Our New House

Thanks, everyone, for all the praises and good wishes on the last post!

As for the house itself...

It's one of the few five-bedroom houses we saw. Since so few are available (or else very expensive), we were mostly looking at four-bedroom houses, with the intention of adding another bedroom in the basement, if there was a den/office on the main level, or adding two rooms in the basement.

Plus, Blondechick15 had been adamant that she wanted her bedroom in the basement, along with her own bathroom. And that was fine with everyone, since our three oldest boys were all eager to get out of the basement.

But when we saw this house, she changed her mind in a flash. (It's a woman's perogative, y'know.) This house, like others we'd seen, had the master bedroom/bathroom suite on the main level, and the rest of the bedrooms upstairs. But one of those four upstairs bedrooms was set up like a master, with its own private bathroom--and suddenly she was in love!

Now, if she had insisted on being in the basement in this house, that would mean that Papa Rooster's office would be upstairs with all the kids' bedrooms--not his idea of a good location. But since she wants to be upstairs, we'll put Papa R's office in the basement, which is perfect for him, and we should still have room for a tiny guest room/bathroom suite and a couple of storage areas. That's in addition to the large, already-finished rec room down there!

We feel better about having all our kids together, upstairs, too. We were a bit afraid that whoever ended up in the basement would become more isolated from the rest of us--or could choose to isolate themselves too much--and this arrangement feels more...right. Our two oldest will have their own rooms, Bantams12 & 9 will share the largest bedroom (which has two cool dormered windows, one for each), and the two youngest will happily share a room. And there is another full bathroom besides Blondechick's private one!

I'm going to love having my bedroom on the same floor as all my other important spaces: the kitchen, the laundry room and the dining room that we're going to use as a homeschool room/computer room/office for me. I may actually go in there sometimes during the day (unlike my current upstairs bedroom which I only change in and sleep in), since from there I'll still be able to keep an eye on what's going on on the main level. The master has a lovely, large bay window area, too, that I hope to fix up as a seating/reading area.

We'll need it, I think, because we'll only have one large living room on the main level. That's probably our biggest concern about the house--will we all be on top of each other all the time? Of course, we'll have the family room in the basement--which in our current house is used as bedrooms--and the TV and piano will be down there, which should help reduce the main level activity and noise.

And there are other little nooks on the main level. For homeschooling, for example, I'll be able to set up a child in the schoolroom on the computer or at the table, one can work on the dining room table in the eat-in kitchen, another can be reading on the couch in the main room, and another could go in my bedroom to read.

Or I can take a child or two in my bedroom, close the door, and teach them or read to them without bothering anyone! That's something I can't do in my current house without leaving the main level--and as soon as I do that, the "study hall atmosphere" is broken, of course.

(I recently instituted "study hall," rather than letting them all go work in their rooms. They all professed to hate it, but after two days, one of them asked, nonchalantly, if we were going to have study hall again. Before I could answer, someone complained, and the first one replied, "Oh, come on, you know it's the only way we get anything done!" The tough thing about it is keeping the two little kids quiet--I usually put on a movie for them up in their bedroom, but I don't like doing that daily.)

Ahem. Back to the the house. Although it's newer (2002), it needs cosmetic work on the interior. The first thing we'll do is put in hardwood floor on the main level, as I mentioned before. We'll also paint most of the main level, since there are some mighty interesting color choices on the walls at present, and a couple of the bedrooms too--since the time to do it is before we move in, right? And we'll build Papa Rooster's office in the basement--and maybe the guest suite too, though it could be done later.

From the outside, the only thing it needs is a porch swing, because it's just crying out for one. It's a really pretty house from the street, with a half-size wrap-around porch on one end and the garage door not visible from the front. It's on the side of the house, and there is a perfectly level concrete driveway on that side that will make a great basketball court and tricycle-riding area. And we'll have a sidewalk, for the first time!

Every time we've been out looking at houses and we come home to our current house, we say to each other--What a nice house. If only we could find a house like this one, but just a little bigger--and in WI, of course.

I think we have found one that will fit that description (and for a fabulous price, I might mention), once we've painted and floored and finished it to fit our family. It has so many of the qualities that we like in this house, and I think, a similar feel.

I don't think it will take long for us to feel at home there.

We are so grateful to God!!!