... in the middle of our street ...

We closed on the house Friday. It was quite an event. Kerry really made all of the moves on this place and while it’s technically her buy, in her name, we’ve agreed that it’s definitely “our house.” Joint ownership of a home, especially before we get married, just did not seem like a smart idea. She found this place (with Chris Walny’s help) and jumped on it. It’s a nice house and we look forward to filling it full of love and good times, not just from us, but from our beloved friends and family who help make that happen. You know who you are.

The closing was Friday afternoon, so we celebrated with a dinner at the Redcoat Tavern and a small night on the town, then to the new house to get blasted on champagne and Molson, while going from room to room thinking out loud about future projects and what we want to do with the place. Speaking of which, this is the street we’re on. It’s a nice street.

One of the main reasons she bought this house was for the street and the $850,000 mansions they’re building at the end of it. Interestingly enough, it’s one block away from my first apartment of my first move from home back in 1990. This is the front of the place, dig that front porch. I see me and Corbett out there in the summer with the Tiger game on the radio, for sure.

Head in the front door and you see this right away

and if you turn around and look up, you see this interesting-looking space about 12 feet up

It looks like they knocked out the floor up above to create this insanely high-ceilinged living room. So, when you go upstairs to the finished attic, which is kind of like a small loft space (which we expect to use for her office/spare bedroom)

you see this. If you keep walking toward that railing and look over, you see this

which is the fireplace, the living room and the front door. It’s a pretty unique layout, to say the least. The dining room is sharp

and leads to a kitchen with new appliances and a great feel. You can’t see it here, but the ceiling is this exposed lathe wood and creates this sort of cottage/cabin-y feel to the place.

The bathroom is incredibly spotless, with all new updates, which is good. Nobody likes a nasty bathroom.

It was listed as a three-bedroom (it was also listed as a tear-down, which makes no sense), but the third bedroom is really that loft space upstairs. This is the second bedroom which will be my office and sort of a runoff room for any other shit we need to put in there. Those stairs lead upstairs to the work space/extra bedroom

This is the view leading up from the basement, which is kind of a bummer.

That is the door to the back yard right there on the left. I’m a funny guy who likes to mess around and say silly things, but I’m as serious as a stroke when I say this: See that door? That door is symbolic. It represents the end of the motherfuckin’ line for anyone who tries to come through it unwelcomed or with ill intentions. I will fucking end anyone who tries to break that plane with evil in mind. Goes for the front door and the windows too, in case you were curious.

The basement is huge, it runs the length of the house, but the ceilings are so low you have to bend your head down a little, so no more man cave. It’s no big though, I mourned that a while ago. I still have my office and that’s where I do my best work.

Outside of that office space on the main floor is the hallway connecting to the master bedroom. Outside of that room are these cool built-ins

Long-term plans for these include removal, sanding and refinishing. It’s going to be a bitch, but they will look 10 times better.

We move in a couple of days and it will be a while before the cable and Internet gets turned on. At this point, moving five days before xmas, we just want to get in. But we can’t contain our excitement at what Kerry accomplished with making this happen, as well as for what the future holds.