The Elm Street House

Before I go on with August, I thought I'd do a post about our new house.  Our main goal was to get a 4 bedroom house with more space for our family.  We loved our former house but the bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets were very tiny.  The living space was great but lack of storage was our biggest issue.  It was also in a neighborhood that was in transition and not really in a good way.  When we moved to Mimosa Dr., it was mostly older families who had lived there since the houses were built in the 1960s.  But, as those sweet neighbors passed or moved away, the houses were being bought up by investment groups.  They were quickly becoming rentals with new renters moving in and out often.  We wanted to find a neighborhood with lots of kids and families like us who were likely to stay a long time:)

We looked at everything that remotely fit our criteria. The Elm Street house was one of the first we looked at.  It was in our absolutely favorite neighborhood and had lots of good space.  We even put a contingent offer on it, but pulled it later, deciding it was really too expensive.  After we accepted the offer on our Mimosa house, we had 3 months to decide on a house.  We fell in love with an older character home (I can't find a picture anymore) but it sold before we could sell our house:(  In the end, God was good because it had a lack of storage and bathroom space.  We just loved the character and were ignoring the practical points of the house too.

There was also the house on Cedar St.

It met a lot of our requirements but had some renovations that were not done very well.  The bathrooms needed a lot of work and we didn't love the layout quite as much as others we had seen.

Then here was the Oak St. house.

It was not actually on the market yet.  It was a nice house but not in quite as nice of a neighborhood.  We were hoping for a 2 car garage and it only had a carport.  It also needed some work in the bathrooms too.

There was the Main St. house that was a true fixer upper in our favorite neighborhood (couldn't find a picture).  I finally said that, considering all of the changes we were about to experience, it was not something else we needed to take on!

Just when we were starting to get worried we wouldn't find a house, our Realtor sent us a text asking if we were still interested in the Elm St. house.  We said it was too expensive and she said the owner was desperate to sell and was willing to accept a much lower offer.  We stuck to our budget and got a great house for a great price!  Here are some pictures from when it was listed:

Here is the main bath (there are 3 bathrooms!)  All 3 bathrooms had been renovated very well.

 One of the 3 secondary bedrooms.  We liked the character of the windows.  This is to be Mallory's room.

 The dining room.  We decided to change things around and make this our upstairs living room though.

 The kitchen.  They did a good job renovating this room.  It has plenty of storage space, a pantry, and a island with bar stools.

 The living room.  This room is what we decided to use as the dining room/Nathan's office area.

 The master bedroom.  It's a nice size with two closets.  The bathroom was done nicely and was a much better option than our previous tiny bathroom.

 Here is the front.  We don't love the street appeal but we don't hate it either:)  We also had to come to terms with the fact that it is a split level with stairs right in the entry way.  There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and living room upstairs.  There is one bedroom, one bathroom, laundry, and a huge playroom downstairs.  It will be a great home for our family for a very long time, I hope!