Moving!

We have purchased our first home!

Why did we decide to move when we loved the house we were in? Basically it boiled down to the fact that our neighborhood was becoming a ‘hood. The people moving in brought with them stereos that shook our windows, pit bulls who would come at us in our own yard, trashed out cars in the driveways and screams & curses at their own children day and night. There came a point that enough was just enough.

After some searching, we found what our realtor described as a “unique property”. Nine miles from town, it is next to the Cumberland River. There is one neighbor across the street, and the next two are about a quarter mile up the hill…at the top edge of our 5.174 acres.

Yep, 5.174 acres. Mostly wooded with oak, maple and popular but enough yard to not feel claustrophobic. A bunch of garden beds are already laid out with stone borders and there is an area for a veggie garden too.

The house has a sort of contemporary design (that I am slowly going to work over to an ‘Arts and Crafts’ look). Tho it’s actually one story, with the finished walkout basement it’s 2 stories for us.

Upstairs is a large great room with a wood burning fireplace, hardwood floor and vaulted ceiling. It opens onto a deck. The roomy kitchen has more counter space than I have ever had. Fridge has an ice maker and water dispenser. There is an eat-in area that is the perfect size for the new dining room table. There are 2 guest rooms – one will become Himself’s office and the other will be the guest room. The master suite is big! We have a walk-in closet and a bath with a DEEP whirlpool tub. Ah…bliss!

Downstairs is the den which will be my office. 28X17 feet of scrapbooking-jewelry making-photo sorting SPACE. There is also a 10X10 utility room. The rest of the area is a two car garage…or in our case, a one car garage and storage room. There is also a detached garage for storing our yard stuff. We call it our “tractor shed”.

There are some adjustments to be made. Instead of a living room and a family room, we now have a large great room. Instead of a dining room, we now have an eat-in kitchen. And the hardest adjustment is that instead of 2 large guest bedrooms, we now have one small guest room. But there are good adjustments too. Enough storage room to actually park our truck in a garage-- so it won’t be boiling in the summer or freezing in the winter. A dishwasher (besides Himself). And the freedom to make any changes I feel like!

We have a lot of plans for the house to make it “ours”. From the immediate changes (light fixtures and the stove hood), to things we want to do in the next year (tiling of Himself’s office & hall bathroom & foyer, a kitchen remodel, and a master bath remodel), to projects that will happen in the years to come (such as my many landscaping plans, a front porch and driveway work).