We had a quick trip out to NY week before last to start getting things ready for our move. We took Aidan to his new school, where he passed his kindergarten screening test with flying colors (scored a 94%!) and was thrilled with the books they gave him to read over the summer. We took Douglas to his new daycare, which is a wonderful cheery place run by a warm and creative woman named Chris whom I'm looking forward to getting to know better.
We also had a major turn of events that seemed quite threatening at first, but turned out to be delightful. We were planning to live in the house Tim had had before he moved to Boston, but for it to work with all of us, we needed to add on more living space and a workshop for Tim's business. We had everything lined up, and the excavators were scheduled to come in two weeks. Then we found out that the zoning laws had changed in such a way that made our plans unworkable.
Talk about a pit-of-the-stomach feeling! The central part of our whole plan was living in that house, and it wasn't going to work.
So, on impulse Tim stopped by a realtor's office and picked up a few flyers on local houses for sale. We'd never talked about getting a different house before, but he thought it might be worth exploring.
There were just a handful of houses in our price range with enough space for all of us. There was just one that also had a workshop already built out back. What was the likelihood that it would work out? Practically none.
We saw it, we loved it, we're going to buy it!
It is simply amazing how much farther housing dollars will go outside of the Boston area. The house we're buying has literally three times the space of our suburban Boston house--at less than half the cost. Amazing!
There is a catch (there is always a catch). The house was last decorated sometime in the late 1960s. Acres of green shag carpeting. Outdated floral wallpaper in all of the bedrooms. A very piney office. There will be a lot of redecorating to be done!
But the fact that the house hasn't been renovated recently means that there are a lot of original features (and interesting vintage ones as well) in this circa 1876 house. Leaded glass windows. A quirky 1940s-era shower. A built-in china cabinet in the dining room. It even has a late 1940s-vintage stove, the same era as the one I already have. (Mine is a gas stove, which my grandmother bought new in the late 1940s and which I shipped from Los Angeles to Boston even before I'd bought my first house!). Even with its dated interior, the house is warm and welcoming, a real family home.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be grand!
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Will you be able to live in Tim's old house while you renovate? Remodeling and dwelling in the same abode - especially with kids - can be cause for serious marriage counseling.
Still, the new place sounds wonderful! I love old homes with lead glass and built in china cabinets. It sounds as though most of the work is mostly cosmetic which should be fun. You get to put your stamp on your new home. You'll have to post pics.
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