Come on a-my House.

Here is the soon-to-be latest Bartel house in Durham. It's on a little cul-de-sac. We quite like it. Here's a little tour of the house as we saw it last, with the current owners' furniture arrangements and paint and such. They're super organized.

The white door there is the front door. On the right, there's a wood-burning fireplace.


This is a view from the kitchen, looking out into the dining/living room (you can see the fireplace with a picture on the mantel through the kitchen pass-through). The kitchen isn't huge, but we think it will definitely be sufficient for our needs. And we're fans of the extra storage under the breakfast bar there.


Here's the master bedroom. The window faces the backyard. There's a master bath, which is cute. Lacking my dream giant bathtub, but cute.


Across from the master bedroom is the nursery, conveniently painted yellow. There's a little bathroom in the hall, too. And a small linen closet and the washer and dryer.


There's also a guest bedroom, which we'll use as an office (sorry, guests - you're welcome to crash in our living room).

Oh and a garage. And a couple more closets... I think that covers it.

Here's the backyard. It's pretty big and has a good number of trees, which we like. It's also fenced, which will make Olive very happy. We're thinking we'd like to have something other than a chain-link fence, but it's not going to be the first change we make since the fence that's there will work. There's a little shed that will make a good storage place for the lawn mower we'll have to procure. And just imagine the yard without the super awesome playset, because it does not convey with the house. Much to Baby B's dismay.


So that's the house as it is right now. We have a closing date of April 22, and we think it should work out pretty well. We hope to have the paperwork side of things (inspection, loan, etc.) pretty much taken care of by the time Baby B comes, and then we'll have a little time to adjust to the wee one before we have to start moving. Technically, we'll have until mid-August to finish moving - as that's when our lease at the townhouse is up and we can't really get out of paying rent. But that will give us time. It will mean that we don't get the $8k tax credit until next year, but we're okay with that too.

We're pretty excited to be almost homeowners. OH, AND, guess what? There's a first-year student in the school psych program at State with me and we've been talking about buying houses since this past fall, sharing information and asking each other questions and embarking on the hunt, etc. at the same time. And this morning we were talking and comparing notes and yadda yadda yadda we come to find out that Jonathan and I just bought the house right next door to the house that Curtis and his wife just bought two weeks ago! Isn't that nuts? We're pretty excited to already know some neighbors!

Alright everyone. Tomorrow I combine two of my favorite blogging topics with my 35-week checkup followed by the new house inspection! I'll fill you in on all the news as it comes.