Hi everyone! I wanted to update you all on the house progress. After some drama, the closing has been set for the middle of October. We didn’t think the house would sell so quickly so we really didn’t have a house we wanted to move into already picked out. So we’ve been out looking every day! So far this is our favorite (but we’re going to see 2 others later today so who knows…). Lots of photos!
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I know it looks huge but it’s actually more wide than deep and the house we have now is actually bigger (or at least it feels bigger with our layout). But we wanted to downsize in both yard and house.
Porch swing!!! I’ve always wanted a house with a big front porch and a porch swing 🙂
The living room. It doesn’t have a family room so I suppose we’d have to do the TV mount over the fireplace. The floors are parquet and it’s a gas starter fireplace. I’m excited about the fireplace. I’ve never had a real one.
There are two long windows on each end of the living room. This is facing the front. The doorway on the left is coming in from the foyer.
Off the living room next to the kitchen is a small tiled breakfast room that I don’t know what to do with. There’s a formal dining room which I’ll show you in a minute. So I don’t also need a breakfast room. Every wall in that room as a dooryway, door or window! One wall has the patio door to the backyard and those long windows.
The other wall has this entry from the foyer. Then there’s the pantry door and a small utility/coat closet door on this wall.
These are the french doors from the breakfast room into the kitchen. The door on the right is the pantry door. The tile goes from the foyer into the breakfast room into the kitchen. I guess the only thing you can do is something right in the center of this room? Leave me some suggestions if you have any ideas. I thought of maybe blocking the doorway from the living room to make a solid wall? I might have to re-think the dining room (below) and actually use the breakfast room. But my dining room table wouldn’t fit so I’d have to get a new round one for this space.
Love the dining room (even though I’m not a fan of carpet in dining rooms)! So I could remove the chandelier in this room and use it for something else and use the breakfast room for dining.
The kitchen. All the appliances are new and there are granite counters. I’ve never had solid surface counters. Or a window over the sink!
It’s smaller than the kitchen I have now.
The laundry room is off the kitchen with a door to the garage. The washer is on one end and the dryer is opposite it on the other end. I like that I’d be able to come in from the garage with groceries right into the kitchen. Right now we have to go up two flights of stairs.
There are 3 bedrooms upstairs. The master is a a nice size and the master bath is wonderful. Our master in this house has a small bathroom with a shower. This one has a deep tub and separate shower, and more counter space!
There’s a hall bathroom upstairs.
A powder room downstairs off the foyer.
The backyard is fenced but has some kind of weird Alice in Wonderland thing going on with random bushes every where!
So far this is our first choice. There’s another home in this neighborhood that’s available that’s our second choice but it’s not fenced. But we’re still looking!
This one is pretty…looking forward to seeing what you choose…how fun!
It’s adorable Manuela! Love the porch, the fireplace, the sunny rooms. What about using the breakfast room as an office for your blogging? I can’t think of a prettier, sunnier place. Or maybe a small table for two for you and your husband to just sit and have coffee together? I know I would love a space like that! I hope you find the home that is perfect for you, I truly cannot wait to see what you get and how you put your beautiful, unique stamp on it!
Hi Kathy, I had thought of that too. I think my husband and I are going to share one of the bedrooms upstairs as office space. He only works from home one day a week. I did want to use it as place to hang out like a great room since it’s off the kitchen. I just can’t figure out how to arrange the furniture since there are no walls. Oh well, we have some more houses to look at this weekend. We saw two today. The houses were fine but I didn’t like the yard space on either.
It looks lovely….with lots of possibilities. I hope it is yours if you want it!
Looking at the pictures again….maybe turn the breakfast room into a keeping room, as you said there is no family room.
So exciting! It can get a little stressful house shopping in a hurry. It’s going to be exciting to see what you do with it. The breakfast room seems like it would make a nice sunroom? Good luck!
I love this one:) I love the porch swing! Can’t wait to see what you decide on! HUGS!
I decided to sit down at the computer for awhile and get caught up. Boy do I have a lot of catching up to do with you.
I like the new house – lots of potential and I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
I have been a sporadic blogger all summer so I have some questions.
Did your daughter end up in California?’
Where is the new house?
Really pretty! Can you imagine you will be in a new place before Christmas? So many changes!!
If you don’t want to use the breakfast room for dining, I agree with the others to use it as a place for a small desk or table with your computer and use a couple of comfortable chairs with a small table between them. Sort of a “take a break area”. Or a table for 2 and use the area for breakfast and/or lunch. Good luck on your search.
Enjoy your weekend !
I would move into that house in a flash! The yard needs work, nixing those weird bushes. Definitely put in a small fish pond and an herb garden and veggie garden. If the kitchen is not large enough can you make use of that lovely breakfast room by opening it up? God bless your new home no matter which one you pick.
Hi Manuela, I love looking at houses and this one is a sweetheart for sure.
That breakfast room is very similar to our breakfast room, which we don’t need either, it looks really pretty with a small dinette and curtains but currently, it has an extra fridge and our deep freeze in it.
Wow, what a lovely house! You would be able to make this a cozy, charming home in no time! I do adore that breakfast room, I know you can think of something awesome to do with it. This house will be really happy to have you living there 🙂
Thanks Andrea! We’ll have to get rid of quite a lot of stuff if we take this house. But that’s not a bad thing 🙂
Manuela, it’s beautiful!! You are so lucky to find a house with an updated kitchen and bathrooms. I love that breakfast area with all the windows. 🙂
Yes, that’s one of the things I like about this house! It’s a little further outside the city of Atlanta than we currently are, so it’ll add about 20-30 minutes to my husband’s commute. Which is why we’re still looking! 🙂
It’s very pretty. I know what I’d do with that room. I’d turn it into a sort of atrium with all those windows. Plants on stands at various levels, and maybe a wicker rocking chair to sit and read a book and enjoy the ambiance and health benefits of house plants.
Brenda
Hi Brenda, that room is sort of conservatory like with all the windows and light. Plants would be nice but it’s not a practical use for that space. It’s 3 of us living in a much smaller house than before and we need to use this space in a way all of us can enjoy. I am thinking of maybe getting four comfortable chairs and a round ottoman/coffee table and placing it in the center of the room. It would be great if I could find one of those ottomans/tables where the top raises up to be table height! Anyway, that’s been my favorite home so far but we are seeing more this weekend! Unfortunately most houses don’t seem to have a fence and since we have a dog a fence is a must!
It looks like a beautiful home. I am excited for you. Our house has been on the market over 70 days without many showings. We have a tiny condo being held for us. I am ready for this to sell.
Hi Debbie, We had this house on the market about 5 years ago and just couldn’t take the prices that were offered. Sometimes the timing just isn’t right. Also this time around I spent about 2 months fixing things up. I took lots of stuff off the wall, repainted some rooms etc. I think we spent a couple thousand fixing up the house and the inspection report was still filled with tons of nit picky little things. Also, we only signed a 60 day contract with our agent. I figured if she couldn’t sell it in 60 days then she’s not the agent for us. She had a professional photographer take our listing photos and I had final approval of what went up. Photos are soooo important. Most people look online first. Good luck with your sale!
I love this new house! Really good to have new appliances and updated bathrooms! The breakfast room off the kitchen is absolutely beautiful! I would probably use it for just that. Good luck on your continued hunting!
What a great house!
It all looks lovely! Having a porch and a window over the sink are two things I can’t live without. I think you’ll love them both. Can’t wait to see how warm and inviting it will be when you decorate it. Best of luck to you and your family.
I love it! I can’t wait to see what you do with a new house.
Lovely home, Manuela! My thought on the breakfast room is that it would make a beautiful conservatory with all those windows! Lots of plants and some lovey wicker furniture – perfect!
Really nice house…I love those long windows on the bottom floor.
My sister has an odd shaped room with a cathedral window, closet and double doors. Believe it or not, it’s supposed to be a bedroom. It’s only big enough for a nursery or small child’s room. She made that room into an office.
I know what I’d do with your breakfast room–plants!
Love the porch and the swing too Manuela! This house has lots of potential, and would be lucky to have your family move in.
Although I can’t say how you and your family tend to live day to day, but if it was me (and there’s just two of us) I would keep that breakfast area and use it for it’s intended purpose. Maybe a small table with some comfy chairs? I think I’d end up using that 90% of the time for meals instead of the dining area.
If this is “the one” then I know you’ll love those granite counters, Manuela. For years after we replaced our tile, I’d run my hands over the granite in delight over the lack of grout. Simple pleasures!
I know that I’d need a prefenced yard for my pup–but you could always add fencing if the house was otherwise fabulous, maybe, just a thought.
We’re going to be renting because we will probably be relocating out of state in a year or two. It was just a good time to sell in our area as housing prices are on an upswing. Out approach was if the house sells great if not fine, we didn’t have to move now.
The dog is actually my daughter’s and will be going with her when she moves out (she’s done with school and looking for a job). But who knows when that will be and she has a student loan to payoff so she may decide to live at home for a year to pay that off 🙂
It’s a beautiful house Manuela! I think one thing I would do is remove a few of the doors, maybe the french doors to the kitchen and possibly the pantry door (maybe change that to and open top or glass door. I’d definitely use the dinette area for office and/or quiet space for reading etc. I think if you choose this house you will find it more simple to decorate and will enjoy the openness and Light!!! Good luck!
I may have lost my comment…I like the idea of the breakfast area as a dining space. You could use the formal dining room as a library or media/family room. It’s a lovely house, despite the odd bushes. I cannot fathom why so many people want to plant bush type plants willy nilly here and there and break up their yard so, lol.
I think this house would work best for us if I did that. The formal dining room has wall to wall carpet for some reason. We are looking at another house right down the street from this one. It’s a little older, not as updated but I’m fine with that. It does have a small screened porch and bigger bedrooms, but very woody backyard. Haven’t found the “perfect” house yet! 🙂
Such a pretty house. Love the porch and swing! You may want to try the breakfast nook as a breakfast nook. I’ve had houses with nooks in the past and it’s a great place to sit and read the paper or have a more casual setting for lunch or a snack. You may be surprised at how much you use it. Great spot for a little table and a couple of chairs. Congrats on the speedy sale of your house. Mimi
I vote for the breakfast room as a conservatory! With all that light you can garden all year long and perhaps a plant light or two, your can garden all year.
What a pretty house! You are right – it does look huge. When I first saw the outside, I was thinking to myself, “I thought she wanted to downsize!” lol Anyway, if you don’t want two eating areas, I would use the breakfast nook as the eating place with a table and chairs. And then I’d turn the dining room into an office and/or exercise room. Or, you mentioned this house not having both a living room and a family room. You could always make the dining room a family/TV room. That’s kind of what I have going on here…our living room is just a peaceful sitting, relaxing place (small room with a fireplace) with NO TELEVISION. Our downstairs family room hosts the TV.
LOL I know! I think they build them wide so they’ll look impressive from the front. Yes, we really like having a place to just relax to read or talk and then a separate place for tv viewing. If we take this house, we’ve already decided that we’ll only use half of the garage for a car the other half will be work-out space and storage (which is how we use our current garage). I’m leaning toward using the dining room as a tv room. I just don’t remember what the cable set up is in that house. I know they had a Direct TV thing on the roof but we just usually do basic cable since we have Amazon Prime. We don’t watch a whole lot of TV so I don’t think I’d want to do Direct TV. But we’re waiting to find out if her loan was approved so we’re not doing anything officially until we know for sure 🙂
No matter what house you choose, you will make it a home! I am eager to see what you will do to your new place!
Thank you Terri! That’s sweet of you to say!