Yes, we closed on our house today. Halle–freakin–lujah! It was rather a stressful few weeks, but I have to say our loan processor and our realtor were fantastic. Both of them kept me from being too emotional and also gave me enough insight so that Michael wasn’t asking me “why” every 15 seconds. It’s not nice to want to beat your husband. If you ever need some money, I will give you Starr’s number…and if you ever want to buy a place in the Triangle, please call Peter Rumsey. They are good, good people.

Tonight was a little bit of an emotional let-down. We’ve been so hyped about the house and all the things we can do with it, that we just were over it this evening. Tomorrow we’re meeting with contractors that will tell us how to spend all our remaining money, so that should make us giddy again.

In the meantime, it is only fair that we share the “Before” pictures. Now before you get all judgey, remember who we are. We like old houses with original character, we like changing things, we like painting things, we like fixing things, and we like thinking that the ghosts in the attic are friendly and won’t entice us to turn on our neighbors and recreate a good ole slasher film. Have some vision or we’ll make you sleep in a tent in the backyard when you come to visit. Hopefully the wild pack of corgis won’t keep you awake all night as they try to herd your sleeping bag.

What we have is an unadulterated home from the early 1900’s with almost 11′ high ceilings, two fireplaces, heart pine wood floors and original wide moldings and wainscotting. It sits in the historic Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood and is in walking distance to the library, restaurants, markets and a huge park. It is a fabulous urban neighborhood and the house NEEDS LOTS OF WORK. And we love it.