More about the house

I know many of you were surprised that we put an offer on the house, so here's the history. Right now Carter and I live 35-45 min from work, which is a big pain in the butt to us. We try to carpool and sometimes that works but makes the whole process longer. We've always wanted to live in rural, unincorporated Boulder County, but we didn't want to be TOO isolated from things. We've been looking very casually for months, then this house popped up! They reduced the price several times until finally it was in our price range (motivated sellers, yay!). 

This house is just PERFECT, has just about everything we wanted in a house! Great location just about halfway between our offices, still only 10 minutes from North Boulder, 15 or so from downtown Boulder, 15 or so to downtown Longmont (address is actually Longmont). The lot is 0.84 acres....we would have preferred 1-2 acres but this is close enough. The house is a decent amount bigger than our current house, and is move in ready but still has many of "projects" for us to work on to improve the house, which was important to us. 

It's a super cute neighborhood (maybe 40 houses from what I can tell on google maps?) of all approx. 1 acre lots on a non-through street with a very lose HOA which I like because it provides just a little bit of structure but doesn't control very much (every house is very different!!), lots of houses have different fences, different gardens, very different architecture, etc. I read the newsletters online and every year there's a summer BBQ, a garden tour/walk, kids in the neighborhood that house sit, babysit, pull weeds, and pick up dog poop for money! Seems like people are pretty connected here. 

We're on the corner of the main entrance road and a side cul-de-sac. We're both pretty excited about being to bike to work in the summer, but really even just being able to bike ANYWHERE--this house is right in the middle of the prime road biking areas for Boulder bikers. EVERYONE bikes up here, tons of roads with good shoulders, etc. We're also much closer to the foothills (probably just 2 miles as the crow flies), closer to the RMNP (you noticed, Aunt Christine!), etc. Further from Denver though (sorry CCs), further from airport and I-70 to get into the mountains, etc, but not prohibitively far, which was important. We can still do ultimate frisbee and I can still do my Boulder vball league and everything, which was also important (we thought about looking for a house in the foothills/mountains but we didn't want to be far enough that we would drop those activities). The only thing we'll probably drop is Broomfield softball, which is a huge bummer because we've met a lot of good friends. We'll probably go back every now and then to sub and visit with them. 

Phew! Any other specific questions just post them as a comment. And remember this is not a done-deal yet, still lots to go through. If everything works out we'll close on Feb 9th!

Here are some photos of the house I stole of Zillow! Inspection is next Tuesday so keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well!

back of the house. The lawn could use some work but doesn't look HORRIBLE. The  house description says this place has fruit trees, but I don't know my trees very well in the winter so we'll just have to be surprised! We're still not sure how we'll work the yard with Emma, garden, etc,, but for now I think the garden might be in the FRONT yard. (go to google maps and do street view to see the front of the house)

View from the front door

View of the main living area, front door is in the upper right corner (next to the coat closet door). I looooooove the built in cabinets and space for the TV! I think this will fit our couch perfectly!

Another view of the living area, from the kitchen's perspective. What do you think of that brick wall (with the gas fireplace)? I'm not sure I like it, thinking about painting it but I'm not sure. 

Kitchen--this needs some work but also very live-able. We'll work on it little by little I'm sure. I like that it has a  bar to sit at! Seems simple but in our current house the kitchen is so cramped and when people come over we're always hanging out in the kitchen, so this way the guests can just sit on a stool while I cook (or vice versa!) The door to the left leads back to a mud room with laundry and 1/2 bathroom, then through the next door is the garage.

bigger of the two guest bedrooms--I think we'll have this one for JUST guests....maybe just a little bit of storage but hopefully not too much

Guest bathroom--this one needs some work but is definitely live-able for now. We can use all the skills we're  learning by remodelling our current master bathroom, and eventually work on this one too!

this is the office, I think of it as the 4th bedroom but it's only listed as a 3 bedroom house, I think because this room might not have a closet? I don't really remember. Anyways with the hardwood floors and all we're just going to make this our office/storage room.

This is the master bedroom, pretty standard except what you can't see in this photo are the two closets! One is pretty standard but the other one is much bigger than our current standard closets in this house. Both have built in organizers with lots of shelves, which is important because I really don't hang many of my clothes at all. I'm hoping MAYBE Carter and I can fit all of our clothes into one room for once! (right now I am using office closet as my closet)

master bathroom--mostly remodelled, nice tile and nice shower. I like that it has a window, for some reason I really like windows in bathrooms.... Also I love the two sinks, that was something I wanted but I wasn't sure if we could get it.

Not pictured: 

2nd guest bedroom:  this will be my CRAFT ROOM!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! Otherwise just a normal room, two windows cause it's in the front on a corner.

Garage: oversized 2 car garage, it's extra deep with lots of cabinets, and extra storage room, etc.

Front porch--small covered patio area that is very shady, might be a nice place to sit in the summer

Front yard--some landscaping around the house and driveway, bigggg evergreen trees blocking the view of the street making the entrance more private. Small pillars at the start of the driveway. Otherwise just grass, and I don't imagine us using that space much unless it's for my garden. Front/side of the house has big lilac bushes, I am soooo excited about that! Back/side has random beds, some with nasty red rocks that I don't like, some front trees, etc. (hard to describe)