New House Tour!

This has been a long time coming!! We started this hunt back in July (looking at apartments) and here we are in December buying another home! Can't even believe this is real life.
We decided to purchase a townhome. A couple things led us here. All the houses we looked at in our price range needed alot of work. We wanted to be able to carry the mortgage payment without me bringing in income and still be able to make our Toccoa house payment if our renters leave at the end of their contract. We stuck to our guns! Like I mentioned, most of the houses needed alot of work. Work that we would have LOVED to do, but don't really have the liquid cash at this moment. Also I worried that if we put work into them they would end up being "the nicest in the neighborhood" which isn't always good for resale. Even the home we had a contract on would have needed probably 15k in work over time (and it was almost move in ready!). The a/c unit was pushing 15 years, the kitchen needed a gut job, the outside needed paint, and the whole inside needed paint.

This move is temporary; temporary in the sense that we know this won't be our forever home.  We're not in the financial position to find our forever home with everything we would eventually like, so we needed to keep resale at the front of our minds.

In a townhouse we will be sharing walls. BUT as soon as that comes in my mind I quickly remind myself that we were going to live in an apartment for a year... possibly with people on 4 sides (next door, above and below). So 2 sides with walls that we OWN isn't really a big deal. Also all yard work is included in our HOA fees. Which means Josh will have more time to be HOME relaxing, not worrying about the grass and bushes.

Also I had a specific list with criteria of what we wanted in a house. These were possible deal breakers if the house couldn't meet these:

The great part? The townhouse met (and EXCEEDED) our criteria except for a fenced yard. We are getting 2 extra rooms (1 more room than the 4 bedroom house we had a contract on) with an extra bathroom and 500+ more square feet than our Toccoa house (700+ if you count the 2 car garage!!). It's 3 stories 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with a separate dining room, and a finished basement room that will be used for an office/sewing space/manland!

It was built in 2007 (but wasn't lived in until the end of 2010 because of the recession) and the first owners upgraded all the finishes. The home was kept in immaculate condition and we couldn't be happier with our decision, not the mention the previous owners were some of the sweetest people we have ever met.

Now for the tour! Please excuse the differences in pictures. They were taken on 3 separate occasions with various lighting.

Here's the entry way with a 2 story foyer and a beautiful staircase leading upstairs.

The dining room is right off the front door (to the left when you first walk in). This dining room will become the kid's playroom/possibly my office.

Through the dining room is a butler's pantry space with a pantry (I FINALLY HAVE MY PANTRY!) and then to the kitchen which is my favorite! It's an open concept and opens to the eat in kitchen and living room. There's also a built in desk.



We were dying for a fireplace. This set up is absolutely perfect!

There's also an eat- in kitchen (just beyond the counter where the inspector's things are set up).
Also on the main floor is the half bath:

Here's the basement with a door that leads to the 2 car garage. This room is actually quite large- like 300 square feet (half the square footage of our first house (it was a 650 sq ft. cottage!!!). Like I mentioned earlier it will turn into Josh's man land and my sewing space along with some guest space and storage.

The beautiful staircase upstairs:

 Emberly's room:


Luke's room:

And the kid's shared bathroom:

The laundry is also upstairs. Can we collectively say HALLELUJAH?!
Then you have our master bedroom:
 Along with the closet/bathroom.
Ahhhh to have our own bathroom with a shower/tub is amazing!

I'll be sharing a post soon (find it here) about what's on our to-do list. Although this house is beautifully move in ready it needs some personalizing to make it not look so cookie cutter/builder grade. We're planning to keep some rooms the color it came (it was just professionally painted and the frugal part of me wants to leave it), but many rooms already have very specific plans! Also I'm a huge believer that if I'm not 100% sure of what I want, I'd rather wait for inspiration. So some rooms may stay the same now, but they'll be worked on over the next few years. 

We feel incredibly blessed to be in this space and to raise our family here. Now to settle in, celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year! 

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