House Hunting on the Olympic Peninsula

Ok, so seeing how I haven't done ANY blogging since the end of September, it's obvious that I need to catch up on a lot of other things.

But since it is a little overwhelming to go back-blogging sometimes, I'll just start with the most recent.

We have been house-hunting.

Okay, well, let me say we have been house hunting since late summer.  So we are STILL house hunting.  We have a specific price range (pretty much anything below $400,000).  The homes that have everything we want (waterfront, detached garage, upstairs, 3+ bedrooms, large kitchen, large property) are of course out of our price range.

So we figure we need to find an in-between house - meaning one that doesn't have all of our criteria but will work for several years until we can get our forever dream house.

We really want to move to Sequim - where the community is amazing and the weather is usually sunny and there are beaches everywhere. However, all of the homes that we've looked at out there (that are in our price range, that is) are either 1990's ramblers (we don't want a 1-level home), or so structurally bad even with fixing up it still wouldn't be cute.

HOWEVER.

There is a house that we found not in Sequim (in Port Ludlow), which for those in the dark here, it's on the way to Sequim but further east by about 30 minutes or so.  It's not in the rain shadow so it does get the normal amount of Seattle rain (sad face), BUT....the house is kind of amazing.  It is our style.  It has 2 acres.  It has a yard that albiet neglected has all the plants there it just needs to be taken care of.  It is 3200 square feet.  It has 2 levels, a 3 car garage, a space for a music studio (a must!), a huge chef's kitchen, lots of space, open areas so you never feel crammed, a formal dining room, and actual laundry room (eek we've never had one!), 3 full bathrooms, and 3 huge bedrooms.  It even has a little outbuilding that we could turn into a play house for the boys. We could even get an outside DOG for pete's sake.

But....

The house is $450,000.  

And while I know some of you think, well what is the big deal.  It's just we don't want a huge mortgage.  We want to get this baby paid off as soon as possible.  

The good part though, is this house is in foreclosure.  It's sad but the owner's husband died (they are an older couple) and the wife couldn't afford to keep it on her own. She tried selling it many times in the $600's and kept coming down in price, but eventually had to turn it over to the bank.

So we are HOPING that the bank will drop the price and then maybe just MAYBE they would accept a low-ball offer that would be closer to our budget.  BUT we still need to finish our current house and get it on the market.  Maybe by the grace of Heavenly Father, all of these things will happen right around the same time so that we can sell our house and get this other one bam bam bam.  (I can dream right?).

Yesterday we drove over to the peninsula to look at another house that is in our price range and same square footage, but it was awful.  Totally not interested. But we decided to come look at this one again.  This one I am just so in love with and everytime we come visit it, I feel AT HOME.  Like it's already our house...

Have a look...

I have to say that the grand staircase is my favorite feature.  I keep imagining Christmas time with garland and lights down the railing.

Fire place in the living room.

This is the living room - where the piano would go.

This is the view out the living room window...had to take it because it's what I would be looking at when I play my piano...

The house was built in 1996 and so some flooring and fixtures need updating, as well as the kitchen. BUT it's not terrible.  Like we could definitely live in it and make changes as we go.  The flooring in the entry I would make marble...

Kind of like this...

Or this:

Some more pics of the staircase and entry way...

 I thought about a wood floor entry, like this....

But I would want wood floor in the kitchen, and since there is a step down into the kitchen I thought it would be smart to have a different flooring in the entry so the step is more obvious and less accidents happen.

This is the back yard, and there is a water view of the Hood Canal.

This would be the guest bedroom (a.k.a. Riley's room until he is big enough to move into the boys' room).

This is the big bonus room above the garage that would be my music studio.  It's great because it's at the end of a hallway and away from everything else in the house. We would also turn a corner of it into a movie/media place with a couch.

This is the master bedroom, and it is HUGE.  I think we would turn some of those shelvings into a fireplace, and with cupboards so not everything is exposed.

The deck off of the master suite...water view. I think this is the most romantic master bedroom I've ever seen.  I can imagine Will and I sitting out on the deck after the kids are in bed and enjoying some alone time.

View into the hallway/stairs from master bedroom.

A blurry, but cute Riley.

Ok and those are all the pics I took, but here are some pics from the realtor's ad.

Driveway

Dining Room

Master walk-in closet

This is the entry way to the front door

Living Room

Master bath

This is the kitchen, which I am really into white kitchens right now so this is awesome. Our current kitchen we designed ourselves, but I have always felt like it is too dark (we have red wood cabinets with black granite and red wood floors).

I would love to turn it into any of the following...with some new knobs, wood flooring, granite counter tops, and stainless steel appliances...

I really love the flooring on the next two pics...

Here is the exterior...

Garage

Water view from master suite

Entry

Master suite

There is also a family room, bathrooms, boys room, etc that I forgot to take pictures of.

Anyway, I know....we don't even have the house yet and don't even know if we will, but a girl can dream right?  I am trying to not get attached to it. I would definitely be heart broken if someone else came in and bought it before we were in a position to put an offer on it, but I know also that Heavenly Father will put us where he needs us and if it's meant to work out, then things will work out.

In the mean time, this week we are getting some new doors from Home Depot and painting them and hoping to install new doors upstairs in our current house.

After the new doors, then TRIM!

Ok bye!