Our New House!!!

So here it is!!!! Our new house....hopefully. We are currently under contract and are scheduled to close on August 28th. But anyone who has purchased a home before knows that anything can happen between now and then. But I have no doubts that God had this house picked out for us before we ever arrived in Chicago. It is a great house at a great price and more space than we expected to be able to afford here. One hiccup we have run into is that the furnace HAS TO be replaced (22+ years old and has major cracks) and the AC unit should probably be replaced at the same time (22+ years old also). Because it is a forclosure, we cannot request a repair credit because we are buying it "as is" but we can ask for money off the sale price of the home. So we are currently waiting to hear back from the bank on our request and I'm praying really hard.

But more about the house! It is a three bed/2 bath house. Most of the older homes here are 1.5 baths so I was thrilled to find 2 full baths. And they are huge bathrooms which is also unusual. There isn't a separate master bath but that's okay. Wasn't a must. It is actually a quad level home so when you walk in the front door into the main living area, you are actually on the third level. The living room, kitchen and dining room are on this level. From the main level, you can go up a short flight of stairs to where the three bedrooms and first full bath are or down a short flight of stairs to the family room and second full bath. Both sets of stairs are open to the main level. From the family room there is door which leads down to the unfinished basement and laundry room. We hope to eventually finish the basement to create a fourth bedroom and office area. In the foyer, kitchen and dining room there is ceramic tile, the living room is laminate wood, the bedrooms are hardwood and the family room has a nice berber carpet. It is on a corner lot so we are sacrificing a bit on backyard but it has a good size sideyard which is fine. The neighborhood is beautiful with large mature trees and sidewalks. The house is just down the street from the neighborhood lake and park and around the corner from a forest perserve. It also has an attached 2 car garage that was added onto the house so it doesn't actually have access directly into the house but the door from the garage is four steps from the front door. Oh, and did I mention we are in love with it! We have had family in several times the past few weeks and everytime we walk through the house again, I get a little more attached.

So enjoy the pics and hopefully I will have an update soon saying its ours to actually move into :-)

Front of the house

Sideyard

View down the street from the driveway

Another view of the front of the house. Notice the picture/bay window where I plan to display our Christmas tree this December and the garage comes with a basketball hoop already attached! Mike was excited :-)

Front door/foyer area from the living room

Looking at the kitchen from the dining area. The cabinets need some love. Anyone have a great idea? I was thinking distressed red!

The huge pantry!

Looking at the dining room from the kitchen

Looking at the living room from the dining room

View of living room from the foyer. The french doors lead into the dining room.

Staircases going up and staircases going down...exciting huh!

Full bath on the same level with the three bedrooms.

Lower family room area

Office nook off of family room