Nonsense Alert

There are a lot of things I could be writing about right now, but I just can't sit still long enough to come up with a coherent sentence.  I have started this post about five times today and so far all I have this:

This weekend we got buried in a snowicane but gosh I have such a cute baby who likes to steal shoes and then eat them - she's kind of like a puppy, you know?  A pudgy, bald, goo-filled puppy who apparently only likes to steal her sister's really expensive shoes while the aforementioned big sister plays outside with Daddy in snowdrifts as big AS MY HOUSE because we got buried in a snowicane.  Did I already mention that? 

Oh and then the next morning Inara refused to eat breakfast because she is three and refuses to eat FRUIT.  What kind of person hates fruit?  My kid, that's who.  But I totally got her to. Eat fruit, that is. I completely and utterly tricked her and damn, it felt GOOD.  Who has to trick their kid into eating fruit?  Me - aka Mean Mommy, that's who.  Inara woke up Sunday and had the brilliant idea to go on a food fast until and unless we gave her ice cream.  I'm not even kidding.  So rather than fighting her I came up with the even more brilliant idea of giving in - only on one condition.  We had to MAKE the ice cream.  So Yousuf blended frozen strawberries and strawberry yogurt together and we had instant gratification...Inara got to eat ice cream and I got to do the Silent And Invisible Dance Of Victory as I watched her eat not one, but TWO helpings of "ice cream". Bwah hahahahahaha!!!!

Meanwhile, Nissa chewed on more shoes.  And still looked really boogery from her cold.  And then yesterday I was supposed to blog but I didn't because I AM SO NERVOUS ABOUT OUR HOME INSPECTION TOMORROW.

And that's as far as I got.

I have no idea what to expect tomorrow.  I keep having these recurring daydreams in which the inspector dudes are all dressed up in Grim Reaper garb and they point to us with their 9 foot-long scythes and say in deep ominous voices: "Your house SUCKS GOATS.  You MUST NOT live here, under ANY circumstances.  LEAVE NOW." 

Yikes. I am totally banned from having any more caffeine today.

Hopefully all will go well tomorrow and they won't find anything wrong with the house AT ALL.  Oh, stop laughing.  It could happen!  Yeah, I know...that's just about as likely as me waking up to Inara eating a huge bowl of fruit.  Darn it!!!

Details

I was really and truly surprised that so many of you lovely people wanted to hear MORE about our big announcement yesterday.  Here I was thinking that we were the only ones interested in the mundane details of our house-buying adventures...boy was I wrong!  So just because you all asked, I will now bore you to tears with all the deets.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

We saw the listing late on Wednesday, and arranged to see it Thursday afternoon (we made the offer on Friday and it was accepted that same night...such a whirlwind!) .  When we got there it pretty much looked like this:

 

It's a cute and small 1500 square foot traditional foursquare right in the heart of the city and it was built in 1900.  It has four bedrooms (each with a walk-in closet), two full baths, a new kitchen and siding and hardwood flooring on the first floor.  Not included in the square footage is an unfinished basement and get this - a full, walk-up attic (the stairway to the attic is off the hallway on the second floor)!!!  We loved that there wasn't any wasted space in the layout, it really felt a lot bigger than 1500 square feet - and we could see ourselves finishing out the attic to be a guest room, studio, or playroom.

The interior is bright with lots of big windows, and the house does have a bit of a backyard (which is a great find for a house in the city).  It's also within walking distance to a playground, a park (Highland Park for you Rochester natives), a school, a library and many assorted shops, cafes and restaurants.  We honestly hadn't even looked in this particular neighborhood because most of the houses are out of our budget.  This one isn't because it's currently being rented (but not by crazy tenants!  They already have another house to move into and all their stuff was in boxes.  They were really quite nice and didn't seem to mind that we were interested in buying the house).  But I guess the owner doesn't want to spend any extra time and money on upgrading anything and wants a quick sale.  Enter The Georges, ever willing and ready to snap up a good deal!

It's always interesting to go to a house and compare it to the pictures in the listing.  Most of the times you are a bit disappointed, but sometimes what you see in real life is downright hilarious.  We had a bit of both, but we were also pleasantly surprised.

These are pictures from the listing of the living and dining areas:

I noticed right away that it had radiators, which isn't uncommon with a house of this age.  I was worried about it at first, but we did some research and found that they don't get that hot (I actually touched one WITH MY BARE HANDS and survived).  We also read that they are a very efficient and energy-saving heating method, and I have friends that grew up with radiant heat and they all turned out pretty normal. So I think we'll be okay.  I think we might even put some cute covers on them, or turn some of them into window seats or benches.

This is the listing picture of the kitchen:

And one that we took. I love that the kitchen has a tin ceiling...but I'm all geeky about interior design so feel free to ignore me completely:

 

The bathrooms are definitely quirky.  The downstairs bathroom has those teeny tiny mosaic tiles on the floors, and I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it.  It was TINY.  The upstairs bathroom was even funkier.  

Here's the picture we took:

 

And from the listing:

 

Yep, that's a claw foot tub and a freestanding shower.  Good times!  I guess we'll see how annoying this setup actually is once we move in.  If it is, there's always the fugly bathroom downstairs that we can use.  In any case, this sure is a conversation piece!  Other than that, I actually really like this bathroom with it's big window and corner vanity...it was cute!

The bedrooms are great - plenty big for us and two of them are even connected with a walk-through door (which I think will come in very handy for middle-of-the-night visits by Inara).  Here's a couple pictures of the rooms (the tenants were packing up so they had their clothes and boxes out). You can see the big closet and also the gorgeous trim around the window (which we are of course going to get checked for lead):

 

Okay, this is my personal favorite part - the attic.  It's not much to look at now...but I think it will be in time.  I have this unnatural obsession with converted attics and I think I would have bought this house just for this beautiful space:

 

I forgot to tell you about the foyer. Incidentally, how do YOU say "foyer"?  Most Canadians say: "foy-yay" (like how you'd say it in French) and I think it always surprises me to hear it said: "foy-yer".  I wonder if it's an American thing.  Anyway, the foyer is surprisingly large for a house of this size.  It has two big windows and a refrigerator in it.  I'm not even kidding you (sorry about the bad picture, I was clearly having a moment of spazz):

I have no idea why it was there, and I'm hoping it's not still there when we move in.  Maybe they put it there to illustrate the sheer disproportionate hugeness of the foy-yay? At least they tried to make it blend into the surroundings by growing a plant of some sort on top of it.  Or not.

And that's it!  That's our house!!  There's definitely work to be done and I'm kind of stressing about the inspection next week...but that's it.  We close in early April and hope to move in soon thereafter, depending on how much work we want or need to do before we move all of our junk in.  And I already love it and just can't wait to call it our home.

Thanks for putting up with me, peeps.  You rock.