We break for houses!

Double entendre, a break in recaps and the Man and I do indeed break for houses. It's necessary, we've been faced with a difficult decision; actually having options!

What a pain, right? So we're at a bit of a standstill because we've narrowed our house search down to two houses and both are fantastic. Neither are in the ideal location of being close to work for Kyle BUT they are both closer to work than he is where we're living right now. Anything is an improvement I guess. Oddly enough, both of the houses are really close to where I hope to be working in 6 months. As in, 3 or 2 miles away. I feel like it's so unfair because where we live right now is 3 miles away from my work... He just can't catch a break!

Anyway, wanna's see them?? You'll enjoy it!

This is a 118-yr-old Victorian completely restored and in fantastic condition.

All the floors are redone or refinished and are in fantastic shape and there doesn't seem to be any floor unevenness. Also check out these huge Victorian windows and doorways! And ALLLLLL those windows were new.

You'd never know it was as old as it was, it was in such fantastic shape. The bottom level has a living room, a family room, a formal dinning room, and a kitchen with an eat-in area. Loooots of space.

The kitchen was not the most up-to-date, but fairly large and in good shape. There's a double sink not in this picture, but yeah, that's an island with a sink in it!

The stairs were new, and then there are three bedrooms on the second level. The paint jobs were fantastic, the bathroom was another instance of not being in modern condition but so well-maintained.

The attic had been converted into the master bedroom, and from my perspective, was very well constructed. Don't like that carpet (newer but just meh), and most attics don't have hardwood floors so there's little luck of finding hidden fantastic hardwood underneath. But the master also had a master bathroom to the left there with a jacuzzi and his and hers sinks.

We'd have a third of an acre and an unfortunately detached garage. You also have to share a driveway unfortunately. But this house was so charming and well-loved that I fell in love with it as soon as I walked in. Being a Victorian, it had high ceilings and crown molding and was just so impressive. It has more space and more land than the next one I'll show you, but that garage is a pain to get to and Kyle doesn't want to share a driveway. Again, I mentioned the appliances being a bit dated, and the bathrooms needing modernization, but the skeleton of the house; pipes and wiring and ducts and heating system- which would cost muchos money to fix- are sound.

So here's the second one:

Yeah... fantastic, right? so stately. This house is 77 yrs old and currently occupied by a little hipper of a couple, so it was more modernized.

The kitchen was complete with all the modern amenities, two ovens, built-in fridge and dishwasher and a massive copper sink. Smaller kitchen though...

But a larger living room, and a sunroom that would be perfect for an office. Oh, and check out that fantastic cutout/breakfast bar that opens up the kitchen.

Formal dining room rounds out the bottom floor. In general, it felt smaller than the Victorian; the colors are darker and, because it was fully furnished, it just felt like there wasn't as much space. This house is smaller but still large enough for us. I think we forgot to ask about the windows, I don't know how old they are... but replacing windows is an expensive pain in the ass.

The bathrooms were all original tile but impeccably maintained and they had updated the sinks and toilets.

The upper level had three bedrooms, all kind of small-ish... This one above is the master. Not to complain; it was not small, but when you compare bedrooms to the Victorian, this one, as a master, was just not all that impressive.

The other bathroom, also with original tile but modern sink and toilet. Very cool mix of old and new, and also very very clean. The fisheye is making my eyes hurt though.

Gross. Haha, the basement of the Victorian was unfinished, but at least it wasn't finished like this.

The last advantage that the Colonial has over the Victorian: attached garage. However, slight disadvantage, attached garage means no back porch. No real outdoor entertaining area, and we love grilling. The backyard was also smaller than the Victorian but completely flat and still a quarter of an acre (hey, anything is better than what we have now).

So we have to choose between the huge but slightly old-fashioned Victorian (a little more sentimental, is what I mean, not old-fashioned in terms of paint and floors and whatnot) and the smaller but more modern Colonial (with radiators :P). One is imposing with its stone front but feels a little closed-in once you walk inside, the other is, I mean, it's a Victorian, it's tall and impressive-looking and once you walk in, the ceilings are high and the windows let in so much light, it feels HUGE (however, the Victorian was not furnished, no furniture = lots more space to move around). The Colonial feels more like a young family home too, and the kitchen is awesome (also you have your own driveway). I could keep going on and on, we have been back and forth so many freaking times, it's ridiculous.

I believe where we stand right now is that the Colonial is a better value and therefore won't be on the market for long, I think we are going to strategically put in an offer there first, and if it falls through, we would still be happy in the Victorian. I think that's the only conclusion we can come to... It's good to have choices, but I almost feel like I'm trying to choose a BFF between two best friends.

I can't believe we're almost homeowners! I'm ridiculously excited... But I shan't count my chickens before they are hatched. Watch both of them go off the market by the time we put an offer in... Stop that thinking!

ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!!!! I don't want to string you along any longer (and wait till you hear it, you'll be like 'that's it?!') so... a few weeks ago, I submitted our wedding to The Knotty Bride and I just heard back at the end of last week that SHE'S GOING TO FEATURE US!!! I'm a little excited about it. I know this blog is all about DIY projects and using inspiration to make this photo shoot-like wedding, but I was doing it because I thought it looked good, not because I thought it needed to be featured. Well, I submitted it anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity and she was like YES! And I was like YAY!!! And please believe me when I say I'm super psyched that our vendors are going to get some mad props! So I will post again when she actually posts our wedding, but keep an eye out on TKB in the meantime! A dollar to anyone who spots it before me and reports back to me!!

Also, SHE OPENS HER EYES!!

Yes you are pretty! (Julie and Nick's new bundle, Olivia!)

Back to recaps tomorrow!!