For a year, basically as long as we've been moved from Bartlesville, we've been watching the local real estate market. One house in Overbrook came on the market the same time we put our Bartlesville home on the market. I admired it's huge yard, original woodwork inside, big front porch and covered back deck, and its proximity to the local school.
When our house finally went into contract on the second to final day of December I kept going back to that listing in Overbrook and was a little disappointed to learn it had gone under contract as well.
Only, it hadn't. There was no sale pending sign in the yard, or sold sign, so my mom called the owners to ask if we could take a look at it on New Year's Day...the perks of living in a small community where everybody fairly well knows everybody. The owners were happy to oblige and we got our first inside look at the house on New Year's Eve.
The home has been owned by an older couple for the last 25 years and they're very well known around the community as hard working, community involved people. They took great care with the upkeep on the home and yard and filling their shoes is going to be a challenge for us. Each year at Christmas time they deck out their yard big time with lights and blow up decorations. Nearly all community members' first question after learning we're buying the property is either "Did they leave the decorations for you?" or "Will you decorate the place like they did?". I have to admit, I'm right there with them. I have enjoyed driving Gabe by there the last few years so he could see their fun display. The decor did not stay, and we will definitely not decorate on the scale that they had, but it will still be pretty and festive.
We called our local agent to ask if he could show us any other local properties for comparison purposes, but he was out of state on vacation until the last week of January. It was just as well, because we wanted to get through inspections and repairs on our Bartlesville home before we wrote an offer anywhere else. When he got back in town we viewed the one other comparable property on the market in Overbrook and were not into it at all. So, we went back to the other house, gave it another look over, then went down to the agent's office and wrote up a contract. After two seemingly excruciating days of waiting and negotiating we agreed on a price.
I had been having quite vivid dreams about what our lives would look like living in this home and I was ecstatic to know it would soon be ours. We decided to do some cosmetic updating before moving in and we are currently in the middle of that process. I'll have more posts about our work later. I can't wait to see how awesome it will be when we're done.
After the closing appointment, the one where you sign your name a gazillion times, Casey and I went over to the house together and took some measurements to begin shopping carpet options. It was a very pretty day for February in Kansas. I can't wait to photograph the house in Spring.
Isn't she lovely?
The lighting makes the color of the house a little deceiving here.
The siding is a pure white and the shutters are black.
She's a two story, four bedroom, one and a half bath beauty. She's old, built in 1906, but stands strong and plum and has had some major improvements made in the heat and air category, roof, and brand new hardwood flooring downstairs in the last five years. It has my one and only next house requirement...a basement. Granted, this basement is a stone walled cellar-like basement, not an additional living space like I had wanted...but it will function just fine as shelter from scary storms, which was the one and only reason I was adamant about purchasing a home with a basement. You can't see the awesome back deck in this photo, but you'll be seeing it eventually.
A look down the hall of our upstairs living area.
It looks nothing like this at the moment.
It's all bare walls and floors.
In the first thirty minutes of our time as the new owners of this home,
Casey hit his head on low hanging ceilings not once, but TWICE!
The spot in this photo on the landing is fairly low and so is the half bath doorway.
To my knowledge, he hasn't hit his head since then, so maybe he's learned his lesson.
Poor, tall guy.
So, there's an intro to our "new" home. More before and after type posts to come soon.
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