I think I'm developing a tick and an ulcer over house hunting. Seriously. Mike is one of those guys who doesn't get attached to real estate. If he has his big screen TV and his World of Warcraft and a once a month poker night, he could live on the moon.
Me I'm the opposite. Since I'm home all day every day and I'm in the house 24 hours a day I need a place I can love and that makes me happy. I really love this Victorian and I know we can make it so so beautiful. It's a house that we can grow into and never again feel cramped or crowded or be surrounded by clutter because there isn't any room.
I just found out today that she got a new roof 5 years ago which is HUGE news. We were seriously concerned because when we went to the attic Mike noticed some water stains that made him think the roof might have been an issue.
I've fallen in love with this house. I dream about her at night.
However as with any relationship if she's a real train wreck who needs lots of work not visible to the naked eye (in human terms this would be the baggage you find out about after you've been dating a while) I will of course not whine that it can't be that bad and it can be fixed. I will suck it up and move on.
But if there are no big red flag issues then I love this house and want to live in it...
Seriously.
Look, I've started to decorate her!


The 2nd floor kitchen. For the first year or more this will be our main kitchen till we can afford to and decide what to do with the downstairs kitchen. (I think we should keep it as a pimped out kitchen that can be used as a poker room for Mike. If we ever have guests over and use the formal dining room we are NOT going to want to carry food downstairs)



In keeping with the"If we buy this house we will have no cash for serious renovations" theme I propose ripping these cabinets down and doing a kitchen like this:








I love the look of shelves in a kitchen rather than cabinets where you can't see anything and can't find anything.
Ballard Designs has these shelves. They are called "Cafe Shelves" They are 12" deep and come in 3', 4', 5' and 6' lengths. The 6' is $119.


I would love to do the walls pink have white shelves and have a red Smeg Fridge: (The fridge is around 800 euros which translates to roughly $1178 dollars)


I would love to have a Big Chill Fridge but they are twice the price of the Smeg. This one is $2695



That ceiling has got to go beacause it's disgusting and creeps me out. I've found a place that sells tin celings in 2'X2' squares for $18 a square. The kitchen is 12 X 4. Someone do the math for me...
As for lighting as much as I hate going with anything popular I really do like the school house pendant lights that everyone seems to be doing so...(Restoration Hardware $190)

The things I'm not sure I could live with (or without) are the lack of a dishwasher. We might have to install one. That kitchen sink is a mite small too.
The upstairs bathroom is a no brainer. It's really bad now.

That tile would have to go and would be replaced in part with subway tile half way up the wall.

The other half would be something like this:

I would LOVE to do something like this for the shower but think it's impractical at this point.

How perfect would this sink be?
Directly outside the bathroom door is the doorway to the 2nd floor entrance. We wouldn't be using that door and in time would remove the door and the staircase all together and make this bathroom larger but for now I'd put something like this armoire in front of it for bathroom storage of towels and toiletries:







The yard is lovely but it needs sod and it needs a fence.






How cool would it be if I could hook the house up with WiFi and turn this poor little shed into a shelter for rests and for mommy to escape to in the summer? I could be outside with the boys when they are playing and still be inside

These are the bedrooms the owner now has as her apartment: Truth be told I have ZERO idea what to do with them. I'm going to toss up random ideas. I know we will use one as our living room and one will be the boys room and another as a guest room and another as a home office area with the computers and stuff.





Some random ideas:
Master Bedroom? Clearly I love the idea of blood red on the walls and because I think it looks amazing for the cooler months we would have to have a fur throw on the bed...





This above image which I think just rocks sparked my imagination and wouldn't it be just as cool with one of the below images? You wouldn't have to do a whole wall. Maybe just like a headboard?



Guest room idea?



The boys room?






No idea what to do with this bath...gimmie some time. I'll figure it out...



The main entrance on the first floor of the house. Those curtains have to go. I'd replace them with something a little nicer.


This is a beautiful antique pendant lamp from this great online antique place I found. I think it would be perfect in the foyer.

I love the idea of a place for everything and everything in it's place. Right now I've got too much stuff and no where to put it. The baskets or boxes to store things in makes me happy.

The Living room. Here's my theory and I might be delusional but just hear me out. The downstairs would be more for entertaining and not so much for day to day living. This means it wouldn't get all the wear and tear from the kiddos. Perhaps, just perhaps under this theory I might be able to get my chocolate velvet sofa?











This is my idea for our upstairs livingroom...

Ah the den. Or that's what I'm going to call it. This room needs serious help.
Back in the 1970's someone decided it was a good idea to put this:
on the ceiling. That has to go pronto. Then we will yank up that rug and paint the fireplace and since it doesn't work maybe do something like this:


Or we could do something like one of these in here:



The dining room. Free flow imagination here...




and finally, this is the downstairs kitchen. The room I have no idea what to do with...