The Grand Tour

As a caution: this post is picture heavy.

So of course, everyone wants to know what the house looks like on the inside, right? Well...it's not pretty. The bones of it are pretty, but the layers above are not in the most pristine of conditions. The great thing about the internet is that you can't smell things. Daisy fresh, our house is not. I guess that's to be expected, as it's been sealed up for about two years, and by sealed I mean SEALED. We've got an impressive set of storm windows (the finest around, or so I've heard...)

Apologies for the picture quality, most were taken with a sketchy and ridiculously cheap fish eye lens from Japan, and the others were taken on a cell phone. My photography skills are also pretty lacking...

First Impressions

When we went to view Chestnut Street prior to buying, I'll be honest - it was overwhelming. It felt like visiting a combination of an antique shop and a 1950's grandmother's house. It hadn't been lived in for a few years, and dust had settled into a fuzzy blanket over furniture, photos, and tons and tons of pottery, preserving it into a vintage museum.

That being said, even with all of the items it looked like the house had a lot of potential. It definitely had lots of character, which is something we both really appreciate. TJ and I know nothing about house renovations and there was a lot to be done, so I was a little nervous about putting in an offer but all of a sudden it was a done deal and the house was ours. All of a sudden we were faced with long months of rewiring, seam filing, wall moving and rebuilding, a bathroom reno, a kitchen reno, wall paper removal, carpet removal, hardwood refinishing, new windows, new flooring, painting, brickwork on the chimney....the list goes on and on. Of course, the first thing I did was panic, as I am prone to do. TJ was incredibly optimistic, though I suspect he was blinded by his love of the Narnia-esqpe lamp post on the outside walkway.

We've had a few days to let it sink in (though those days have been filled with clearing out a bit of house leftovers after the antique dealers and auctioneers had been through, carpet removal and wallpaper removal) and even though our to-do list keeps growing, I'm pretty sure we made the right decision in buying this old house. We know it's at least 101 years old as of September 23rd, although it could be older since the ownership records we found dated a couple of houses in the neighbourhood as coming into existence on the same date, so we suspect maybe they only went back 100 years before being cut off.

So if anyone is around on September 23rd, stop in for a piece of cake and as a gift to you, we'll let you tear something down with a hammer.


xoxo,
Victoria and TJ
Homeowners, Demolitioners, Dangerous with Hammers

It seemed like a good idea at the time

So we've gone mad and bought a house.