Stalking Mr. House

Is it weird that I like to stalk this little house we're interested in? Our friends from church own this quaint 3 bedroom, 1970s era house in a nice quiet neighborhood in East Brainerd with great highway access. They have been renovating it to sell (or hopefully to rent with the option to sell in our case) for the past number of months. I talked to Maureen on Sunday and learned the updated list:

new carpets
new door from the kitchen to the den, with a window-opening between those rooms
repainted cabinetry with an addition
new vinyl flooring
new hard wood flooring
1.5 bath made into 2 full baths
updated tiling in bathrooms
new toilets
new bathroom sinks
new heating/air system
new windows
repainted exterior
repainted gutters

She said it'd be ready to see in about 2 weeks (which means next weekend if possible). I drove by the house yesterday to take a peek. New windows! It's amazing how much nicer an entire place looks just by window updates.

Stalking 101: Find an image to stare at longingly:

I probably could bring my camera and take a better snap, but I feel like that commits my emotions to an uncertainty, so this will do. And now for more emotionally-committing statements:

It's cute! I'm not sure what color they're going to change the outside to, right now it's like a worn-looking peach color. On the right side where it looks like there's a window is actually a windowed door. It used to be a garage but has been turned into a den, which Jon could use as a music studio quite effectively. The front porch is small, but the backyard area looks nice and green with area for a potential small deck or porch.

The front door has been updated to a really nice oval-shaped glass-windowed door. The glass looks like it might have some etching design in it.

One of the unused 3 bedrooms would be my amazing art and sewing studio! Amazing. I long for the day to have room for such a thing.. and to have a master bedroom where I can get into the doorway while holding a laundry basket without running into a guitar stand and a thick pile of art papers and portfolios behind the door. Seriously.

I think if I owned this house I'd have fun doing some landscaping, and eventually to fence in the lot with a nice little wooden fence or something.

Enough emotions. I really hope this place is a definite possibility. It'll come down to how the numbers can work with our current goals to take out student loan debt completely in the next year and a half. I've been praying. Feel free to join me.

Flying Dreams

I've had a lot of dreams lately about big life change things: finding a house, having children, the fate of starting my own line of work.. And I think it's interesting to note that when my anxieties rest about those things, my dreams revisit the same silly, weird and inspiring nature that they had long ago before all this adult stuff happened. I like that I can still go back there without even trying.

The Innocence Mission

I can really appreciate the way a great musician can catch my undivided attention within mere seconds of listening to their work. But my goodness, how lovely! The Innocence Mission is my new appreciation. I've been listening to track samples in iTunes all afternoon and really enjoying it. This sound takes me away to a relaxing leisurely drive, or to working in a sunny room on sewing projects and being filled with creativity.

And look at the design :•)

The song that caught me was a cover of What A Wonderful World on the "Now The Day Is Over" album, which includes additional covers of Moon River, Edelweiss and Over The Rainbow. Such a soft sound. Love it.