The Speed of Life

You know how Grandma always said to sleep on it and things would look different in the morning?  I think she may have been on to something...  Life moves fast!!

3 days ago, the folks renting/buying my house in Salt Lake City asked if we could change the closing date from end of May to mid March.  It was a welcome surprise!  But it sure did put us into a frenzy of suddenly changed priorities...

After a very short search, Derek and I put a cash offer in on a little fixer upper house in Dallas, GA today.  And it was accepted within an hour's time.  So, as long as the inspections go well, we'll be moving into this home about a month from today.

As I said, it's a fixer but what it needs is cosmetic changes and updates to make a 1970's style house comfortable and functional for life in this century.  These are all things we are capable of doing and looking forward to being able to customize everything, inside and out, to suit our tastes.

Here's how the back of the house looks.  We'll be adding a deck out of those sliders.  There's no good vision of the yard formed quite yet, but with just over 1/2 acre to work with there's plenty of space to add a couple of fruit trees and some garden space for me and to designate an area just for the dogs using an underground electronic fencing system.  Derek also wants to frame in the carport and add an extra bay to the side for a real garage.

This view may be one of my favorite things about this particular house...

If you stand by the sliding glass door and look out over the backyard, you look right into these woods. A little strategic planting of bushes and shrubs and the 2 visible neighboring houses will just disappear...

Perfect mix of city convenience and country living!

Moving inside, the kitchen is the site most in need of attention.  Of course, it's always the kitchen!  Here's how it exists today:

We asked for the renovations the seller was doing prior to sale to STOP so that we could get the appliances we want without the guilt of ripping out brand new ones.  For now, we'll be keeping the cabinets and just refreshing them with a coat of paint and some new knobs and drawer pulls.  I'd also like to put in a mosaic tile backsplash along the wall behind the sink (and the one you can't see in this picture).  And painting the walls is definitely needful.  I'm thinking something bright and fresh like a light shade of lime green...  but I guess Derek should get some input into that plan when we go to get paint swatches so that's not a final decision.

Yet.

But I'm pretty good at getting my way.

Down a few steps there's a small bedroom that we're planning on dedicating as my space.  I get to create the office/hobby/craft room of my dreams.  I wish you could see the smile on my face as I'm rubbing my hands together in anticipation!

There's also a pretty generous laundry room and a nicely-sized living/family room with a deep stone fireplace.  This is a fantastic room for our giant TV and big brown sectional sofa and there's still plenty of room to store games and movies.  Derek has visions of a man cave and I don't really have any objections.

Except to the bright red walls and black trim he wants as homage to the UGA Bulldogs.

He's a devoted University of Georgia football fan.

Really... UGA football is a big deal.

Big.

Huge!

Maybe I can sell him on the idea of leaving the fireplace wall and the one leading up to the laundry room a neutral color and hanging framed posters there because those walls are mostly visible from the rest of the house?  I can try anyway...

If, instead, you go up a few steps there are 2 decent-sized bedrooms with a 4-piece hall bath and a master with en-suite.   Updating the bathrooms will be another high priority as these are original to when the house was built.  It's all functional and in pretty good condition just very dated.  The hall bath is tan - toilet, tub, sink and shower tiles are all the same shade of tan.  And the master is decked out in that avocado green that's iconic to the 70's.

Wonder if there's a market to sell these vintage fixtures if we remove them carefully?

Even pennies count right now.  We can swing the purchase price.  Just barely.  But it doesn't leave much for the things you always need moving in to a new place.

Like utility hook ups.  And dishes.  And silverware.  And bath towels.

And... that whole endless list of stuff.