Closing day!

We just closed on The House of Goodwill, on a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky April day.  As we entered the house for our final walk through, all the doors were open and a gentle breeze was blowing off the lake.  The azaleas, irises and columbines were all in bloom.  So beautiful!  Honestly, I really didn’t want to leave, and as we walked down to the lake I was wishing we could rent out our primary home and move to the lake house instead.  (Alas, my son still has two more years of school before graduation and we don’t want to uproot him.)

We definitely have our work cut out for us at this house.  It was built in 1974 for the same family who sold it to us.  They cared for the house meticulously.  It doesn’t appear as if much of the house was changed over the last 50 years.  It reminds me a lot of the house I grew up in in New York that was built in the 1970’s – dark, dark wood cabinets and molding everywhere.  Because most of the windows in the house face north and south (I don’t remember the stone façade in the front of the house having any windows at all), there is also not a lot of natural light in the house.  The current paint colors are on the darker side, the floors are dark, and it all adds up to the house feeling a bit cave-like, and not as open and airy as a lake house in my imaginings should be.  So lightening up the house with paint and furniture will be the #1 goal.

Without further ado, here some pics from closing day:

Front of the house

The entryway

The living room, with super cozy fireplace.

View into the dining area, with most excellent 1970's banisters.

The kitchen.  In great shape, and has beautiful back splash tiles.  But not looking forward to painting those cabinets!

One of the bathrooms, with a fluorescent-ish, avocado colored bathroom sink.  I have a feeling that most people would rip this out immediately.  I actually love the color, and will defnitely be keeping this!  (Note: in the 1970's home of my childhood, the downstairs bath had a vivid orange laminate sink.  It was equally awesome.)

One of the bedrooms with a built-in desk.  Convenient!  Now my work-from-home husband has a place to work while we're there.  Future renters, bring your laptops!

More groovy banisters in the master bathroom.  But one odd discovery that will need to be rectified - no door on the master bathroom! (This is one life decision that seems a little hard to understand.)

The downstairs "basement" walkout lake room, with spiral staircase.

The "basement" kitchen.  They left the barstools! Yay!

View out the front door through the stone columns.  I suspect Mike Brady was the architect here.  I have some mixed feelings on these.  More to come on that.

View of the lake from the back porch.  Love the porch swing facing the neighbor's house, NOT the lake!

The back yard.  Looks like the house came with a paddle boat!

Look closely at the terraced wall.  The former owners left a concrete alligator (sadly, with a broken tail)...AND...

a fake snake, next to the fake flowers!  (They're staying, of course!  The animals, I mean.)  I had not met the owners when we first toured the house, but I immediately loved them.  I feel we definitely bought the house from some kindred spirits.

And, finally:

A view of the "beach house" as the former owners called it, looking up toward the house from the lake.  This small building seems to have some flood damage to cabinets inside it.  (Apparently it was a good size screened-in storage shed/workshop.  This place has tons of potential but will have to wait till we have a little income rolling in.)

Let the project begin!