Out with the old, in with the Old! Buying a fixer upper

Since it's a new blog, I thought it only fitting to write about our (somewhat) new house. This is our second home since moving to Massachusetts, same town, just down the street from our old house. I adored our old house, it's charm, the neighbors, it's where we brought our second son home and the kids loved it. It was just getting too small for us and there was no where to add on. This picture on our last night still brings a tear to my eye.

Rob and I had always wanted an older fixer upper (oh how easy it is to dream). There were a couple streets in our town that we have always loved/stalked, talking about how one day we could live there, imagine what we could do, the big yard we would have and my dream kitchen I could design. Because when everything is old well, you just have to make it new again and by old I mean really old. One day I happened to be stalking one of my favorite streets in town (imagine Father of the Bride treelined street) and saw a house For Sale by Owner. I knew I had to see it right away whether my husband was out of town or not. It was love at first sight! The center entrance colonial I've always wanted, beautiful molding, the huge open living room, the open staircase and sea grass wallpaper in the dining room. I called Rob right away and his response "let me guess you love it?". Well you know what my answer was.....YES! Poor Rob, I can only imagine his thoughts on his flight home. Big beautiful house with open staircase, double sided fireplace etc.. He was probably thinking it looked like this.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell him that EVERYTHING was covered in wallpaper. Even the light switch covers and better yet there were curtains to match. Maybe it smelled like a musty old house, and the kitchen had a dishwasher that looked like something my great great grandmother had, which she probably did. As he opened a cabinet in the kitchen an ironing board came flying out. The one and only full bathroom had pink and dark green tile. The fridge was on an enclosed porch. The deck was falling down. The list went on and on. After we're in the privacy of our car he says "NO WAY it's way too much work". I knew that this house was a hidden gem on our dream street, I just had to convince him that you can always change a house but you can't change it's location. My enthusiastic design ideas must have rubbed off because in the blink of an eye we were packing up our old house, homeless for about 3 weeks living in a hotel, don't feel bad it was actually nice. Even the cat loved it. I mean who wouldn't love someone making their bed and doing their dishes everyday? I was ready to live there! Although they may have kicked us out not long after since we were quite the entertainment at breakfast.