Housewarming

A big thank you, a kiss and a hug to everyone who came and saw our new house last weekend! We had a lot of fun seeing everyone, some people we hadn't seen in months and even years!! It meant so much to us to have people we love come and see where all our hard work has gone and why we virtually disappeared over the last five weeks. Again, a big thanks to all of you! Much love and blessings!!

Our New Home!!!

As most of you already know, we bought our first house in January. Because so many of our friends and family live far away, we wanted to post pictures for everyone to see it. We were truly blessed with the perfect house for us!
House Stats:
It was built in 1963, it has 3 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom and 1 3/4 bathroom (stand-up shower, no tub), kitchen, dining room, living room all have an open floor plan, the kitchen and full bathroom have been remodeled in the last few years, we have a two car detached garage and a backyard with a gorgeous view. There is no house directly behind us and we're up against a hill so we have full view of the valley below us.
Getting Here:
This was actually the sixth house we put an offer on and the only house that was a traditional sale, all the others were REO's, short sales, etc. We did a lot of research, met with a mortgage broker and found ourselves an awesome realtor. We looked through what seemed like every house in Santa Clarita Valley until we found this one and, like I said, made a number of offers on houses. Getting outbid and waiting on short sales was really hard; it was a good lesson in patience. Our realtor actually came across this house in a search for another client and knew it was the one for us.
It came on the market at midnight, we came to see it at 5pm the next day, made an offer by 8pm, and it was accepted the next afternoon. We actually hit a roadblock when we were told we'd have to wait 2-3 months to close because of a problem with the title, which was still in the seller's late-husband's name. But after some finessing on the part of her attorney, we had the green light to go ahead with our 21-day escrow.
After closing escrow, we did have some work done on the house. Some cosmetic, scraping the popcorn ceilings, changing out fixtures; some structural, fixing the garage wall that was backed into, forcing it off the foundation; and some necessary, fixing loose gas lines and installing electrical junction boxes. We also sealed over a door that went from the garage to the guest bedroom, making it technically a den or office. So we sealed it off, making it an actual bedroom. We also painted everything: every wall, all the trim, all the windowsills in the house (save for the master bathroom).
We still have some work to do in the house, hanging pictures and artwork, master bathroom redo, and finishing touches. We also have quite a bit of landscaping to do outside but we're having fun making our home just how we want it.
We couldn't be happier with our house; it felt like home the second we moved in.
Following are some pictures of our new home, you can click on any of the pictures to see them full-sized. Enjoy!!
(Some of the colors in the pictures are a little washed-out, we used a really old camera. )

Entryway and Kitchen

This is the entryway looking at the front door. On the right, nearest the front door is the doorway to the kitchen and dining room. There is a coat closet as well as a linen closet in this entryway. To the left is the hallway to the bedrooms and behind is the reading nook in the living room.
Ah, the kitchen. I was sold almost immediately when we walked in and saw my kitchen! It's been completely remodeled with a gorgeous tile backsplash, newer appliances, (faux-shh) granite countertops and a fantastic island. There is so much storage here and the pantry has pull out shelves so I can see exactly what I have in my cupboards and for someone who loves to cook so much, this is VERY handy!
Here is the island which has more countertop space and even more storage. On the kitchen side, there are regular cupboards and drawers for extra storage and on the dining room side, there are glass cabinets to show off my mother's sugar and creamer, Grandma's champagne glasses, Jake's grandmother's vase and all of our beautiful dishes that we can now show off. The door behind the island goes to the side yard. Notice the double oven and microwave. Yes, dear friends, we have moved into the early 80's and we now have a microwave for the first time in our married lives, actually for the first time since we started dating.
The kitchen sink has a really nice big window above it. This looks out to the front patio, so I can see who's coming to visit and the front garden, which wasn't much to look at until Aunt Sonnie put in some long hours to make it nice for us.

Living Room and Dining Room

This is the corner of our living room, we wanted to carve out a nice reading nook Plus I had to have my rocking chair and Jake bought this comfy leather recliner in college so we each have our own chair.
This is the large side of the living room (the reading nook is behind and to the right). The sliding glass doors open to the patio and the view. To the left is the dining area. Why, yes, those are two Guitar Hero guitars on the couch. Anyone want to lose?
Here is the dining area that is open to the living room (behind) and the kitchen (straight ahead). The first house we bid on in our crazy game of realty was a few streets over from this one with the same layout, just not updated like this one. There was a pony wall separating the dining room from the living room and the kitchen island went all the way over to the wall and up to the ceiling, closing it off from the rest of the house. So when we put an offer on that house, it was with making these changes in mind! Luckily, with this house, it was all done for us. We love the open floor plan a lot better!

Master Bedroom/Bathroom

This is the hallway (to the right from the entryway) to the bedrooms. On the immediate right is the guest bathroom. Halfway down the hall on the left is the computer/craft room, at the end on the left is the guest room and at the end of the hall on the right is the master bedroom.

This is our master bedroom, we painted the walls a light calming blue. This was the first room we finished and it was so nice to be sleeping in a bedroom instead of the living room floor which is where we were when we first moved in. It was wonderful to be able to close our bedroom door to all the construction and ugly paint out in the rest of the house and pretend all our work was finished. To the left here is our closet.
The window in the master bedroom opens to the front yard and the beautiful, sweet smelling trees. The door on the right here is to the master bath.
Our master bath has a small vanity and a stand-up shower. This is the one room we haven't touched yet. Every wall in the house got painted except this room. We want to rip out the fake marble and make this more like a real master bathroom. Jacuzzi tub, anyone? Hello!!

Guest Bath and other 2 bedrooms

This is the guest bathroom in the hallway. (Again with the fake marble!) This bathroom has been redone, but probably sometime back in the early 80's. We painted the walls a rich blue color, the color of the ocean once you go down about 15 feet. We added all white accents to make it feel like a spa. I absolutely LOVE the way it came out, thank you, HGTV.

Other than the master bedroom, we have two other bedrooms: This one we're using as a guest room right now. It has a light chocolate color on the walls (thank you, Jake).
It also has the same gorgeous view from the window. Each of the bedrooms has nice big closets and built in closet storage which has come in really handy, especially in the green room.
The third bedroom we're using as a computer/craft room. We painted the walls a rich mossy green and bought Jake a new computer desk for all his gaming needs.
We also set up a quilting niche for me next to the window to take advantage of that beautiful view. (I know I mention it a lot, but it's awesome!) There's plenty of room in the closet for fabric storage and I can't wait to start making more quilts.

Outside

Outside, we have a pergola covering the back patio and fruit trees in the corner of the yard. To the left beyond the house is one of our side yards with a door to the kitchen. Yes, that's a couch on our back patio. The weather was so nice and it's wonderful to enjoy the view on a comfortable seat.
We also have a nice lawn beyond the patio (behind Jake). There is another side yard at the end of the garage that we'll use as a dog run when we get our furry baby but the selling feature of this house is...
...the awesome view!! Day or night, sun, clouds, or mist, it doesn't matter, this view is fantastic!! During the day it's gorgeous because you can see the whole valley and at night it's awesome because you can see all the lights!