Our house, in the middle of our street…
May 3, 2008 by Dana
Well, Mark and I have had an eventful week this week. We have finally closed on our house! For those who were unaware we were looking for a house, I admit that I did not do a lot of blogging about the process, because, well, I didn’t really want to say anything until we were sure which house we were going to get. And then I thought I’d wait until we’d actually finalized everything. And now we’ve bought it! So I have no more excuses.
The house is in Durham, since Mark and I both work there now, and very excitingly for me, it cuts my commute down to just four miles. Whoo-hoo! Plus, you know, it’s a house, which is very exciting. Wanna see it?
It’s a split level, with the living room, dining area, and kitchen on the main floor, straight back from the front door. The bedrooms are in the upstairs part to the right of the picture. The downstairs has a large open room, probably intended as a rec room, and another smaller enclosed room, which Mark intends to use as his cave.
As you may have noticed, the house is pretty much entirely painted yellow, which isn’t bad. One of the bedrooms is actually white, but everything else is yellow. Except…
Unfortunately, you are not hallucinating, the bathroom really is pink. At first I thought it was just a weird cover on the light, making the white walls look pink, but no, it was intentionally painted that way. Even the ceiling. With a blue toilet. That and the kitchen will be the first things to change. (Well, after the bit of the foundation in the front gets fixed. But that was the only major thing found in the inspection.)
I’ll probably be better about writing about the changes that we make to the house now that it’s ours.
Next step: moving.
Congratulations! I’m looking forward to reading about your home improvement adventures!
Dana! That is a positively gorgeous shape! What direction does it face? More importantly, to what direction is that lovely roof slanted?
Thanks, Mike! Assuming the map I’m looking at right now is actually oriented N as up, the house is situated on a NW-SE bend in the street, so the slant of the roof that you see in the picture is slanting more or less east-ish with a southern bias. Of course, all three sections of roof are actually slanted in their various directions. It’s a very angular house. (There is also a small deck off what is the left side of the house as you look at the picture.)
Thanks, Mary! I’m looking forward to writing about them, too, because I think it’ll give me some sort of tangible sense of accomplishment. Much like other project blogging about tea tins and temari balls, only bigger and more expensive.
I meant to write this yesterday — GORGEOUS. Well, except for that toilet. I don’t think toilets are too expensive . . . I’d get myself a white one pronto
psrs - Yes indeed, right away. You didn’t even see the worst part; the downstairs toilet also has a palm tree painted on the lid. Possibly with a flamingo, but maybe my brain just added that in for extra awesomeness.
If that is an old toilet (I can’t tell the vintage of the house because there aren’t many like that around here[ but I like it a lot])…anyway, I discovered in the quest for a toilet for a remodeled bathroom a few years ago, that it might not be that easy. We wanted a high efficiency toilet but one that doesn’t make a godawful noise, but the clearance from the wall is different from what we have. (There is a different word for clearance, but I can’t remember it). I spent days online trying to locate a specific toilet. The first thing you must know is that there are a lot of things that are not as straightforward and uncomplicated as you think they’re going to be. And I heard a comedian say this once, but found it’s usually true…find the old guy at Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, old-fashioned hardware store, etc. and deal with him. The whole being married adventure is a lot less complicated than the house ownership adventure.
Mary, the house is from the mid- to late 1970s, though I have no idea if the blue toilets are original to the house. There are lots of houses from that era in our neighborhood, which is awesome. The contemporary split-level apparently had a fairly short building period down here, but they are very nice.
I’ll keep the varying toilet size issue in mind. Mark is a fiend for measuring things, so I’m sure it’ll be no problem to add that to the list.
It looks great! You know when you buy a house togeather you are offically married.
The minister who is going to officiate at our wedding told us we already did the important part by deciding to get married anyway; all the rest of this is just show. Interestingly, most of the people we know have bought their house (and usually their pets) before they actually got married.
Wow Dana,
Great news! Mary keeps me updated sometimes too!.
Glad you found the guy, house and ??? is there a pet too?
Are you teaching? You could have come to LCC, but why leave better opportunities.
Toilets, toilets? What’s all this toilet talk? Such a fascinating topic. Once in Paris, my roommate and I had a room with 2 toilets facing each other- also two bidets. We figured major conversations and decision making took place there.
As for a new toilet… We found a real cool $700.00 toilet custom designed and ordered but…. alas returned by the dissatisfied owner at Home Depot. I think we paid about $40 for it but it perfectly fit our style and colors. You never know what you’ll find strolling throuhg a home improvement store!
Anyway, have fun fising up your place to your own tastes and quirks. It is fun!
Pat
Hi Pat!
No, I’m not teaching now. I’m the program coordinator for the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at a local university, working with the MA program, the study abroad program in China, and the visiting scholars program. If I’d stayed in MI, though, I’m sure I would have worked at LCC for longer.
Hmmm, darn, I don’t think we’ll have enough room for two toilets facing each other. I will mourn for all the wasted decision time now.
Nice exterior on the house, I like the geometric feel–so many houses in the SE have that nasty faux georgian or neoclassic look. The interior looks like a plenty of room to play with too, pink bathroom aside. At least there were no toilet toupees to go with the rest of the bath decor.