Long time no post!

A lot has happened since my last post, the biggest event being the decision to buy a house!

I'm not completely sure why I am bothering to blog about it because anyone who might be following my blog has surely heard all about my arduous search, but what they heck.  There is a LONG waiting period between agreeing to buy the house and actually taking possession of it, so I am trying to occupy my time and keep up my enthusiasm while I wait.

Here are a couple of pictures of the house, from the front and the side:

 The house was built circa 1899, but was completely renovated in 2003...new roof, new floors, new plumbing, new appliances...they basically gutted the house and completely redid everything.  The house is in Bloomington's Historic Near West Side Neighborhood.  According to our inspector, the neighborhood is significant because it used to be the only district where African Americans could own land.

James and I have lived in historic houses since we got married, so we knew we wanted something with historic character.  We looked at several houses in Bloomington's many historic neighborhoods, but all of them were either too expensive or needed too much work.  This house was listed at the very top of our budget, but I kept it in the back of my mind as a sort of back-up in case we didn't find anything before the first time home buyers tax credit expired.

When we finally went to look at it, we fell in love with it right away.  The huge windows let in a lot of light, the entire house looks new, it has so much character and charm...and has a big kitchen.  The house just has a great feel inside.  So many of the older homes we had seen were dark and grubby inside and felt sort of like a maze or seemed to have bad energy.  So many of the houses in our price range had been rentals and the owners had tacked on rooms here and there to make them more profitable rentals...but what they ended up with were what James called "Frankenstein Houses."

This one, although it is a rental, is basically in it's original condition.  The kitchen had been added on at some point, but each room flowed nicely into the next, making the house feel comfortable and easy.  We felt happy being in it...good energy, I guess.  :)

After some hemming and hawing, we eventually made an offer.  The house is perfect for us.  We love the neighborhood, we love the style of the house, and we were pretty sure we could get them to lower the proce.  And did we ever!  They went down $12,000 on the price...over 10%!  That house, at the price we got it for, was perfect.

We had the inspection a couple of weeks ago and the sellers are fixing a few things.  Due to the big snowstorm this past week, some repair work to the roof had to be delayed, but they are making every effort to take care of business.

James and I are so excited about buying this house...after looking for such a long time, it was such a releif to find one that suits us so well.