OK - this is pretty much a repeat from mylisteningheart.blogspot.com, but I really want to keep the two blogs separate. Here is the beginning of the saga of how we have discovered, designed & decorated our Cozy Little Cabin.
Part I: Hubby & I have looked off and on for several years for a smaller house with less property. We got really serious last Labor Day & informed our adult children about a possible move. We wanted their opinion because hopefully this is our last move until we either die or become infirm (!) and it will be up to them to sell the house, etc., so we wanted their opinion about what and where we moved. Hubby & I had only two requirements: the house must have two bathrooms and it must have lots of nice, big windows! Pretty much everything else was negotiable.
We were first interested in a piece of property 10 miles farther out of town: 11 acres with a creek & a house that had only 2 closets & one bathroom, but had GREAT porches, hardwood floors, fabulous windows & a lot of 60 year old charm & those charming 11 acres of woods. . . did I mention it had a creek? We met with our contractor to discuss adding another bathroom and a few more closets.
Our offer was accepted by the homeowners when we realized we really didn't want to live 10 miles farther from my mom & daughter & besides that - what were we going to do with that 11 acres anyway? We withdrew our offer & continued looking.
Our oldest son & his family, daughter & her husband came out several times to go house-hunting with us. We looked in nearby towns; we looked at lake property; we looked at fixer-uppers, and we looked at move-in ready houses. We even looked at an old church. . . that one would have been lots of work, but oh-so-much fun fixing up! Oh yeah – we're sixty years old this year. . . . no big remodeling for us! We didn't get to look at many properties in the country because they sold/had contracts on them before we could go look! After several outings we finally realized that we didn't want to live in town unless it's our town, in east Texas.
It's so much easier when you know what you don't want!
I was sharing this revelation to a friend of mine (who lives in "our town") & asked her about the house next to hers that had been on the market but no longer had a Realtor sign out front. She thought it was still available since there was no one living there.
Later that day I drove by to get the address in order to try to find the owners' new address/phone number & my friend was out mowing her yard AND the neighboring home owner was there moving out some more stuff! My friend introduced us, the home owner said the contract with the Realtor had expired, but yes, they were still interested in selling!
How serendipitous is that? :)
After calls & visits, etc., we were all set to buy the house! It's 6/10 of a mile from town, on a huge lot with w/a fishing pond in the back & we had visions of walking to/from our town, etc.
We saw God's fingerprints all over this. . . nice house (again with lots of 60 year old charm!), fishing pond, no neighbors real close, no Realtor fees to pay so they were able to come down on the price, etc., etc., etc. But in spite of God's fingerprints all over the finding of this house, we all prayed if this wasn't His best for us than please slam the door shut. . . not quietly, slowly creaking closed! Just slam it shut, please!?
OK - enough for today. . . . I need to get the dining room ready for a big Easter dinner. . . maybe up to 17 people here! And as the title of the blog says, we also downsized! This should be interesting.
Today's photo is a little peek at the Cozy Little Cabin during a recent snow. Yes! East TX had snow. That. Stayed. On. The. Ground. How about that?
