We’re in it and still incredibly unpacked – but it’s still pretty nice! We’ve been homeowners for about a month now and I think we both feel quite comfortable with that title (no buyer’s remorse yet!) We’re taking part in sundry adult activities like lawn moving, composting, going to Home Depot like it’s our jobs, owning ladders and being concerned with property taxes. It’s quite the change!

The move went semi-smoothly, the only casualty being my favourite mirror, which can and will be repaired. Both our awesome families came down to Fredericton to help for the weekend – which was super awesome. Thanks/merci!

Since then, wallpaper has been peeled off, pink paint has been painted over, a new countertop has been ordered and a new living room set has been bought. And that’s just a small part of the changes we’re making around the place. I have a feeling homeownership will be a vicious cycle of redecorating and maintenance/upkeeping. Ah well. Better to spend my money on something I own than something I rent.

Abby’s been… well, I think this picture says it all for her:

You might have also noticed that things are looking a little bit different around here. Yup, I’ve finally gotten around to switching to a new layout. What do you think?

Ground floor

The living room – on the main floor.

Guest bedroom – on the main floor. This room gets gorgeous light. We’ll be getting rid of the pink.

Dining room – on the main floor. It’s sort of like one big long room – the living and dining areas. Those patio doors lead out to the wrap-around veranda and gazebo!

The kitchen – on the main floor.The only thing staying the same here are the floors and the cupboards.

Kitchen breakfast nook/bay window – on the main floor. I LOVE this. The curtains on the bay window have got to go.

Also on the main floor – full bathroom with bath/shower, front door entryway and side entryway from the garage.

Basement

Den – in the basement. The house is on a gentle slope so we have a full walkout basement – it’s pretty great!

Bathroom – in the basement. Brand new!
LOVE the whirlpool tub.

Also in the basement – lots of storage, a huge laundry room, one unfinished room which will become a band room/home recording studio, and a bedroom.

Second floor

Master bedroom – second floor. Notice the his/hers closets, w00t.

Also on the upper level – lots of storage, a bedroom (craft room!), and a bathroom in desperate need of some remodeling (but it has an adorable clawfoot tub).

Because we suck, we don’t really have any pictures of the exterior of the house. Will snap some as soon as I can. But in a nutshell – it’s a 16 year old Cape Cod on 1.39 acres of land (the concept of “land ownership” really weirds me out). We take possession of it in two weeks (also – we haven’t started packing yet).

More pictures in my Our home! Flickr set.

We had been casually looking at MLS listings since December, and due to the wonderfully slumping economy (I am only benefiting from this recession-business so far), we decided we might as well get a real estate agent and start having a look at some houses. Well lo and behold, we found a house we really like on the first day! Amazing! So we went to see it again after having slept on it (figuratively) for a few days, and decided to put in an offer.

I will spare you the excruciating details of our horrible negotiations, so in keeping with my “for the love of God and all that is holy, be concise!” motto, here is a point-form summary:
- visit house for second time
- put in offer on house on Tuesday
- *nervousness*
- get 1st counter offer on Wednesday afternoon
- counter-counter offer
- little bit of vomit
- counter-counter-counter offer
- counter-counter-counter-counter offer
- counter-counter-counter-counter-counter offer
- various forms of indigestion
- standstill – $ 2,500 apart
- counter-counter-counter-counter-counter-counter offer
- *puke*
- vendors: fine, but we get to keep our fridge
- us: ugh, ok, fine! (Friday)
- (2 weeks’ wait for some stupid condition to be waived)
- WE GOT THE STUPID HOUSE!
- us actually starting to be happy and excited

So yeah, phew, the whole process was super anticlimactic and nerve-racking, but you know, now we have a house, so I guess that’s kind of neat.

I’ve got some pictures, I’ll try to upload them to Fickr this weekend so that may all marvel at its beauty (and look at the wallpaper borders that I’m going to peel off and subsequently test out the wood stove with).