Our House

We put an offer in on a house today! It is in Milwaukee (which is somewhere I swore I would never live (97th St.)) and it is a fixer-upper (something I swore I would never buy). But it is huge, and it seems structurally sound. Most of the work is cosmetic--don't get me wrong, it will be a lot of work, but it really has a lot of potential. It is actually a duplex, but we will be living in both sides, as a single family home. Later, we will split it back up and rent it out as a duplex for some extra cash. Right now, though, that means that we have loads of space. It has a basement, but honestly, with how much space there is, I don't think we will need it. We are going to have all the bedrooms upstairs--we are going to actually use the upstairs living room as our master bedroom, which will be so nice, after the cave the we have now. That gives us 3 extra bedrooms downstairs for a playroom, an office (beats the closet I have now...seriously, my office is the coat closet in the living room right now), and a work out/sewing room (let's be honest, we won't be using that room very often).

Anyways, they counter-offered at $3,000 more than we offered (we offered $148,000, they countered with $151,000). Mike wants to counter back with $150,000. I say whatever, just take it, but if it makes him happy...

Here is what it looks like from the outside. It isn't really that great looking from the outside, it needs some work.

We have 2 kitchens. Which to use??? The one upstairs is bigger, but do I want to live downstairs and cook upstairs? We will figure it out. The counter tops are awesome, they have little boomerang shapes in them. The bathrooms are really the highlight of the house. It seems that pink bath fixtures were all the rage back in the 50's. Love them. If anyone wants them, they will be coming out soon. This one is even better. I absolutely love the turquoise tile.

Anyways, the rest of the house is good, new carpet and hardwood throughout. We definitely have our work cut out for us. It should be good, though. We can stay here for a couple of years and then move on. 1&1/2 years is the longest we have stayed in any house. We'll see if we can set any records here.