This is the moment we’ve been waiting over a month to share.  We made it to the closing table on Friday, April 13.  Now that the new house is officially ours, we’re able to spill all the details and pictures.  Beware, this post is chock full of pictures but all in the name of giving you a feel for the new abode.  Let’s start on the outside.

The driveway wraps up to a tuck under two car garage.  The windows are to the master bedroom and boys bedroom.

If you go through the service door in the garage, this is your first view; stairs to the left and an entertaining space straight ahead.

Here’s that entertaining space.  We plan to turn this area into two bedrooms to maximize the space.

That room wraps around into an ‘L’ shape, with this at the back.

It’s an ugly space right now, but that’s okay.  Here’s another shot so you can understand the layout better.  We came through those French doors two pictures up.

Behind the wall with the vent is a hall to the laundry room and a bathroom.  Yes, Ben already tore up the pet stained carpet in these spaces.  Be happy this isn’t smell-o-vision.

Behind door number one we have a laundry room, minus a washer and dryer, but complete with the best of the 70′s counter top.

Door number two is a bathroom.  Yep, totally ugly.  And gross.

There’s also a large, unfinished storage room that runs along the garage wall.  Ben has plans to tear this out to make room for his boat.

I started with the ugliest spaces to get you wondering why in the world would we have sold our finished house for this?  Let’s go for a walk upstairs.  The entry is a small split level.

After climbing the stairs, you’re greeted by the living and dining rooms, complete with inlaid hardwood floors and stunning views.

Peek out the windows on the front of the house and you’ll see something like this:

Or this:

See, cool views, huh?  But back to the house.  Now we’re in the dining room, looking back at the stairs.

See that arch doorway at the top of the stairs?  If you were to stand in that door, you can see the living and dining rooms and the kitchen on the back side.

Odd 8 foot tall French doors lead to this mondo deck which fronts the entire pool area.

The kitchen is massive, especially compared to our first kitchen.  Ben measured the island.  It’s nine feet long.  That’s just a foot or so shorter than the stove side at our first house.

All the appliances are original or close to original to the house, so we’ll need to change that soon.  Our current dining table will go under that gaudy light to make a nice little breakfast nook.

That wall paper has to go.  Stat.  Problem is, it wraps into my office area off the kitchen.

On the left are the French doors out to the deck (off the dining room) and the glass door to the right leads to the indoor pool.  Yes, I feel like an over-privileged brat just typing that.  But, you can see the space needs plenty of work.

The roof is leaking, the pool isn’t functional, and we have industrial grade carpet on the deck.  So much light pours in thanks to tons of sky lights, doors, and southern exposure.  Hot tub anyone?  Well, it doesn’t work and is currently collecting bugs.

Next to the entrance is a half bathroom and the three stairs go up to a wet bar.

For some reason, the cabinets are insanely high, but the sliding door leads out to a patio and the rest of the back yard.

A stone patio complete with non-functional fountain with a few trees.

It’s a steep climb.

We also have a set of stairs to no where.  Our theory is the stairs stop where the landscaped area transitions to the natural hillside.  Hmm, strange things happened here…

Now we’ll go back inside, through the pool room and into the kitchen and office.  Beyond the kitchen and breakfast nook is a family room with stone fireplace.

E had to check things out right away, cruising the hall to see if the previous owner’s dog was still there.

The main bathroom is the first door on the right.  Despite this being the most updated bathroom in the house, we have plans to start tearing it apart first.  The thing is, this is the only bath tub in the house.  With two bath loving kids, we need a place to bathe them.  So, we’ll live at our first house until we get at least a functioning tub in the new house.

Across the hall is the guest bedroom, or ‘book room’ as V calls it.  Nothing too crazy here, just a wall of bookshelves and a small closet, but views of the back patio for a quaint courtyard feel.

At the end of the hall is the boys bedroom, over the back side of the tuck under garage.

Oddly enough, the layout is nearly identical to their bedroom in our first house.

Finally, we’ve made it to the master bedroom.  It’s about twice the size of our current bedroom, so I have no clue what we’ll put in here other than our bed.

Two windows and a door to the closet on this side.

By our standards, this closet is massive.  Behind where I’m standing has the same set up.  I have roughly 15 hanging items, so maybe we’ll add a stacking washer and dryer to fill the space.

And last, here’s the master bathroom.  A long double vanity and blood-red walls.

Our hopes are to reuse the claw foot tub from the main bathroom under this window, shortening the vanity to a single sink.

All of the pictures above are B.C. (before cleaning).  We’re working our butts off to get the spaces spic and span to live there.  Oh, and that  Facebook picture I posted?  That was the first load we hauled to the new house.  The plan is to slowly move the less necessary stuff over while we work on getting that bathroom ready.  You know, while we still have a functioning tub at our disposal at the first house.  After that, we’ll move our beds and clothes over and start living.

And, because I’m sure you want to know, here are the stats of the new place:

• 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths.  Our first house has 5 bedrooms and three baths.
• 2 car garage with large storage room, same stall count, but we should be able to knock out the storage wall for nearly a third bay.
• 1 1/4 acres with city and mountain view out the front and rock cliffs out the back.  Our 1/4 city lot is considerably smaller and less private.
• Awesome inlaid hardwood floors throughout the main level.  We’ve got hardwoods throughout the first house, too.

Raise your hand if you’re excited we finally shared pictures.  (Quickly raises hand).  Now do you see why we decided to sell our first house?  Who’s excited to see more projects?  What’s your favorite part?  I love the views and the giant deck.  Ben loves the garage space and the private space out back.