DH saw about half that; MJ and I went to many open houses while he was at work, which turns out to be a great toddler activity.  What will we do with our free Sundays now?