After living with Stephen's parents for over a year, we have finally decided that we are going to stay in Pennsylvania for at least a couple more years and have started looking at houses in this area. We are looking for fixer-upper types of houses so that the cost of the house is lower and we can change things around the way we like them. The house at the top of the list right now is in a little town called Picture Rocks. It's a super cute little town of about 700 people and by "little town" I mean less than a square mile as far as size.
The house we are looking at is just over 100 years old and has been owned by the same family since it was built. It has some quirkiness that we're going to have to "fix" but that is kind of what we are looking for. The kitchen is actually divided into two rooms (which is really strange when you first look at it), but we figured out that the second part of the kitchen is actually an addition that was put on to make the kitchen larger. We are planning on knocking out the wall that separates the two rooms and totally remodeling the kitchen. I saw once on TV a story about someone making concrete counters and after doing alot of research on it, I totally want to do that! You can make the concrete look like marble or granite but at a fraction of the price. There are 3 bedrooms on the second floor...although the layout is a little strange so we are going to probably have to take out some walls and rebuild them somewhere else. There are 1 1/2 bathrooms in the house...a full bath upstairs and a half downstairs. The bathroom upstairs will have to be totally redone at some point, but it won't be high on the priority list right away. The biggest issue with this house is that the electric needs to be re-run. The house has got all of the old wiring and it is just not safe...but that isn't too much of a big deal because of how the house was built. Also, Stephen and his dad can redo the wiring by themselves because they know how to do that. Stephen and I will be remodeling the kitchen by ourselves...we're not afraid to get our hands dirty. :) The backyard is a really nice size and is flat. So, we'll just have to put up a fence to keep the dogs in the yard. I'm trying to look at different fences that won't look too large for the house and the lot because the fence needs to be 6 feet tall so the dogs don't decide to jump over the fence. We're hoping to be able to buy the house without having to get a realtor involved. The house was owned by a lady and when she passed away, her two daughters and a niece were put in charge of the property. Their lawyer is helping us all through the process. So this week our goal is to have a home inspector go through the house just in case there are things that we missed when we went through the house last week. Stephen's dad doesn't see a need for the inspection, but I am insisting on it.
So hopefully we will be living in a house of our own soon....which will be great since #2 should be coming sometime soon and we are totally tired of living with the inlaws. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful people, but we miss having space of our own and I'm sure Stephen's parents are just as ready to get rid of us and our zoo as we are to get out of here.
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