House...

So here are a few pictures of our new house. It will be closing as of Feb 4th. It's a 5 bed/3 bath, 1.5 level + finished basement, and around 1600sqft. + basement. The pictures aren't that good, but they'll have to do for now.

Also keep in mind that this is before any cleaning has been done (obviously by us when we move in) and in it's present state. By the time we're finished it should have new: kitchen, appliances, flooring (hardwood on main, carpet upstairs and new carpet in basement, all bathrooms & boot rooms will be tile or lino), windows, doors (only inside), siding (either wood or vinyl), garage door, closets (four bedrooms need closets), paint, and install of a larger window in one bedroom. We wanted a house to work on and we definitely got that! lol. Also the main floor living room will have all new drywall.

We're planning on doing the house in a type of "rustic" charm as it's a perfect setting for that type of thing with hunting/fishing/skiing only minutes away. Hence the reason we want to keep the front door (not the ugly screen you currently see though, that will be going), as it has a rustic appeal to it.

In the backyard Bert plans on terracing it off as it's part of a hill, and also putting in a greenhouse.

First, here is a view from directly in front of the house... not the best pic since it's with my cell phone...

Front of the house...Basement, this is in the den (which is bigger than it looks) and the french double doors lead into what will be the guest bedroom. We're debating on buying a new stove as well, but we'll have this one inspected first. A new coat of paint and new carpet will do wonders down here! Also we have to tile or brick beneath the stove and the walls around it...

This is the basement bathroom (the only even semi-good shot of any of the bathrooms I got, lol)Upstairs living room, the stove is actually a "front" for the working stove downstairs in the basement. Also, this picture shows it much narrower than it actually is. Notice that GORGEOUS light... yeah, that will be going soon, lol. We'll also be installing more lights into this room.

Well, that's all I have for now, I will take more before shots when we move in (they'll be wayyy better since I'll have an actual camera!) Our first order of business is cleaning, painting and kitchen. :)

A New Experience For Us :)

So, my last post told about how we were "waiting" and I was tired of it. Now I get to tell everyone what we were waiting for! :)
Back in October Bert applied for a different job, one that would bring us much closer to family, right now we're 6 hours north from Bert's family, and more from mine. We weren't sure if anything would come of his applying, but figured it couldn't hurt.
Well, mid-October came and Bert was called and they scheduled a phone interview with him. He had that and it went well, and sounded like they were going to hire him. They sent him paperwork to get a medical done and then a drug test done. But then a month went by, and we heard nothing. And then another month, and still nothing. So we weren't certain what was going on. Then a couple of weeks ago we got a call and they wanted a "final interview" with him. So we went down, and he had his interview. It went well and the very next day they called to offer him the job. SWEET! He'll be starting February 8th!
Our next plan of action was to find a place to live, we really didn't want to be renting again. So we got pre-approved for a mortgage, and then found a realtor and went house hunting.
We had a certain amount of money in mind that we wanted to spend, and didn't want to go over, along with an idea of what we wanted in a first house.
We wanted something that would be a "project" -- but we wanted space as well. Hard to find in the area. With two kids already, and a third one coming in April, we knew space was going to be something very important if we didn't want to be walking all over each other. So with the help of our excellent realtor, and a broker who has been extremely helpful, we found a house. It will be closing in February and we cannot wait!! It's a 5 bedroom, 3 bath -- old house. It has awesome potential, and we can't wait to move in and start in on changing it. When it closes and we take possession I'll post some pics :) It needs lots of work but we're really excited about that.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw in a quick update here... I need to post more often.