House hunting for the perfect house…

House hunting

Way back in 2005, we were living in an 1800 sq. ft suburban home with an 18 month old, a 4 year old, a 14 year old and the home office of my business.  We were quickly outgrowing our house.  Scratch that.  We had outgrown it.  We began house hunting for the perfect home.  I wanted something unique.  I have always lived in the suburbs where the only thing that separated our house from the next was the color and which side the garage was on.  Of course, it had to be big enough for the 5 of us and a growing business.

We house hunted for what felt like months.  We looked at 30 or more houses:  some were out of budget, some were too cookie cutter for my creative brain, and some were sorely impractical.  Of course, there were a few standouts:  an amazing, couldn’t be afforded farmhouse, a 5 bedroom out of budget, modern wonder with a Jack and Jill bathroom and the moldy house that smelled so bad we couldn’t even go inside.  We were losing hope that a home that checked our boxes existed. Then, an ordinary day changed all that.

Fate

Driving home from a photo session, I saw a realtor putting a sign out for an Open House.  I decided to do a drive by…  just in case.  What I found made my heart skip a beat.  It was a brick ranch on a really big, corner lot.  There were large pines and huge maples.  I was in love before I ever set foot inside.  I was even able to ignore the school bus yellow garage doors.  If that isn’t love (or insanity), I don’t know what is!!

Anxious to buy, we scheduled a showing for the next morning.  We opened the double front doors and once we looked past the crazy linoleum in the foyer, I saw a double sided fireplace and folks, that was all she wrote.  Between the yard, the double front doors and the fireplace, I was so smitten there was no turning back.  It didn’t even matter that 1972 had been perfectly captured inside this home.  I mean perfectly…  Aside from one 1980’s sectional, everything was circa 1972.  Orange, green & gold prevailed and it was magnificent!  To be fair, I had fallen in love with the other parts of the house and was blind to the fact that this home could have easily been the set for That 70s Show.   And, of course, I was thrilled at the idea of fixing it up.

What was the road’s name, you ask.  Bright Road.  It certainly seemed like fate to me.  And so began our journey on Our Bright Road…

(Picture above is moving day in August of 2005)