One Year Anniversary in 225 Winthrop Dr.

A year already??  No...you're jerkin' my chain!  So many things have gone on over the last year; moving from Austin up to St. Louis and all that comes with living in the Midwest.  Starting a new job.  Making new friends.  Exploring our new city. Traveling. 
Oh yah, and buying a house....quite possibly (hands down) the biggest change of the year (of our lifetimes). 

I still cannot believe that we've lived in our house for a year.  I thought it would be fitting for today to be about how 225 Winthrop ended up as the house we decided to make our first home. 
When we were laying the groundwork of where our ideal area would be to start searching, we figured that it would be reasonable to live in the middle of where our two jobs would be.  As you can see below, we pretty much nailed that spot on.  (my work is yellow, Terry's is Red, and our house is purple)

Our next step in the house-hunt was to just hit the ground running.  We looked at close to 15 homes with our realtor.  I dont know if I'll be able to describe this it right, but after many many house tours, walking into our house was the first one that I felt like "this is it".  I told Terry with only about a minute into looking around that "this is our house, I love everything about it".  He looked at me a little puzzled and he figured I was overwhelmed for the day.  I just felt it in my gut. 

Next, we wanted to narrow down what our deal-breakers were and what things we could compromise.  Deal-Breakers (things we wouldn't sacrafice) Large backyard.  Semi-fixer-upper.  2+ Bathrooms.  2+ bedrooms.  Spacious Kitchen. Garage.  Our Compromises (things we wanted but could live without) Basement (I'm from the east coast...I love a good basement!).  Newer Appliances.  Front porch.  Patio deck.

Here was the house during our very first walk-through.  Even through the old feel of the home, we saw so much potential.  The layout was perfect for us (Our #1 layout factor:  The bedrooms need to be away from the living area.  Learned that in our rental in Austin).

Holy Wood Paneling

This was move-in day

This morning. :-)

Walk-Through view from the hallway entrance. 

Move-in Day, view from the kitchen entrance. (remodeling has thus far included exposing the hardwood floors that still need refinishing and the dual colored paint with chair rail shown in previous posts.) 

Current:  Paint  and  Hardwood Floors

Walk-through.  Holy Smokes was it dated!  Still, it had such a good feel to it, it was open, lots to work with, and could picture us spending a lot of time here.

Move-in day.

Today:  And sorry that this is my best shot right now considering all the mess, but it is the only one that captures that we have all newly revamped cabinets, recessed lights, granite counters, gorgeous undermounted sink, butcher block island, pendant lights, and stainless steel appliances (the stove is still to be swapped with our stainless gas once we run the gas line).

Walk-Through. Master Bedroom.  Changed the paint, still need to put in crown-moulding.  Still deciding if the paint color will stay or be changed.

Walk-through.  Front Living room.  It was so dark and dismal, but we changed it so much that this is increasingly becoming one of our favorite rooms.  Re-painted the walls, added a french door leading to the kitchen, stripped and re-stained the floors, new furniture, new baseboards.  It's almost complete!

This morning:  Again, pardon with the mess.  Just wanted a shot from the same angle.  This room is about 75% finished.  Will post when it is entirely done.

Walk through: Master Bathroom.....how we got past the color still baffles me!

Move-In Day: Guest Room

Today: New Paint, new doors, Completely new guest bath.

Move-in day: Hall Bath.  YIKES!

We finally stopped dragging our feet and put in the offer.  Our realtor said that she would call us as soon as she heard back.  We were out driving around doing, what else, looking at other homes. Summer called and said they accepted our offer on the first go, didn't have to deal with all the back and forth.  I started crying, Terry rolled his eyes at me, gave me kisses, and then we headed to the closest bar we could find (which we just recently found it again driving home from downtown Belleville) and had a celebratory drink.  We called everyone in the family.  We were just so excited!

Fast forward a month from then, I was sitting at work, just waiting for the phone call from Terry to tell me to start heading "home".  Needless to say it was not a very productive work day. :-)

So much change, especially change in each of us through this project.  Terry has more and more become reasonable with the idea of letting me use a power tool and not thinking that I'm going to mess things up (although it's taken a lot of complaining).  He's become a great teacher, even if he uses as few words as possible to get to his point.  I've certainly gained more confidence in my abilities, but still need to stop with the hesitations.  I've also really started enjoying DIY projects and now just have to put all these great finds into action in our home.

So much change, but the one thing that I'm so happy that has stayed the same is "us".  Of course there was apprehension in buying our first home, and of course there were the "Are we going to be able to agree?" scenarios, but as a whole we have had great luck...or at least had very easy compromises.  We've learned far more about each other re-building this house than we did in the first "living together" set-up in Texas for sure.  We were able to make decisions together, and agree (and disagree) but I learned...I wont speak for Terry even though I suspect his opinion is the same...that I value his opinions and ideas and his idiosyncrasies so much more through this process.  He makes me so happy, everyday, even in the days where his OCD makes me want to shake him as hard as I can.  I'm as much in love with him today as I was the day we moved in, as our time in Texas, as our time in Maryland, and I am so glad to be on this journey with him. 

Enough of that lovey-dovey mess......WHAT'S IN STORE FOR THE NEXT YEAR!!??!!   Well I'll tell ya.....BATHROOM DEMO!!!  Our hall bath and master bath are just as atrocious as they were the day we moved in.  That's right....I could take a picture today and they pretty much still look identical. We figured it'd be best to start in the guest room to have it completed before we knock out two bathrooms in one go.  Also on the plate is pulling out the carpet in the hall and computer room to expose the hardwood floors.  Ugh, and also to be done.....more painting.  Obviously I'm dragging my feet, but the computer room needs changed, as does the front bedroom needs a re-paint. Can't wait to see all the improvements of the coming year!!

Happy 1-year house anniversary!!