We Got a House, Y'all

And it makes us feel all grown up. After four years of living together in various states of tenanthood, we've finally grabbed our fat ol' piece of the American Dream (TM). And it could only happen in Minnesota.

Actually, that's not strictly true. In fact, it's almost misleading. You see, I was given to the notion that upon moving to the Great Midwest (TM), I would have a veritable breadbasket of choices, a cornucopia of homes to cherry-pick from, each more extravagant than the one before. Welp, thanks to the power of the New Economy, real estate prices in Minneapolis have skyrocketed to near preposterous levels. The median price for a home 'round here is $150K. Ouch. Homes sell for up to 10% over asking. Ouch. Sold signs go up the same day the home goes up for sale. Ouch ouch ouch. It's a rough market.

All that said, we actually ended up having an incredibly easy time with the process. In fact, it went so darn well that I've been extra careful lately cause I think I used up a whole lotta karma during the homebuying transition. Basically, we found the house by driving by on a lazy Sunday morning. We made a verbal offer. The owner accepted the next day. We signed a purchase agreement the following week, had the inspection, waited for the Title and mortgage companies to do their thing, and then we all got together and signed a bunch of papers. No real estate agents, no fights with the owner, no nothin'. Suh-weeet.

So now that we're here, I s'pose it's time to brag about it to the whole wide world by posting a page about it on the Internet. We can't help ourselves. We just love the attention. Actually, I don't think Solveig would side with me on that, but she's at work right now so... nyah nyah nyah, we got a house.

Someday, we're gonna have an official housethrashing party, but for the time being, you'll have to get your tour online. Which brings us to the Mah-ve-lous LifeStyles of the Rich and Famous Presentation of the Palatial 4422 Blaisdell Compound.

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Here's the streetfront view, in all her white and powder blue glory. It's weird, because the house looks tiny when you see it head-on like this. There's actually 1200 sq. ft. hiding behind there.

Looking at her from the corner, things start to look a wee bit better. Near as I can tell, this is a somewhat unique house. Most South Minneapolis houses tend to follow the "foursquare" floorplan, which is basically a two-story box divided into four compartments separated by circulation in the middle. And while the foursquare's got a certain wholesome beauty and charm, I prefer the slightly eccentric layout of our little home.

Moving into the backyard, we're looking at the back door. The odd protrusion seems to be a fairly recent addition (the original house was built in 1901!). We're still trying to figure out whether the whole back half of the house was added sometime after the house was first built. And you can of course spot the Weber Bar-B-Kettle, standing proudly in the sun, in all his Masculine enamel-coated glory. He's had quite a workout since we moved in, I'm glad to report.

And turning around, we see one of the cooler parts about our new house: The garage in the backyard! It's got room for one car, a hayloft upstairs, and a heated/insulted workshop stuck on its backside. Pretty dang cool, if you ask me.

Here's the view from our alley. Man, it's so cool having an alley. I don't know why. Maybe it's the city-furnished garbage receptacle you see sitting in the lower right. A thing of beauty.

Okay, time to go inside. Here's what you see when you step inside the porch door and look right. Those screens were the result of our first lil' remodeling project. There were glass/aluminum storm windows there originally, but they were in pretty sad shape. So out they went, and in went about 100 linear feet of black mesh, kept in place with mahogany trim. No, I wasn't trying to be fancy. That was the least expensive trim I could find at Menard's. Save big Money, indeed.

Once you get through the front doors, you'll see the living room which occupies most of the front of the house. The floor in this room and the dining room were originally clad in carpet. And about 1/4 inch of carpet deodorant, which just about choked us to death when we pulled up the stanky mess. It actually didn't look that bad before we started pulling it up, but man, that experience made me NEVER want to install a carpet in my house EVER EVER EVER. Ack. So, now we have nicely finished maple floors, courtesy our friend Jeff Allen.

Here's the dining room. I mostly wanted to show off the very cool fixture we got at Restoration Hardware. Of course, I don't like to admit that we shop at Restoration Hardware, but oh well, screw it. It's a dang cool ceiling fixture. And it weighs about 50 pounds.

Here's another view of the dining room, from the other side. In the foreground on the left, you can see a very cool bureau built for Solveig by her dad back when she was in school. Hopefully someday I'll take pictures of it, cause there's some really fun stuff built into it. The other thing to note about this picture is the prevalance of that atrocious powder blue trim all over the place. Blech. This will serve as a historical record of what it used to look like once we get sick enough of looking at it and finally strip it down to refinish the wood. Someday...

If you turn left where the dining room picture above was taken, this is what you'd see. The stairway to heaven. Well, for the cats anyways, since they dig hanging out in that window at the top of the stairs.

Here's a pic of our bedroom. It's definately on the small side. We like to think of it as something like a couchette on the Orient Express. Only not nearly so opulent. In fact, not opulent at all. And maybe even a bit smaller. But it's a great bedroom. Easy to cool down during those 119 degree days. I'll add a pic of the other room upstairs, but I want to wait until it's finished it's transformation. Just wait. It'll be very cool.

And here's one of the BEST things about this house. The Kitchen. It's HUGE. Man, it is so awesome. You can't believe how much space this feels like to us. Well, maybe you'd understand if you've seen the kitchen in our last apartment. It's a great big kitchen, and we got great big plans for it. But for now, it's a great big kitchen, and that's plenty good for now!

Like most other houses in the Midwest, we've got a basement! Unlike most other houses in the Midwest, our basement is only half the size of the house's footprint. But I'm not complaining. Big basements are creepy. Our basement is, well, it's almost cute. Plus, we've got our very own washer and dryer. Oh, the Gods are smiling upon us! It's like a dream come true.

Well, that brings us to the end of our tour for now. Here's a final pic just to let y'all know that the cats have settled in without too much incident. Lazy bastards. Thanks for looking!