So, as you know, we've been looking for homes & I want show you where we've been on our journey so far. If you don't know our story: we are YFBers (young, fabulous & broke) and are looking for a TOTAL fixer-upper that we can turn into our beautiful home. We're workhorses and aren't afraid of much except insanely expensive foundational issues & building restrictions.
Here is a house we WERE considering until a few things came to light. Believe it or not, it wasn't the beer bottles everywhere, the mattresses in outdoor sheds, the lazyboy chair in the backyard, the windows with BLINDS BETWEEN THE PANES (wow! someone must've really thought he was onto something when he invented those!!!) or the nasty kitchen that scared me... I was actually excited by all these flaws...
The house is 5 minutes from my parents & Tyson's, on a nice street in an "up-and-coming" (meaning hasn't come up yet & still has lots of homes with excessive amounts of lawn furniture next to beautiful homes) neighborhood and is on HALF AN ACRE backing to a stream & GORGEOUS, TOTALLY PRIVATE WOODED PARKLAND.
When we went into the backyard it was just amazing. When we set Chistian (our 20 month old) down in the yard, his eyes got really big & he just took off running. (Definitely got teary-eyed.)
Continuing into the backyard there were these 2 lovely sheds (below) where it looked as if people had been living!!! (I was still excited by the storage & would move them to a less obvious spot.)
And here is the living room and dining room: I had big plans to bust out a bedroom & open up the living room & to open the kitchen to the living room. In a couple of years, we'd expans the back of the house, add on another level on & put the bedrooms upstairs . I really love the floors & think all they'd need would be a little sanding & a few coats of polyeurothane. All I can say is that we actually wen into houses that looked worse than this inside:
Check out the kitchen (below). eeeeeek! We'd totally have to redo it which is what I plan on for any house. The whole house is only 884 square feet.
The scary hallway to the bedrooms:
So, it turns out that because the house is within a certain distance to the stream which leads to the Cheseapeake Bay Watershed, we would have major issue with building an addition. (permits, the addition would have to be a certain size & would maybe not even be possible) SO we said goodbye to this beauty.
..........................
Lucky for me we found ANOTHER!!!! :) I am SO EXCITED and cannot contain myself but a million and one things have to go right in order for this next one to work. It's farther out (which we didn't want to do unless we were getting something really special) and will be (again) a TON of work & the owners were SHOCKED when I told them we wanted to actually live there & not tear it down. We'll just have to see what happens but I am going CRAZY with anticipation. (It's really a long-shot.) I'll show pictures & give details when I'm not afraid of jinxing it so much!! (or I might get too excited & post tomorrow!! My family thinks we're nuts but I'm hoping you creative types will understand ;) ;)
Anyone have any guesses??
xoxo
As a decorator & a textile designer, this is my place to muse... perfection doesn't interest me; Reality and charm do. Fresh floppy flowers from the garden over long-stemmed roses any day, I love it when things are slightly off and tell a story. 
16 comments:
sounds exciting! can't wait to see your new project! and good luck with all of the mess that comes with end of the process!
Lauren, you are so funny. Those blinds are what really had me laughing. Honestly, it's so sad that to get rid of the tiniest mini blinds on the planet you will need to change the window! Not just tear down the blinds.
It kills me. So wasteful. Anyways, we'll stay tuned, also love the young, fabulous, and broke line as well.
That house has so much potential, but I wold have said bye too when they said it would be hard to build an addition or they would have made you jump though hoops to get it. You made the right choice, so on to search for the next house.
I cant wait to see whats next! xoxox
Oh Lauren,
Thank stinks that the first house didn't work out. But you guys made the right decisions. If permits were going to be a problem then it would have taken forever to build. Across the street from my parents house someone knocked down a house and it literally took them a year to get approval to re-build. The poor couple were living with cousins and would stop by to just water the plants. craziness.
Glad to see that you found something else you like. How exciting!!! I'm thinking old farm house? How far away is it from Mom?
Fingers crossed for you.
Lauren, I can not wait to see the next house. I know with your talent and spirit it will be fab in no time. You remind me of myself 20 years ago...I wanted a house so bad living in a trailer and driving my husband crazy. Finally he said I could have a ranch style and he would built it himself...I agreed until I looked at ranch style plans...I would not agree to anything! Finally in rage he said draw what the H**** you want and I will build it. I did and he did and we have been here 24 years! And I still like it! No it is not the home of my dreams, but it is me inside and out. It did not cost a arm and a leg to build and we have raised two children here . I wish you the best of luck , you hang in there.
Lauren, I can not wait to see the next house. I know with your talent and spirit it will be fab in no time. You remind me of myself 20 years ago...I wanted a house so bad living in a trailer and driving my husband crazy. Finally he said I could have a ranch style and he would built it himself...I agreed until I looked at ranch style plans...I would not agree to anything! Finally in rage he said draw what the H**** you want and I will build it. I did and he did and we have been here 24 years! And I still like it! No it is not the home of my dreams, but it is me inside and out. It did not cost a arm and a leg to build and we have raised two children here . I wish you the best of luck , you hang in there.
Oh, please get really excited about it and post tomorrow!!! :) I LOVE seeing "befores" and wondering what the "afters" will look like! While I don't envy the work you have ahead of you, I think it's very exciting that you're both so eager to start with a blank (albeit not-so-pretty) slate!
Oh you are a roll your sleeves up kinda gal, aren't you!
I imagine this next one will have just as much potential...(although the bed in the shed thing...yoiks!!)
This is so exciting! I can't wait to see what and where. Good luck!
Well I've been wondering where you've been my love. That is so exciting - house hunting!! Glad to have you back and remember, if this house was meant to be yours it will all fall into place. If not, consider it a blessing in disguise!!! This happened to me once and I thank God every day it didn't work out. I really do.
xx
Kara
My guess is that the mystery place is an old timberframe barn. I can totally see your style working in a big old barn with wonderful weathered wood :-)
I agree with Chris -- get REALLY EXCITED and post pictures of it tomorrow!!!! :-)
Kelly
Oh, can't wait to see what you've found! I wouldn't post any pictures before it's yours though, someone else may read your blog and snatch it! :D
This place was obviously not meant to be...your perfect place is still waiting for you to find it. Best of luck and I hope we can share the journey with you through your blog.
Morning Lauren :-)
I read this post with a sence of deja-vu - we were engaged in a similar search a little over a year ago and bought our own little fixer-upper bungalow. You think the kitchen in your almost-house was scary, you should have seen mine!! Actually - I'll blog about it one day :-)
Anyway... I'm in love with my little house! We have a lot more work to do, but the remodeling we have done has hade such a difference... and I'm having so much fun!!
Looking forward to seeing the new, potential keeper of a house!
Victoria from EdinDesigns @ DesignTies
Can't wait to see it!
How exciting for you Lauren! It sounds as though your nesting instincts have kicked in big-time, so I'm looking forward to seeing the results! Hope you find the perfect canvas to paint you story on.
Millie ^_^
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