Unofficially Home Sweet Home

We won't know until later this week if this will officially be our "Home Sweet Home", but we will go ahead and share it now on faith that this is meant to be our house.

The house was built in 1935 and has many of its original features. For instance, the roof consists of slate shingles. If a slate shingle roof is properly maintained, it can last up to 150 years. However, it appears that the previous owners have not done much maintenance in their 4 years owning the house. We have a specialized roof inspector coming in later this week to assess how much it will cost to get the roof in proper condition. To install a brand new slate shingle roof would cost at least $50,000!

Not only is the roof a potential issue, but during the general inspection, it was also discovered that there is low water pressure in the showers when water is ran elsewhere in the house. We had a plummer come in and verified that the issue is in the galvanized (original) plumbing. Some of the exposed pipes in the basement have been changed to PVC. He gave us a reasonable estimate on switching out all the exposed galvanized pipes which should help with the water pressure.

Steve quickly fell in love with the main foyer area. It took me the second showing to really appreciate the architecture and character of the house. I think this was due to the fact that while in Jackson, we had been really focusing on finding a "newer" home.

The dining room was exactly what I wanted out of a dining room -- big window & open arches to other rooms. This picture really shows off the character of the house. The wainscoting is only in this room; however, the molding can be seen throughout the rest of the house. The chandelier is all original and matches other light fixtures throughout the house. The chandeliers/light fixtures throughout the house are a little gaudy with all the glass jewels, but I fall more & more in love with them every time I look at the pictures.

The living room, upstairs bathroom, and a bedroom all have these really cool built-ins. The built-ins in the bathroom and bedroom are more like cupboards with drawers. I was surprised at how much storage was built into the house (generally storage is very lacking in older homes). The closets in 3 of the 4 bedrooms are pretty small; however, there are some extra closets in the hallway to make up for the small in-bedroom storage.

This is one of my favorite features in the home -- the stain glass window. This is the big window seen on the front of the house. The stairs wrap around the wall right underneath the window, and check out the other original chandelier! This house actually has 4 levels: basement, main floor, upstairs (master bedroom/bathroom, 2 bedrooms, & another bathroom), and a reconverted attic (4th bedroom). It's a whole lot of house -- 2400 sq ft (not counting basement)!!

The outside of the house is just as beautiful as the outside. The front yard has really nice landscaping around the front walkway. The backyard has a little patio right off the sun-room as well as another patio in the middle of the backyard. There are cement benches surround the 2nd patio. We plan on making that area into a fire pit. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there are lights strung through the trees in the backyard. The house sits on a .46 acre lot. The side yard is actually the biggest area around the house. There is a 2 car detached garage that matches the same brick and slate shingle on the house.

There you have it -- our future house (unofficially). If these pictures aren't enough, you can check out an actual video tour of the house here. If all goes as planned, we will take ownership in the middle of November. We'll keep you posted on the status of the house.