Getting Excited ~The Grand Tour

I'm starting to get really excited for our new house. I've been reluctant to believe it's really happening because buying our first house was full of so much drama, but we now have the inspection and appraisal out of the way. We're in escrow, we're almost two weeks away from our close date, and we're almost three weeks away from taking possession. It's starting to feel real. I really think this will be a good place for us. I thought I would be more uptight about the probability of having a baby right around the same time the house becomes ours, but I'm not worried about it. I'm just going to try to accept the fact that I might not have as much control over the situation. I'll just trust Grant to get the dishwasher in and to get help moving the stuff over there because my hands will be full with a new baby and recovery.

Grant took a ton of pictures of the house when we went for the inspection. If you've been within arms length of him, he has probably shown you the little booklet of pictures he printed out (so you've already seen the following photos). I love how excited he is about the whole thing, how proud he is of the place we found. So here is the grand tour (translation: a TON of pictures). Keep in mind that the decor/furniture is not mine. Looking at things realistically, it probably looks better now than it will after we move in since I will be surrounded by boxes for quite a while (and we'll see if I get pictures on the walls during the first year)! Oh well, such is life, right?

Without further ado. . .

Here's the front of the house.

The front door/porch.

Here's the living room, complete with fireplace.

This is looking at the entry way from the dining room. You can see there's hardwood in the entry way. It continues under the carpet in the living room and hallway, so if we ever wanted to tear up the carpet and refinish the wood floors, we could. Next to the front door is a COAT CLOSET! Woohoo! We'll have a coat closet!!!!
From the living room, you turn right to go down this hallway. Love those built-ins!
The first door on the right is this bedroom (looks out on the front yard).
Same room, different view. There's the closet!
The first door on the left side of the hallway is this main bathroom. This is the only bathtub in the house.

View of the sink and the cabinets in the same bathroom. The pink and cranberry tiles are also in the shower surround.
The second door on the right of the hall is this one. It's a little bigger than the first. It has a window on the front of the house and one on the side. Eleanor loves this room because it echoes. We asked her what room she would want, and she didn't hesitate at all in telling us she wanted this "echo room."
The side window in same room and closet. This closet is so deep!
Master bedroom, directly across the hall. There was an addition made to the house at some point to make this room bigger and add a master bath/walk-in closet. The original closet in the room is still there, just to the left when you walk in the door, so there's so much storage! The room is 14x14. This is such a change for Grant and me because we were so cramped in our old master bedroom. I just don't know what we'll do with all that space. Maybe we'll play tag. . .
Another view of the master bedroom, looking at the doorway to the master bath.

The vanity in the master bath, looking into the walk-in closet. The closet has shelves/hanging rods on both sides, and it even has a window and a little ceiling fan. The carpet in the closet is the nastiest in the house (but we've still seen worse during our long search). We'll shampoo it, and if that doesn't do the trick, it's a really small space to have to deal with.
Looking into the bathroom from the closet. The shower is on the right, and the potty on the left.

Now, let's go back to the other side of the house. . .
Here is the dining room that you see as you walk in the door.
If you go to the left through a doorway from the dining room, you see the kitchen/family room.
Here's looking back at the kitchen/dining room from the family room. Those cabinets/drawers on the left will likely be where you will see my new dishwasher. Someday (not in the near future), I hope to re-do the cabinets so I can have a range on the floor instead of the wall mount-- makes for a teeny-tiny oven! I'll live with it, though.

Here's looking back at the kitchen from the family room. Notice the curved fireplace on the left. Love it!
Here's a full shot of the fireplace. Along this wall, to the right of their TV, there's a door that enters from the garage.
The utility room is also off of the family room. The door is awkward as is, so we'll take it off and put it back on so it opens outwards. It's not a HUGE space, but it has a window (so it's light and happy) and a utility sink. And the best part of all is that I don't have to put shoes on to do laundry! I can even streak to my laundry room if I want to (sorry to leave you with that mental image)!
This is the half-bath connected to the laundry room. The sink is shaped like a seashell. Classic! (snicker)
And if you exit through this door out of the family room, it takes you to the backyard. Can you spot the photographer in this picture? I can. Hi hunny!

As you walk out, you see this little pond. It's too deep to be completely safe for little ones like ours. Grant's mom suggested we make it into a sandbox for a few years. Grant has another idea for it. See, the day we saw this house, we looked at another house right before that had a big barrel with Koi swimming around in the back yard. Eleanor got to feed the fish a handful of food, and mistakenly formed an association between the house we're buying and feeding fishies. Every time we have gone to our "new house," Eleanor has asked to feed the fishies. So, Grant thinks it would be fun to put some fish in there that she can feed and watch swim around and put a screen over the water to keep the kiddos safe.
The backyard. We hadn't had lunch before we left for the inspection, so we had a picnic in the backyard.
Another view of the backyard/patio. The portion of the house you see here is the master bath.
Looking at the patio and the back of the house.
The side of the yard to the left as you walk out. The water feature is just behind that large fern.

And that's the tour!

I'm not only excited about the house. When we looked in that area, I never thought it was close enough to be within the ward boundaries of our friends. I thought we would be going into a place full of strangers, without knowing anyone. Now, I keep being reminded of how many people we actually know out there. I'm really getting excited to join the ward and get to know these people better. Old friends, new friends; we just have so much to look forward to!