The Good, The Bad and The Ugly....

Now that you know what we've been through the past 6 years...let me tell you why we decided to stay and not move to a different house. Should we stay and put an addition on??? Do we move to a house with everything we want??? These 2 questions haunted Joe and I for a few months..we both went back and forth, pros and cons, what towns would we look in, which school district is best for our family, would we ever find all the good this house has, in another home?

What are these good things you ask?? I'll tell you....first and foremost our house has some history. It's a Sears Modern Home and was built sometime in the 1940's. We believe it's The Dover model. Even before you step foot in the house, you can sense the charm just by looking at the large, wooden radius door. LOVE that it adds so much to our Tudor/Cape. Once inside you continue to feel the charm and oldness of the house from the beautiful archways and the old doorknobs on closets, to the baseboard trim and the old radiator covers. Our house is a 3 bedroom, 2 full bath..with so much potential.

The bedrooms are all nice sized..and from the outside the entire house's size is very deceiving.

The backyard is one of the main reasons we are staying. It's a very large, park-like setting, and something you don't find common in this area. It's a child's dream yard (in fact neighbors often tell us how jealous they are of our yard.). And we are on a cul-de-sac in a wonderful neighborhood...we actually might be one of those few people who like ALL their neighbors....imagine that??? Lots of kids and dogs and just fun to live here. It doesn't get better then that. The town itself has everything you scould want, and all of it within walking distance..anything further is a train ride or a short car ride to all the major highways. A few other added perks.....it has a fireplace, a dining room, 2 full bathrooms and a small 2 car garage. It's just a great house..one that we LOVE..but one that we are growing out of...way too quickly.

Now aside from growing out of it....the BAD......the kitchen.

Cooking is something I enjoy, but have a hard time enjoying it in my 8'x 13" galley kitchen. YUP....did you know they make kitchens that small?? So small that I can't open my dishwasher and the cabinets at the same time, so small 2 people have to shimmy past each other when going in opposite directions, so small that I only have 1 high cabinet (GASP!) and 3 low cabinets. Not much space at all.

Another bad...only 2 bedrooms upstairs. We have 3 total bedrooms, but one of them is located on the first floor..and used to be Joe's office (before he got kicked to the basement to make room for all the TOYS!!!! Uggghhhh those damn toys!), and is now the playroom.

And finally we don't have much storage..we need closets. All of our closets show their "history". They are very deep...but not very wide at all, and there aren't many closets in our house. The basement has become our place to store everything..and if we don't do an addition soon..poor Joe will be kicked to the garage! That wouldn't be good for our marriage..although there is an extra fridge in there which means lots of space for adult beverages!!! (Let's just keep that between us -- he might like that idea!) ;oP