More Adventures in Real Estate

Travelled to Appletown today and saw a wondrous house. It has porches and twelve foot coved ceilings and built-in dining room cabinets and dark wood wainscotting and a five burner stove and six (6!) bedrooms and three bath rooms and a creaking wide staircase up to the second floor landing, which is as big as a living room with a wall's width of casement windows. Oh frabjuous day, I sang to myself, rapturous to be in such roofed and towering space, way more than enough to swing a cat in (which I would never do, of course). Almost as good as a French railway station and a lot quieter. It even has an alley! Even the realtor, who hadn't wanted to show it to us because it is right next door to the Appletown Regional High School, was impressed. He said it reminded him of his high school girlfriend's house. He lingered on the side porch. I bet his girlfriend's parents hadn't painted their dining room ceiling tendrils of shiny gold, though.

There is an absolutely enormous magnolia tree in the front yard - a tree you could climb up and hide in. There is an even bigger Doug fir next door, hanging over the fence to shade the side yard. There is sun glancing in windows which seem to have been located precisely so this could happen. There are the ghosts of 15 foot Christmas trees and the faint scent of cinnammon (in my imagination: I can't actually smell a damn thing) The house felt well lived in - tired, now, in need of a heap of cosmetics, but waiting and patient, not in a downhill rush.

Do I think we will buy this house? No, sadly. The Man and I are good for about an hour on a project (weeding, cultivating, pruning, kitchen malingering) before we wander off to whatever book or baseball game is currently fascinating us. (He does read. Me and baseball, not so much)So how in the world are we to take on a project like this house? It's not totally impossible because the house is livable as-is and the cosmetics could be undertaken gradually, after the main living areas were buffed and polished. I won't stop wishing yet. The Man liked the house at least as much as I did, and saw the challenges and the potential. He didn't even find forty-leven things wrong with it during our drive home, so there's hope!