Our "New" Home

On Saturday, we drove down to Red Oak to do a walk through of our rental home.  The people were supposed to have moved out on Friday but they were still working on some things so I didn't take as many photos as I had wanted to.  However, we did measure all the rooms so I could lay out some plans this week.

Here is the front of the house (faces west).  The landlord has someone coming to replace the front steps as they are becoming quite worn but the boys loved running around on the front porch.  And sitting on the front porch swing!  I'm giddy - we have a front porch swing.  Not only that the porch faces west - great location for watching storms roll in.  I remember sitting on our back porch with my dad watching storms come in.  Granted that porch at home faced North but it was still memorable!

Here was the one interior shot I took.  This was probably the old "parlor" but it will be our living room.  Wood floors throughout - although they need some love and urethane.  The views are lovely from the big old windows.  We are a bit worried about how much cleaning there may be but we'll get it shined up.

A view of the back porch.  It sits right off the kitchen.  There is also a laundry and mud room area to the other side off the kitchen.

A view of the house from the driveway.  See that third story window?  That is a finished usable space up there which is where my sewing area is going to go.  Not to worried about heat in the winter but may need to look into a window air conditioner for the summer months.

Looking to the south of the property.  We have a nice clothes line.  The place is surrounded by Oak and Walnut trees.  Clark was picking up old walnut shells wondering what they were.  There are also a couple of apple trees on the property but they don't have many apples this year.  In addition, it supposedly comes with a large asparagus patch and I found the old rhubarb patch.  Our landlord is very open to us doing anything we want outside.  I think there is a nice sunny area to the east that will make a great garden location next year.

Finally, here is our livestock's lodging.  It needs some work to make it usable and winter ready; however, it should be a nice little area.  My picture doesn't it show it that well but the one side is concrete floor and the other side is dirt floor.  It is an open faced shed - facing south.  However, there's a nice beam that we can use to build an enclosure big enough for everyone.  This is the one downfall of the property - there is no garage and this is the only out building (and there is only one outdoor water hydrant which is up by the house so we'll have to haul water).  But for the price and location it's still a very nice property.  It is secluded and quiet which makes me happy - I like my privacy.

I think the boys like it - I foresee a lot of tree climbing in the future though.  We also know we'll need to build a sandbox since they already mentioned it didn't have one and that is their favorite outdoor activity (well - until we purchased a wading pool on Sunday but I'll post that tomorrow).