Monday, June 17, 2013

The Pre-Move-In Home Tour!

The home buying process in New York (especially on Long Island), is kind of crazy.  First of all, both the buyer and seller are required, by law, to hire a Real Estate Attorney and the Closing Date means almost nothing in terms of gauging when you might actually close.  New York grants buyers and sellers a 30-day leeway period past the contracted closing date in case either the buyer or seller needs more time.  What's more is that the seller can actually remain in the home for an additional five days (penalty-free) after those 30 days.  

Basically, what I'm saying is that even though our Closing "On-or-around" Date is July 13th, 2013, we really don't have any idea when we'll actually close on the house.  We *think* the seller is ready to vacate the home quickly and if that's the case, all we're really waiting on is our bank for the "clear-to-close."  

We haven't actually seen the house in over a month, since we were last there during the inspection. At the time, I didn't think to take any pictures of the interior (blame it on first-time-home-buyer's brain) and now, of course I regret it.  I keep looking back at the MLS-listing pictures to remind myself of what it looks like, as I'm totally in full-on decorating mode in my head.  The hard part is that I don't have any hard measurements of the interior, so all I know is how big our current furniture pieces are - not whether they will fit in the rooms we're thinking of placing them in.

With all that said, here are the Pre-Move-In photos (seller's furniture) of the inside and outside of our first home.  Since I didn't take these pictures, I find some crucial elements of each room missing and some rooms are not pictured at all, but they give a good general idea of what we're working with!

The home is approximately 1800 sq. ft. on a 7,000 sq. foot plot of land.  It's a Cape Cod that was built in 1953 and it has 4 Bedrooms, 2 Full Bathrooms, hardwood floors throughout, a partially-finished basement and a 1-Car Garage.  The upstairs rear has been dormered and the front has the "Dog House Dormers," which help add square footage to the upstairs bedrooms.

Exterior- Front
It's yellow aluminum siding with white trim.  We'd love to one day upgrade to vinyl siding and we're not sure what color yet, but we have time to decide, since the aluminum siding is in good condition.  In the meantime, we might like to paint the shutters a dark gray or navy blue to give some contrast to the front of the home.  We'd also like to improve the landscaping with some flowers/color: 

Exterior- Back
The backyard features a bi-level deck (upper level pictured below), a small shed, a small patio area behind the garage and a fish pond (which we think we want to remove).  It needs some work to clean it up and maximize the space, but we have some great ideas so far.  We'd like to add some nice wrap-around seating on the upper level of the deck for nice, intimate meals under the stars or outdoor breakfasts.  We think the lower level of the deck would be great for BBQs and a nice, big table with seating for when we entertain outside.  We're also thinking of ripping up the patio area to plant a garden and the rest of the yard beyond the deck would be for playing and lounging (with a hammock, of course).  


Interior - Entry/Living Room
The door on the right is the main entry door and when you first walk in, you are greeted by a staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms.  To the right when you walk in, is the formal living room.  It's bright and airy, which we love and it has a small pass-through window on the back wall that is shared by the Kitchen.  Our current furniture is dark chocolate brown and we'd love to paint this room a nice, pretty pale aqua to create contrast and make it even more welcoming.  We're not sure yet if this will also be where we watch TV, as there is an additional room off the Kitchen (an expansion to the original home's layout) and we think that might be a better Family Room.  We would like to maybe place some bookshelves on the wall to the left in the below picture and place lots of seating options for when we have guests.


Alternate view (with staircase pictured): To the right in this photo is the doorway to the hallway and kitchen.

Interior - Kitchen
The kitchen, in its current state needs a little sprucing up, but it was actually one of the things that sold us on this house.  Of all the Capes we saw, the kitchen in this one was, by far, the largest.  We knew it had a ton of potential, just waiting to be tapped into.
Here, you can see the pass-through window into the Living Room (left) and the doorway.  To the right, is the wall with most of the main appliances (Stove/Oven, microwave, sink, dishwasher(!) and some cabinet space.  
We have big plans for this room in the future - we think we'd like to remove the wall between the kitchen and living room completely to open up that space and then shift the cabinets and refrigerators to the opposite wall (not pictured).  Basically, it would be one big L-Shaped kitchen, but on a connected wall and not separated, like it is here, by the entrance to the living room and hallway (right). We've also thought about adding an island right down the center of this room, for additional seating and put a dining table to the left (sort of like how it's pictured here).  Oh, and someone laid linoleum tile over the original hardwood floors in the Kitchen, so we're going to try to restore them.

Alternate view of same room - showing only window in the whole kitchen and entrance to additional room (extension).


Interior - Additional Room
This room wasn't original to the home, but it's actually my favorite.  It's about double the size pictured here (on the other side of the french doors) and it's SO bright and airy.  It has lots of windows, plus the skylights above!  I think the owner was using this as a formal dining room, but I think it would make a great family room/office/den, whatever you might call it.  I love the fact that right outside those doors is the upper level of our deck and I think it'd be a nice place to guests to hang out.  The other option would be to use it as a formal dining room, but since the kitchen is so big, we could probably fit a nicely sized table in there, too.  Lots of options!  

Interior - Downstairs Bathroom
This is one of the two full bathrooms in the house.  It's out-dated for sure, but we know all it really needs is a face-lift and some smart storage.  We can't wait to update this bathroom and say goodbye to the pepto-bismol pink toilet and tub.

Interior - Downstairs Bedroom (1)
This is one of the four bedrooms in the house, but one of the two that are downstairs.  It actually has two closets and it's an okay-size - we think it'll comfortably fit a queen-sized bed, dresser and bureau and two nightstands, but not much else.  
One of the first things we plan doing is ripping up the carpet and (hopefully!) revealing the beautiful hardwood floors underneath.  Also, that unicorn picture isn't staying. :)

Interior - Downstairs Bedroom (2)
This is the smallest of the four bedrooms in the house and was being used as an office by the seller.  We are contemplating doing the same since I work from home most of the time, but we're also toying with bringing the office area out into the additional room off the kitchen and making this small bedroom a designated guest bedroom.
Thinking down the line, we also think it would make a great Nursery, since it'd be right next to where we sleep.  We'll have to see what makes the most sense!

Interior - Upstairs Bathroom
When you get to the top of the steps, there's the second full bathroom in the house.  This one is actually the better-looking bathroom of the two, with white fixtures and glass sliding doors for the shower.  We don't have to do too much to it, except spruce it up a bit (walls and floors).

Interior - Upstairs Bedroom (1)
Here is the largest bedroom of all four.  You can actually only see half of it in this picture, but it's simply a great-sized bedroom.  We have big plans for the upper floor of this house - we'd like to extend the front to a full-dormer and split this big bedroom into two separate bedrooms, so that we'd have three bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs.  We also think it's a great option as a Master Bedroom in its current state.

Interior - Upstairs Bedroom (2)
Currently, there is no picture of this bedroom, but it's been painted BLUE (that will change), has two closets and the hardwood floors need to be re-finished.  But it's another great-sized bedroom (similar to the one across the hall).

Interior - Basement
There is also no picture of the basement, but it's partially-finished and down the line, we'd like to fully-finish it.  It has a huge bar down there and a decent amount of space that might make for a nice kids room or play room.  We may not keep the bar area forever, but it's cool that it's there for now.  There's also a corner down there that we think would make a wonderful wine cellar for us Oenophiles!

I can't even express how excited we are to move in.  I can't wait to see it empty, ready for paint and furniture and to be lived in.  It's going to be such an adventure and I hope you'll stick around to see it all unfold!

3 comments :

  1. It is so charming! Congratulations!

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  2. Adorable home! Great curb appeal... loving the pale yellow with white trim. Can't wait to see the transformation of the interior via your blog! reenasliving.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you for stopping by! I can't wait to get in there and start the transformation, myself! :)

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