2012 - The Year of Changes

Not too long ago I wrote a post on the success of the downsizing so you'll probably be bewildered reading this post.  We're upsizing!  For a variety of reasons we have decided to buy a house again.  Originally we were hoping to invest our money and get a little interest on it, but clearly this is not the right time for those expectations and in this part of the world the most solid investment you can make is in real estate - as in land as opposed to townhouse/condo type ownership.

It took a very short time to settle on a house to buy and within a few days we had made our deal.  The plan is to take possession in the middle of September.  There are lots of things we plan on doing to the house right away and hoped to have contractors get busy and finished those projects before the end of September.  Then we gave our heads a shake.  Of course there is no way that timetable can be achieved so we are now at peace with the idea that we will be living in the house while it is being renovated.  People do this all the time, right?

Here's a peek of the house as it is now.

Although apparently the house has just been painted, its not to our liking and it will be painted right away.  I have played around a bit with an app that shows you what different paint colours look like on your house and we've come to the conclusion that it will be primarily white(ish).  The glass block at the front door will be replaced with a different window and the door will also be replaced.  The big window in the living room will come out and in its place will be French doors leading out to a new patio.  The funny "Dr. Seuss" tree just to the left of the doorway will come down and a new pergola will flank the two sides of the entryway.

The location of the house is lovely - in a small very treed older and stable residential neighbourhood.  We are about a half a block away from the bluff leading down to a quiet beach.  There is a tiny little view of the ocean from the master bedroom balcony in the back.

We are all excited about having this family home and I cannot wait to have all four of us back together and living here.  Its going to be a wonderful place to celebrate life!