A & E's Adventures: Our New House!

Since we finally got our keys today, I thought I'd share some pictures of it in all its retro glory. Every inch of this home is original to 1976, so it's like stepping inside a time capsule. We'll be spending about 5-6 weeks renovating it, so we definitely want to have lots of good before pictures.

(looking at the view from the driveway)

This home is in the Bennett Valley area of Santa Rosa. From the beginning, Ed has wanted to live here. It's right at the base of Annadel State Park, full of tons of beautiful trails.

(walking into the backyard)

We saw this home on a lark - an open house when my parents were in town.

But, there was just something about it that drew us in.

It was hard to put my finger on it, because it needs so much work and it was way earlier than we'd wanted to buy.

(our ancient oak)

But I couldn't stop thinking about it.

We visited it again 3 more times before we put in an offer. We even did a walk through with a specialist to talk about any issues with dry rot that he'd noticed to make sure we were making a good choice.

When we put our offer in the first time, we didn't get it. They decided to go with a flipper who offered all cash, instead.

But, lucky for us, the flippers backed out - realizing it was too big of a job to make a real profit.

(intensely outdated family room)

In the couple days where we'd thought we lost the home, we did a lot of reflection. We saw a few more houses in the area and realized that our main concern, the unusual backyard, was a given in this hilly area.

(this wallpaper will be staying for a while!)

And, we realized that some of the things that were most important to us about this house were hard to find.

We loved the floorplan of the home, it's privacy, the space, and the location at the end of a quiet cul de sac in a very quiet neighborhood.

We had just come to the realization that this house might have been our best option when we found out we were back in. So we went in with a stronger offer and got the house!

(view from the master)

The past month has flown - it's amazing how quickly time passes when, in addition to buying a house, you are working full time and taking care of a baby.

Definitely stressful, which was why we never wanted to to buy a home in the fall when we were adjusting to our new lives here. But, it's worth it to get the right house.

(our massive master bath, with a tiny little shower)

Since we put in the offer, we've kept an eye on the market and have felt nothing but relief - there has literally been no other interesting homes on the market, and everything we've seen has made us so thankful we got our home for the price we did - it certainly seems like it was a steal.

Evan's crazy retro bathroom.

Since the offer was accepted, we've been trying to figure out how we're going to remodel it. Our current plan is to redo the entire downstairs (paint, floors, kitchen) and leave the upstairs and outside alone for now.