Clark and I had hoped to buy our first home, but we didn't anticipate it happening so fast! We had only been searching for potential homes for about a month and looked at some houses, but none seemed to be exactly what we wanted. Our realtor, George Pilant, was so patient with us and really helped make this first experience a memorable and positive one. It can be really stressful putting in an offer, having the home inspection, finding financing, and waiting for the close date. George explained all the stuff we didn't understand. If anyone needs a realtor, we recommend George - he is the best! He has many years of experience and truly listened to our needs and got us the best deal possible.
Anyway, we found a house in the North end of Tacoma. It's a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom house, about 1600 square feet. The house is over 100 years old, which is great because it has such charm and character. It has great built-ins in the dining room and a classic Craftsman/Bungalow style house. We have fenced backyard with a back deck and even a small front porch! Unfortunately, we don't have a garage or a basement, so storage is an issue...but at least it will force us not to keep a bunch of stuff that we don't need or use! Our upstairs has a lot of potential with the large bedroom and half bathroom, with room to expand to a full bathroom. We have two walk in closets and a room off our bedroom...great for a reading/sitting room, office, or perhaps in the future...great for a nursery?
The kitchen and downstairs bathroom were recently rennovated prior to when we moved in. So we have new kitchen cabinets, floors, and appliances. We had to buy a new washer and dryer, so we went with an energy efficient front loading set and we have been SO pleased with our purchase! When we moved from DC, we sold all of our furniture on Craig's List so we are really starting from scratch, which is stressful on the one hand because it's so expensive to buy EVERYTHING all at once, but it's kind of exciting on the other hand because we get to pick out NEW stuff! We found a great deal on a living room set, dining room set, and kitchen table set. In our spare bedroom we have some basic IKEA nightstands and dresser and haven't yet fully furnished our office or upstairs bedroom. Again, a work in progress!
We do have some plans to rennovate and make upgrades, but will have to be phased in over several years as we are saving for our wedding. Here are our projects, in order of when we hope to accomplish them:
1) Yard - pressure wash and stain deck and fence, plant flowers, bushes, and landscape front and back yard.
2) Upstairs Bathroom - expand our half bath to a full bath to make our upstairs a "master suite."
3) Garage - build a one-car garage with extra room for storage. This may include moving our shed to another place in our backyard and possibly expanding our deck.
4) Dining Room - put french doors leading out to sideyard and expanded deck. Make one of our built-ins into a wine rack.
The view of our home from the street - 1228 N. Fife Street
Our front porch - Clark was happy it was painted crimson
Our living room
Our front door
New tile in downstairs bathroom
New tile backsplash in kitchen
Kitchen
Built-in china hutch in dining room
View of dining room from living room
Old-fashioned doorknobs
Back door and back deck
View of backyard from back door
Shed in backyard
Huge side yard - potential to make wrap around deck and french doors off of dining room
Clark on moving day - such a trooper that he moved ALL boxes by himself! Of course I paid him back the favor by unpacking ALL the boxes by myself!
Clark moving the last few boxes!
Boxes filled the dining room
Sadly, we lived out of boxes for TOO long!
Doing our first load of dishes in our NEW dishwasher! Having a dishwasher definitely made us feel special...we didn't have one living in our apartment in DC, so it was really challenging after cooking!
I am SO excited about my huge pantry!
Cooking our first dinner the night we moved in - baked salmon!
Cooking for the first time on the stove!
Our new energy efficient front-loading washer and dryer! Again, we didn't have our own washer and dryer living in DC, so we feel SO special and lucky that we have this convenience!
Andrea cutting our grass for the first time with our brand new lawnmower - Thanks Dad!
Lucy dressed up as a devil for Halloween
Lucy not quite sure what to make of her costume
"Mama, how long do I have to wear this outfit?"
Lucy and Andrea
The cutest little devil you've ever seen
Mama is bribing me with peanut butter...the longer I wear this devil costume for pictures, the more peanut butter I get...yummy!
Daddy's turn for a photo-op with our little devil
Lucy's horns and red cape
Her red cape even has a red tail!
Okay, I know I am a cute devil, now get me out of this costume!
How can you say no to this precious face?
Lucy is really good at sitting down when there are treats involved
