We’ve been looking at houses for about 18 months. Both of us are very deliberate decision makers when it comes to the big stuff (see: neither married until age 41). In fact, our mortgage banker called us “creepy” (as in overly conservative) when we revealed all our financial bits to him. Let’s just say we’re comfortable being comfortable when it comes to finances and housing, which doesn’t really square with this adventure we’ve embarked on.

The first time I saw this house I thought we’d love it. Sure, it stank. Bad. It was cluttered. Horribly. It was overgrown and underloved. But there was something about the courtyard in the middle of the house that screamed “Braniel!” So, we bid and bought it… and neither of us has slept particularly well since the bidding and purchasing occurred. It’s going to be a lot of work. But after 7 days of ownership things are already beginning to turn around: the floors are refinished, the plans for the master bed/bath and guest bath are almost complete. And most important, tomorrow the heating duct cleaners come to (hopefully) remove the stank from the place. A funny thing, if mice die in your heating ducts and then you turn on the heater it spreads a nearly unbearable scent throughout the house. Fingers crossed for the duct cleaning tomorrow!

We’ll post pictures of the progress (or look in the right column photo strip).