the house

So we officially bought our home this week. Guys. We're moving to the ghetto. Mexico has lowered our standards.

Our new neighborhood really was the ghetto like 30 years ago. But they've been redeveloping and restoring the area. This neighborhood used to be the place back around the turn of the century and now they are redoing all of the homes and rebuilding new ones in the Victorian style of that time. It's so charming, and I love it! But that also means you might have a restored bungalow next to a McMansion next to a halfway house. Eclectic little cluster of humanity.

But the best part is that downtown is only 15 minutes away, so when I say, "Bruce, you better get home right now," he can be home in 15 minutes instead of his previous one-hour commute when we lived here before.

So the home itself needs a little of this and a lot of that. TLC and sweat equity are in order. But we're hiring someone to paint the whole house before we move in, so I had to decide on paint colors in about 48 hours. And I am the worst decision-maker when it comes to color. I hem and haw for days. Plus, I need to see my stuff in the space. But I didn't have days or my stuff, so I hope whatever I decided on looks okay when I get back.

The yard is horrendous. We've hired a yard guy to come in and clean it all out, so I can actually see what's going on in there. That huge bush in the front is Rosemary. And I can see a few rose bushes. I think there are some fun plants in there, but I can't see with all the weeds choking up the place. (Sadly, the house doesn't come with the old man in the front porch swing.)



Front entry.



Back of the house. We've got bamboo growing out our ears back here.



Master bedroom.



Master bath. I want to redo this whole bathroom. It's ug.



And I don't know who thought these circular mirrors would look good, but it definitely doesn't work.



Some great built-ins, though.





Second bedroom. This will be M and EZ's room.



The original homeowner loved purple. It's everywhere in this house. She loved it so much that they built another house down the street and painted the whole exterior purple. I do like purple, but with all the purple she has everywhere, it's been making me anti.



Third bedroom. B and L's room. A door leads out to the balcony from this room. We'll be keeping that door locked from the inside as I can picture L throwing water balloons from the balcony at the innocent passersby along our street. Also, here is EZ super mad about me leaving him on the floor like this while I went and took pictures.



Relax, baby. Back in a sec...







Dining room.





There is some really beautiful woodwork in this home.



The kitchen is the best part of the whole house.



Eventually I'd like to switch out to stainless steel appliances.











See? Purple purple everywhere.



Behind the house is a detached garage with an apartment above it. Tutu and Yeye are going to live here with us for a little while. To say the kids are excited would be an understatement of the century.



We painted the mudroom, stairwell and living room in Benjamin Moore's Santo Domingo Cream. It used to be a grayish-purple (of course), but I think the rich yellow brightens it up.



This garage apartment has one bedroom and a second bedroom/loft upstairs. We painted the bedrooms in Benjamin Moore's Crisp Khaki and the kitchen is Sage Tint (you can glimpse the kitchen through the doorway under the stairs).





Take note of the tile backsplash. Whatdya know. Purple again.











Upstairs loft.



So there you have it. Bruce did a really good job picking a house, didn't he? Nice job, babe. I love it.