With the euphoria of the house closing, tour and all behind us, it was time to tackle the demolition. I was safely at work during the demo at our current house, only to come home to a house filled with a fine silt on every surface imaginable.  My thinking this time, at least we are not living in it!

This won’t be so bad . . .

After the first day of demo, I made my way over to see the ‘progress’.  There were several of the kitchen cabinets removed, but not much had changed.  The second day I made the mistake of stopping by again, only to find the kitchen in complete shambles, dust filling the house and the chandeliers I had requested be covered  . . . were not!  It was quite a sad scene.  The stately home that had been filling my dreams for months was now a complete and utter disaster, certainly not stately by any means.  It was quite sad to see ‘her’ in that condition.  I left the house feeling downright depressed.  Is this house going to become what I have envisioned?  What if we can’t take out the walls of the kitchen?  Is that dust filled with ASBESTOS!?!  Should we have reused the original cabinets?  Oy Vey – my mind started to run away with me.

Then I remembered a saying my Mother always said to me when something looked bleak.  Take a fresh look at it tomorrow and . . . ‘you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.’

Bathroom demo’d . . . now I can see how big the shower will be!

Not much left of little pink 1/2 bath . . .

DUSTY!

Starting to see the ‘open concept’ with the removal of the wall between the kitchen and the butler’s pantry

More destruction!

Kitchen with cabinets removed

I decided it best I stay away from the ‘project house’ for a few days.  Give the demo team a chance to make real progress and to hopefully clean up a little!  Yes, we have indeed broken a number of eggs, I’m now looking forward to the making of our omelette!

After word of our impending purchase traveled quickly through our neighborhood, many people asked for a tour to see the house that had long sat vacant for the past 14 years.  We welcomed friends, neighbors and family to our new ‘project’ with enthusiasm.  It was wonderful to hear stories from people who had attended events here many, many years ago and the words of encouragement and support for our endeavor were heartwarming and well-timed!

We were fortunate the house has ‘good bones’ and some updates had already taken place prior to our taking possession.  Three new HVAC units, new hot water heater, new roof/guttering, waterproofing of walls and a french drain and sump pumps installed in the basement.  (All improvements I brought up to my hubs on numerous occasions while trying to sell him on buying our dream house!)

There are many updates to be made and paint squares and light fixtures are dancing through my head – Let the fun begin!

Entryway

Entryway and staircase

Beautiful winding staircase

Dining Room

Dining Room – the previous owner loved PINK!

First Floor Hallway

First Floor Hallway – I think the wallpaper will stay!

On to the . . . Living Room

Living Room – I think that window screams for a Baby Grand Piano 🙂

The Library

Huge Great Room

Great Room which we hope to open up to the kitchen.

Great Room Bar

Hand carved fireplace

Into the Butler’s Pantry and Kitchen

The Butler’s Pantry

The Kitchen

Kitchen – We plan to reuse the cabinets in the basement and garage

Kitchen cabinets are original and were built on-site

More Pink in the wallpaper border

This will be the ‘mud room’ area for the puppies!

First floor bedroom, which was once a Maid’s Room

First floor half-bath. It is all pink!

Master Bedroom . . . guess what color it is??

Master Bedroom

The house has his and her bathrooms. This is ‘his’.

This will be my husband’s bath with shower

Too bad we can’t keep some of the art painted on the walls . . . .

This is the ‘hers’ bath. No surprise here . . . it is pink

Wish we could find a place for the gold sink

This will be my bath . . .

The dressing room

To become my dressing room and closet!

The house that I coveted for years . . . it is now ours!

For years, I walked by a house in our older, established neighborhood.  I would wonder what it looked like inside?  Who was the owner?  Why was it sitting vacant for so many years?  To my husband’s chagrin, I once drew out a plan of what ‘I thought’ the house’s layout might be.  Then the unexpected happened . . . the ‘dream house’ that I had been coveting was for sale!  Dragging my hubs kicking and screaming, we toured the house.  By the time we left, I had placed furniture, chosen paint colors and knocked down walls.  Something my Realtor husband likes to hear from his clients, but certainly not his wife.  And certainly not after we had recently completed a nearly 3-year remodel on our current fixer-upper project.  He told me to put the idea out of my head, it was not going to happen.  “It is too big of a house”, he said.  “It is way over priced”, he said.  “It will take too much money to get it livable and the way we want it”, he said.  But I was undeterred.

A few weeks later while on vacation, I was still obsessing about the ‘dream house’.  My hubs promised to take me to look at it again ‘if it is still for sale, because it could be sold by the time we get back’.   It was still for sale, we looked again, and went back again, and again and again.  Each time with a posse of friends, family, contractors, electrician and a plumber.  All the time my husband becoming more and more interested.  Finally, it was time to make an offer.

Our initial offer was totally discounted as the owner thought it was way too low and informed us ‘she was not having a fire sale!’  However, the house had been vacant for nearly 14 years and needed substantial upgrades, so we held firm with our lower than anticipated offer.

After a few back and forth negotiations, our offer was accepted, as long as we closed by the end of the year.  Wait a minute! This did not fit into my ‘plan’ of closing in March and having two months to relish in picking out tile and paint color and perusing beautiful design magazines!  I need time to plan!  Maybe I want to stay in my old house!  Fear totally set in and with a vengeance.  However after a few stressful days, and after everyone pointed out, we never thought the current owner would accept our offer, that the bank could turn everything around in a matter of two weeks, that contractors and cabinet makers would fall right into place – it was meant to be.  The coveted Dream House would be ours!

As my husband said ‘Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!’  Let the fun begin!