***Now twenty years old, it's time***

We bought our house way around 1997 (or was it '98?). At that time, it was seventeen years old. As soon as I walked into the house, I knew what The Spouse meant with the words, "Joel, you've got to see this (house A)"

Centralized floor plan (meaning you don't have enter one room to get to another). Wood floor covering the first floor (except the living room.) Spa tub in the gigantic master bedroom. (How big? You can fit two mid-size cars up there.) Fireplace upstairs and downstairs. Three other bedrooms for our own offices and a guest room. Relatively small backyard. (I hate to garden.) And no one behind the house. (Getting a nice valley view instead.)

The prior owners decrative tastes were...different...but nothing we couldn't change. However, they balked at our initial offer. Though it was a buyers market at the time (and still is to a lesser extent), they didn't want to go lower and suffer a loss even though we were the first serious bid for the place over a year.

Unfortunately for them, it was a buyers market. We politely told our agent to tell their agent the answer was "no" and began to consider another property: while no view and no wood floor, it had a nice pool and a true downstairs bed/office/game room.

We received a call from our agent. The owners of house A had given a counteroffer. Though still higher than we liked, it was more reasonable. We accepted it and moved into the house shortly afterwards. A few months later the market slowed down and housing prices went back up. Whew! Talk about timing!

Fast forward....

The sound of tile being hammered off a wall echo throughout the house as I type this post. The contractors arrived this morning and removed all the kitchen cabinets and appliances. Now they're removing the master bathroom tub and the children's/guest's one. Next week they'll be back to install the new cabinets.

Renovation begins.


I took pictures last night of the old place (which I'll post as soon as I can). It will be interesting to see how things will be different next year. And the year after that: we'll be changing the wallpaper and paint as part of the second stage. If everything goes well, we'll be buying new furniture and other decorative items in 2007.

Eek! I'm feeling so...domestic.