Death and Destruction: First Time Home Buyers, Part 2

We had a fun holiday up at the ranch (Tyson's family property - very remote area on the Utah-Idaho border). Tyson's dad owns an old farmhouse up there that Tyson renovated out of absolute decrepit deterioration three years ago. We got to show it off to my side of the family, and also had some fun riding four-wheelers. Now back to my FIRST house hunt...

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If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I can be extremely long-winded. It's endearing, right? Right!?! Well, imma try to wrap this up quick. When we left off, we had just made an offer on an '80s house and then decided not to counter their counteroffer.

We liked another house a lot, this one right in town. But the day we were going to make an offer on it, a canal that ran behind the property broke a short distance from the house. The ensuing flood and mudslide killed a couple of neighbors two houses down. We got scared off and moved on.

That's the short version, but here are a few details about the house.

It was a sort of strange 1960's house whose garage had been converted into living space (most of it a tiny, questionably-legal 1-bedroom apartment). We loved the yard the best, and liked the mid-century house, too. It had tons of light in the living room. Instead of a backyard (it was right up against an extremely steep hill, and that's where the canal was), it had a HUGE, private rock patio to one side (the main entry side) and a big lawn with fruit trees on the other side (the kitchen/laundry entry side). It  had some very odd features, like a Mamie Eisenhower pink kitchen with handmade resin hardware. Each knob had something different encased in it. I totally expected to see fossilized mosquitos, but instead it was different varieties of dried legumes. Sooooooo glad I found a picture to represent. Just imagine vintage cabinets instead, and just a few specimens in each knob. Crazy. Crazy.

Photo from www.myfavoriteandmybest.com, by Jenny. Fun blog, but cover your ears if you don't like "language" :)

The canal break definitely put a damper on things, and seemed kind of "sign from God"-ish, so we moved on. Very sad situation for the family who lost loved ones. The canal has been closed since then, I believe, and is still being reinforced/re-routed. We also pass this house from time to time, and reminisce about how much we loved that yard, and how we could totally see ourselves having parties on that patio. Last time I drove past there was a Little Tikes playset in the grassy part of the yard. I hope the house is loved!

Very interesting garage situation, eh? The door you see entered the apartment. The door to the main house was up a set of stairs to the right.

In this aerial view you can see the grassy yard to the left of the house (fenced, with fruit trees). The amazing private patio was to the right of the house. You can also see part of the canal in the upper right.

I've marked the house with a red star. Now look down the street to the west and you see the mudslide area where the canal broke.

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In the next installment we put in yet another offer. Will it be our final one? I'm sure you'll be waiting with bated breath!

Vintage 1970s Dream Home: The Grounds

Note: This is Part Four of a series where I rhapsodize about a house I'm in love with that is too expensive for me, doesn't have enough bedrooms, and needs a complete remodel - or at least needs a certain heart-shaped bathroom removed from a red-shag-carpeted BEDROOM in the basement. Want to see it? Check out Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Last time we finished looking at the inside of this 1970s house. We drove through these gates when we got here.

And now it's time to turn around and drive back through them on our way out.

Looks super fun to shovel/plow in the winter, no? Or to drive on in general in the winter months. Let's not think about it. Quick, find something to distract us. Hey, there's that mysterious modern building in the upper right hand side of the picture. What could it be? Maybe a map will help us figure it out. I'll tell you one thing: once Tyson figured out what it was he was very enthusiastic about the house.

I've used my awesome MS Paint skills here to outline the approximate shape of the lot, and also to note with a yellow star the location of that modern building. Yes, it's the clubhouse of the lovely Birch Creek Golf Course on the hill in Smithfield. I reminded Tyson that if we buy the house he won't actually have any money with which to go golfing, but he says he would just walk up the street and hit a bucket of balls every few days.

As you can see from the map, the lot is rather oddly shaped. Maybe a letter C or a rough, chunky drawing of E.T. holding up his finger? Can you see it? I can, so let's go with that. The head of E.T. is just naturalized landscaping that can be accessed from the road that runs alongside it, or from the finger area of E.T. It is separated by huge retaining walls from the grass parts of the lawn directly behind the house. The chunky finger of E.T. (far right area of the lot) I believe to be the garden area and the fruit trees. This is accessed from the east lawn. I didn't see it in person, though, so I'm not totally sure.

My mind goes wild with the possibilities here, but mainly along the lines of camp-outs in our own little woods (we loved having wooded property at our second house in Pennsylvania), tree houses, homemade applesauce, fresh corn on the cob, dance parties on the driveway, etc. Heck, why not even rock climbing holds on the retaining wall! (I just thought of that this very second...genius, right??!? Don't think about the hazards.) And there's really not that much grass to mow! (Also don't think about the snow-shoveling/plowing aspect.) I won't say much about the rest of the pictures. They just show the back and side lawn areas and the covered patio off the upstairs family room.

Oh, and the bars on all the windows. From left to right I think those windows are master closet, master bathroom, pink bedroom, hall bathroom, laundry room (behind the bushes)

Here's the covered patio off the family room/kitchen, looking south to the carport where that truck is parked. Come on over for a cook out! Don't worry, I won't lock you into my house behind all these iron bars!

Big retaining/privacy wall across the back of the lawn area

An exterior tour isn't complete without admiring this view one more time.

Okay...time to say goodbye.

Well, that's it for the...longest...house...tour...ever. What do you think of the grounds? To those of you who are landholders, is this just too much work? Would you like to come over for a game of croquet on the east lawn? Would you like to come to a dinner dance on my driveway, and see the lights of the "city" by night? Would you like to go camping in my woods? Wow, I am really good at selling this place...to myself!

Beloved Vintage 1970s Dream Home: The Master Suite, Living Room, and Basement

Part three of my beloved 1970s Dream Home (part one here, part two here, part four here). Let's do this. We were last walking down the hall, and now we've passed the laundry, dining library, hall bath, girl bedroom, and also a linen closet that is not pictured. Next we arrive at the master suite. For the king and QUEEN of the castle.

I'm not sure how the colors read on your monitor. On mine they look silver and pink, but in reality the color scheme was more peach and blue. That blue tone-on-tone damask wallpaper? We're gonna see a lot of it. The master bath has a bathtub and separate shower, a vanity, and I'm assuming it also had a toilet but I don't see it in these pictures and I don't remember where it was.

Carpeted bathroom. Moving on to the master bedroom proper. First we come to the walk-in closet.

Like the dining library, this room is long and narrow. It is lined on both sides with closets. Just imagine a mirror image of this picture on the other side. Like the dining library, the walk-in closet has a huge chandelier. Okay, I think by the looks of it I'm going to stop calling it a walk-in closet and start calling it a dressing room. It doesn't have a door that closes it off from the rest of the room, though. So maybe dressing hall? If you were standing and taking the photo above, you would have your back to a bunch of floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinetry. Doors, drawers, etc. You can see a tiny portion of it in the next picture.

Let it be known that this carpet is MORE PURPLE in real life. And there's our first taste of the wood paneling that will now become ubiquitous throughout the rest of the house. Fireplace #2 makes an appearance.

Another view of the bed, and a conveniently located avocado green telephone. Some of you may know that I am obsessed with tufted velvet headboards.

More built-ins in the master bedroom. More EVERYTHING. More wallpaper, more drapes, more purple carpet. MORE! While I know books would look great in those glass-front cabinets, personally I'd fill them with rows and rows of gorgeous shoes.

Switching gears, let's pretend we're guests and enter through the front door. I said they had a surprise, right?

Stained glass! (Not two creepy eyes. though that's kinda what they look like in this picture.)

As you come in the front door there is a coat closet to your left in a little entry area, a biiiiiiig coat closet in perpendicular to you in a hall that leads to the main hall of the home, and there is also the fancy staircase that leads downstairs. I wish I had rung that fancy doorbell. I love a good doorbell chime!

One thing you can kind of see in this picture, and hopefully a little better in the next one, is the crown molding. It's a chunky, thick (maybe 7" tall by x 5" deep from the wall?) curved convex molding with an egg-and-dart detail. Kind of like this one. It is lovely. It's used throughout the entry, living room, and master bedroom, though I don't think it's shown to best effect by the dark wood paneling that often abuts it, such as in our next stop, the living room, which is on your right as you come in through the front doors..

For having such lovely molding, it's a shame there are no baseboards! The carpet runs up the walls instead. Above you see fireplace #3, another grand chandelier, some heavy drapes, and blue wall-to-wall in the cavernous living room. The drapes shown above cover one set of the french doors onto the east covered patio.

These drapes cover the huge south-facing bay window. There are sheer drapes against the glass, then the thicker drapes across the bump-out, so you could walk in and stand in a little room surrounded by curtains. My usual m.o. with curtains is to never have any because I can never decide/afford what I want. But after all, "Curtains!?! Who needs curtains!?!" That was for you, Alice and Emily :)

The staircase is quite wide and grand. Of course, it goes downstairs rather than up, so it's not really all that grand. At the bottom of the staircase is another odd feature. When you reach the bottom of the grand staircase, to your right is this:

Now, for some reason I don't recall this being closed off by a door of its own, but it must have been, right? The realtor said the family referred to it as "the vault". It's a concrete room under the front porch and portico. Most people use this type of space as a cold storage room, but there's actually another cold storage room in the house that we'll see soon. This concrete room is a big old question mark. but I have plans. Oh yes, I have plans.

On the other side of the staircase a short hall leads to this gigantic family room space. It's divided into two rooms by a huge walk-around double fireplace. This side of the room might be for lounging or movies.

This side for games? Again with the built-in storage. There is room in this side of the room for a pool table and a game table.

The double fireplace as seen from the game room side. The back side of the fireplace also features a safe concealed in the brick. You know, where I can keep all my valuables.

Then we have a room you already got to see, but in case this sight wasn't seared into your brain, I'll refresh your memory.

The "exercise room". I'll let you determine what kind of workouts we're talking about.

The bathtub. I didn't mention this before, but the faucet on this bathtub is identical to the one at my current kitchen sink, and the one in my parents' Centerville kitchen sink. ????!!!!???? Sort of like this one, but an older model. Again, my reaction can only be summed up with question marks. ????? Why a kitchen tap in a bathtub?

That's the 3/4 bath that adjoins the tub room. It can also be accessed from the hall. It's hard to read the date on that calendar, but the last times April 1 was on a Monday were in 2002 and 1996. Update: On closer inspection I think it says 1991, which also had a Monday, April 1. I guess someone hasn't worked out for a while!

Attached to that bathroom is an imported Finnish sauna. For some reason I'm remembering it as having two rooms, but I don't know if I'm right on that.

Hmmmm. This large bedroom contains a wood-burning stove. I think I'm beginning to get the idea about heating this huge house in the Cache Valley winters. I pretty much can't get on board with the idea of my boys sleeping in a remote bedroom next to a hot stove. I'll have to think on that.

Also downstairs is this gigantic storage room. But what I'm thinking is, this = theater room and the "vault" = storage room. Good idea?

That concludes the interior portion of the tour. You may be wondering, where are the rest of the bedrooms? But that's it. This 5000 sqft house has only three bedrooms. I mean, I guess someone could sleep in the dining library or the tub room, but as it stands there are really only three bedrooms. See why I said the house is wrong for us in size and function? Twice as big as we need, with half as many bedrooms. One of the whole reasons for moving is to gain another kid bedroom and hopefully a guest bedroom. This huge house has neither, without some creative rearranging or the addition of a second story (don't think I haven't thought about it!).

Okay, despite that leeetle drawback, there are still more things I've yet to show you that go in the plus column. Come back tomorrow for a walk around the grounds!

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Let's be honest here. Some of you who have been yaysayers, what do you think now that you know the bedroom situation? Anything anyone liked particularly about today's set of pictures? I know the photo doesn't do it justice, but the master closet is quite amazing. Too bad I'd have to give the master bedroom up to one or two of my children so I could sleep in the room with the wood-burning stove. But hey, then I'd be that much closer to the heart-shaped bathtub!

Beloved Vintage 1970s Dream Home, Part Two

Many thanks to my yaysayers and my naysayers who commented on my post about my vintage 1970s dream home. (Click that link to catch up on my ill-advised, unrequited crush on this house.) I'm back today with the more of the pictures and info. (See Part One here, Part Three here, Part Four here)

I should probably tell you that the MLS# of this home is 1092769 and it is listed by Jacob Howell of Century 21 N&N Realtors. But don't go running out and stealing it out from under me! Jacob told us the home was built in 1977 by a custom homebuilder for his wife. She designed the layout and gave mucho design input. Something tells me the "exercise room" (sauna, tub, etc.) may have been his domain.

Okay, you'll recall that when you approach the home you're greeted by this amazing automatic wrought iron gate that says, "You're not allowed to come in here and steal my furniture, but you wouldn't want to anyway, because I don't have any, because I spent all my money on this house."

Before you enter the gate there is a large, level asphalt area with a basketball standard and parking for a few cars.

Proceeding up the drive you first see the east side of the house, which has a covered patio reminiscent of the north facade of the White House. Those french doors lead to the living room. More ironwork. Lots, lots more! And that's just the start of it.

Next you proceed past the south side of the house, which features a portico over the main entry. Waaaaaaaait a minute! Where have I seen this before? Sensing a theme? The bay window on the right is in the living room, and the window on the left is in this room that I'm not sure whether it's a library or a formal dining room, or in my world...BOTH.

"Why yes! I DO have a lion on my porch! How kind of you to notice! No, no, no, no, no...not at all ostentatious!" Incidentally, my current front door is of the exact same style as these front doors (though single, rather than double). Coincidence? Or fate??? I say exact, but I mean in shape and style. These doors hold a special surprise you'll see when we reach the entry hall.



Arriving at the top of the driveway you can pull into the double garage, or just under the double (possibly triple?) carport. The door you see to the right enters into a small vestibule off the kitchen/family/informal dining area. There is also a large additional room behind the garage for wood storage and a workshop. Or for hoarding vintage furniture. Whatevs.

See that railing to the left? Go ahead and walk over there.



Boom! Sorry it's blurry, but that's the western view from the property. Oh, the sunsets I could watch from here! Let's make a quarter turn and look southward.



BOOM! Hello, entire valley. Hello, mountains. This is also the view from the living room, formal dining/library, and semi-formal dining room windows. Yum.

Okay, for good measure let's make another quarter turn to take in the view east.



It's about a half-mile walk up into the mountains. And what's that building on the right? We'll cover that later.

Moving on, we'll head into the house. We're family, right, so we can enter through the kitchen door rather than through the fancy double front doors. Like I said before, we enter into a little vestibule with a coat closet and bench. A mini-mudroom, if you will. Not pictured.

To our left is this family room, with a fireplace and french doors (more ironwork) that lead to a covered patio in the backyard. I hope that tangled, corded phone is included. What a treasure. You'll also note our first of many sets of extravagant draperies. This is the casual part of the house, so these are casual draperies.

Closeup of the fireplace (one of six in the home). Sign me up for the hot pink cinder sweeper!

Okay, here we have the kitchen, which is on the right as you come in through the vestibule. You can see the coat closet door and the knob of the exterior door. The cut-out above the dishwasher looks into the family room. Is that a....microwave??!? Cutting edge circa 1977? And a very complicated-looking wall oven with lots of instructions? And a brown dishwasher? But wait, there's more.

Flat range with two burners that seem to be more popular than the others, brown trash compactor, and then there is, of course, the special cabinets and cabinet hardware. 

Bar and semi-formal dining area as seen from the middle of the kitchen, Where is the fridge, you might be wondering?

Fridge-ezzzz, I think you mean! Two side-by-sides sit side by side on the wall opposite the sink. #AstronomicalRenovationApplianceBudget.

A door can close off this informal wing from the rest of the house. If we proceed through that door and into the hall, the first room on our right is the dining room-slash-library.

I wish I had a better shot of this room. It's long and narrow and is lined on both long sides with identical banks of room-length, floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinets. SERIOUS amounts of cabinetry. Up there in the upper-right of the photo you can see a bit of the chandelier.

There are at least ten chandeliers in the upstairs of the home. Most of them are big like this one, with a few smaller ones thrown in for good measure. Oh yes, you can bet I'd find a way to work with them!

Across the hall from the dining room is one of my favorite rooms in the house.

The laundry room! I wish this photo were better, because it is more PINK in person. PINK. PIIIIIIIIINK! Wallpaper = Keep. It's a fairly spacious room with more cabinets, a counter, and a sink on another wall.

Next on that side of the hall is this pink room. Not the same kind of pink as the laundry room. In other words, not the good pink. Though it really wasn't as dusty pink as it looks in this picture. But yes, very pink. Carpet, wallpaper, drapes, chandelier. Could be kinda sweet, though.

Hall bath with harvest gold sink, bathtub, and, yes, toilet. My world, my question: If I had a yellow toilet, how would I know when someone...was letting it mellow...so to speak!? Very concerning. I live with a bunch of boys, you know! The little ones try hard and usually remember to flush, but the big one...

Okay, this post is getting epically long already, and we still have so much more to see. So many more drapes. Sooooooooo many more. The royal purple carpet. The paneling. The paneling. The paneling. The other five fireplaces. The sauna. The lot. The orchard.

I think we better save some for tomorrow!

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What's your favorite pic/part from today's post? I think my favorite was when it dawned on me that this house was trying to be the White House. But if I lived there, my favorite part would be the laundry room wallpaper. PINK!