Pictures of the house we hope to buy...

We toured the house again on Friday with Florence and Nathan along. They both loved it just as much as Pete and I do! In fact, at one point, Florence said, "I brought my checkbook, let's just buy it right now..." but of course, we're not going to let her do such a thing. We are still waiting to hear back from the home owners about our offer, and it's killing me. I mean, it's a no brainer!! But, they might not be so easily convinced. All we can do is wait and see what they have to say about it, and work with whatever circumstances they bring to the table.

WANNA SEE IT?!! Let's go on a virtual tour together!! WOO HOO!! Here ya go folks...

Here is a photo of the front of the house. It looks very similar to the current house we're living in, with the yellow brick...but this one is MUCH bigger...

Here's the first room you see when you walk in the front door...the kitchen & dining room area:

(Florence was playing peek-a-boo)...but this space is very large and roomy, and newly re-done.

Another view of the kitchen and dining room space. There are lots of cupboards, and an island, lots of counter top space and a huge pantry closet. The door leads out to the side yard.

This photo shows the right side of the house, leading from the kitchen. On the left in the hallway is the guest bathroom (full size) and it's right next to Florence's bedroom (straight ahead). To the right of her bedroom is a doorway that leads to two more rooms...

This is the main floor bathroom, that Florence would primarily use, and guests who visit. Nothing fancy or special, but it's a nice sized tub, and plenty of storage under the sink too.

Then there is the room that Florence would occupy, right next door...we wish the bedroom had the bathroom attached inside, but unfortunately it's just not made that way. A few steps doesn't matter, she said, and she really LOVES the bedroom, especially with the huge closet!! The room is actually quite a bit bigger than shown here in this photo.

To the right of her bedroom is a sitting room, which we could make into a crafter's room/office for me, and a sitting area for her, and/or a bigger laundry room area...

right now there is a small closet that has a stackable washer and dryer in it, but no table to fold clothes on or anything. Florence owns a full sized washer and dryer that is currently at her home in Rochester NY, that we could bring back and put here or in the basement area.

Then this room leads you into the GIANT family room / game room area...the photos that are on the internet for this house made the kitchen look super tiny, and this room wasn't featured well either, but THESE photos show the huge size of it...I love it, but the green carpet is not my favorite. There are windows all around, and it's QUIET in here, like almost soundproof, no acoustics at all...it feels like a warm, welcoming cocoon!

And here's the right side of the room...the pool table & ping pong topper will have to go, unfortunately, because Pete would rather put our exercise equipment in here with Florence's big screen t.v. and my living room furniture. We'll see...(there's Florence, walking around it).

And then we turn around and go back through the sitting room, hallway and kitchen/dining area to the OTHER side of the house, the left side...

A very nice living room space, which COULD be made into a separate, more formal dining area. Here's another photo of the other side of the same room...the fireplace is pretty cool with all that stone around it, but I would add some floating shelves to break up the monotony of it.

The sliding glass doors lead out to the back porch area, where I know my mom & Florence will spend hours sitting out there, watching birds and squirrels all around the yard...

Florence loves the huge size of it, but wants to put doors and screens in it, so that her cats can come out and sit with her. If we put screens AND glass windows, we could make it a 3 season porch and use it all year round. She said it definitely needs carpeting...hehehe...but all my wicker furniture and our glider rocker love seats would fit out here just great.

So there you have it....the main floor of the new house...there is also a huge upstairs area with 3 bedrooms, and huge open landing area, and a bathroom, and a basement that Nate would occupy. Everyone in our family would fit nicely in this house, with plenty of room so that we're not bumping into each other or knocking things over as we pass by, like we do now in this little house we're in. With five adults, ages ranging from 24 - 89, and all the STUFF we each have, this house is just too small for us. We've outgrown it.

We think the 3 paintings of young girls on the wall in the smaller living room are the current home owners, when they were kids. They are all now grown and married, with families of their own, but when their mother passed away and their father had to be put into a nursing home (he has Alzheimers), they inherited the house from their parents, who lived there 40 years. So, there has only been one family in that house since day one, when it was built, and we THINK the father (who was also a builder himself), added on or possibly even built the house himself.

So, all three of the siblings have to agree to sell us this house, BUT, they apparently took out a 2nd mortgage on it, for whatever reason, and so they are not able to work with us for financing to buy it outright. They are, however, now considering our Plan B option, of doing another "rent-to-own" situation, for two years, until we can qualify for our own mortgage and buy it outright. By then, Pete's mom will have sold her Rochester NY house, and she already said she would contribute to purchasing this house with that money, and that will give Pete time to get all his finances in order and rebuild our credit to make it better...

If they say yes, we'll be signing the contract soon. I just hope they make up their minds ASAP because this waiting and hoping is killing me. I'm walking around on pins and needles, wishing they would hurry up. They never considered a rent-to-own situation before, though, but this is more than that, we WANT TO BUY the house, so we could give them a huge chunk of cash as a down payment, and then take over the current mortgage payments as "rent," until we can secure our own financing. We might even be able to do that in LESS than two years.

The house has sat empty and unsold for over a year. They started out at $350K, last October, but had to endure the worst winter of Pittsburgh's history---shoveling the sidewalks and the driveway every day, so that people could come view the house, keeping all the utilities on, etc., and paying for all of it themselves in addition to their OWN houses...so we are thinking they will come back and say "this is a no-brainer, we want to sell it, so let's work out the details."

WE will shovel the driveway and sidewalks, WE will pay the utilities, WE will take care of the place and make it our own, while THEY take our huge down payment as good faith that we'll buy it within the next 2 years outright. I think if we work out some kind of arrangement that makes everyone happy, it really and truly would be a win-win situation for all involved.

Well, that's the scoop. I will keep everyone posted. Next time I will add the upstairs rooms, and the basement...oh, and there's also a huge BARN in the backyard too!! Nate & Pete are excited to make that into their workshop, but I say the upper floor will be MINE as a party palace!! We just need a hot tub, surround sound stereo system, big screen t.v., and a bar!! WOO HOO!!

Ahem. I'm such a dreamer. By the way, yesterday was John Lennon's 70th birthday...I still miss him and his music very much. Happy birthday John.

Let's hope this coming week we'll have good news to celebrate!!

Bye for now.

Love, Becky