Ok, so what is it about this house that I love so much? Why is it that I can't stop thinking about it?? Why is it that I will do a muriad of things to be able to live in this house???
I'll list the things I want our home to have...like dream home...to have:
-A view (mountains, lake, or something that would be calming on a hectic day) It has a creek that runs at the end of it, the creek is shallow (like maybe mid-calf or knee), very slow and Salmon run it!
-Nice yard (flat enough to have kid stuff away from the road) It has a huge back yard, that is flat with a few trees, a nice front and side yards as well.
-Green house. It has a large green house with the trays built in, a screen door and fan.
-Off the main flow of traffic. It is probably about 1 mile off Big Lake road.
-Privacy. There are 2 neighbors, one through quite a bit of trees, and I've heard doesn't live there much, and the other side is a house that is also for sale. It's belongs to the owners' parents of the house I like. The yard isn't very separate, but there really aren't a lot of windows on that side of "our house". I believe the sellers are also putting in a dividing tree line. (I would put in a row of raspberries!) Then across the creek, there is a land locked large parcel, not built on, and doesn't have a road to it.
-Garage space (for toys, vehicles, tractor, tools). Ok, it has a nice 2 car garage with built in cabinets and counters, AND it has a 1920 sf. shop!
-Near airstrip (for Mike) (Oh, near meaning that he could drive his plane home) Right across from this lot, the end you enter you driveway at, is a public, maintained air strip, and yes, within driving distance for the plane. It would literally exit the air strip and go down the driveway.
-Parking for visitors (and a plane for that matter) It has a HUGE circular driveway...plenty of vehicles could park there. Holiday parties would be a piece of cake!
-Home office space/craft room. Ok, this house has 2 "offices", the larger of the two is downstairs. It has a half wall high paneling job, which is fine. It has a built in cabinet with counter, and a stair case that goes to the master suite. This room would be my craft, activity room.
-Place for all of our books. This would be the second "office". It's upstairs and has beautiful built in cabinets and display cases. This would house all of our reference books and other reading material including all the magazine we have.
-Master suite (big walk-in, jetted tub, double vanity, walk-in shower, enough room in the room to have a sitting/reading area). Let me tell you about the master suite...I love it. It has a large picture window that looks out to the creek, and one that looks toward the green house and trees. It has a walk in closet that's amazing. The walk in has a huge built in dresser, 2 racks for clothes (one is a single rack the other is a double rack) a linen storage area, AND...a wall full of like a square storage area. It's hard to describe, but it's like a grid of square shelves for folded items. I love it!) Onto the bathroom...it has a corner jetted tub, a water closet (toilet in its own little room in the bathroom), a double vanity, a walk-in shower and a linen cabinet.
-Large living room with vaulted ceiling. It has a large livingroom with access to the back deck, vaulted ceiling. It's a very large room!
-Toy room/playroom. There is a playroom downstairs with 4 windows I think, so it's not dark at all. It's huge too and has an area that has linoleum flooring and a bathroom. This would be the perfect place for all the big toys and to play inside when it's not nice outside. There is currently a mini hair salon in the area with linoleum flooring, but it goes when the house sells. So a sink could be added there. This is also where I could have a business of before & after school care. I already thought of a name and everything!
-Rooms for the girls (and any future additions to the family) There is 1 room upstairs near the master suite it could be for Sarah now, and if another came along, then Sarah would be moved into Cassie's room. Cassie's room would be downstairs. Alexa & Monica would have a room downstairs also, and there would be one additional room (maybe a boys room? ...if we had a boy down the road)
-Room for exercise equipment (room for huge weight bench, treadmill) If we were to be in this house by ourselves (meaning my mom not living with us...which is a potential down the road), we'd probably put the exercise stuff in the MIL family room.
-Good size deck for BBQ and sunning. It has a nice size deck for a BBQ party or sun bathing.
-Entertainment room (TV, game consoles, surround sound, pool table, etc) The entertainment room could very easily be the living room. It is definitely large enough to fit all of the above. Or the playroom is another option. I'm not sure if the MIL family room would be big enough.
-Big kitchen (so stuff can be stored where it belongs, not on the counter) I love the kitchen in this house! It has double ovens, a huge island with lots of storage. We currently have 2 small upper cabinets, 2 lower corners, 2 upper corners, 1 cookie sheet cabinet, 2 long pan drawers, a utensil drawer above that, 3 regular sized upper cabinets above that, 2 regular upper cabinets above a stack of drawers and one corner, 1 narrow upper cabinet, and 1 regular upper cabinet and a floor to almost ceiling "pantry" cabinet. So counting the pantry cabinet as 4 doors...we have 13 doors, plus 4 corners, 2 smalls, 2 narrows, 3 shallow drawers and 2 deep drawers. The house I want has 4 small, 4 corner, 3 shallow drawers (that I can see) 14 regular doors, plus whatever else is on the 2 sides of the island you can't see. I seem to recall that there are 3 cabinets or 2 cabinets and row of drawers on the side closest to the sink, and 2 more on the fridge side, plus whatever is below the shallow drawer you can see on the other side of the ovens. I would be very tempted (depending on what table we put in the dining area) to put in a raised bar stool area on the flat side of the island that is just a panel.
-Double ovens (so holidays would be easier) This house has 2 stainless steel ovens, stacked next to the stainless fridge
-And island in the kitchen It obviously has an island with lots of storage. We don't use a microwave...haven't had one in our kitchen for almost 2 years I think, so that space would probably be for cookbooks maybe?
-Room for an extra freezer or two (to hold some Alaska food like fish & moose). There would definitely be room in the garage, for another freezer or two. The entrance door to the garagee is just beside the fridge in the kitchen. There's also another kitchen downstairs. I don't think it has an oven though.
-Large dining area for a table to seat at least 8 comfortably. I love this dining space. I love the window that views the creek and the back yard. It lets in a lot of light. I also like the variety of wood tones used in the floor. At the far left of the dining is a door, it has a water cooler/dispenser thing that is the entrance to the pantry.
-Arctic entry, or mud room (for a bench, shoes, coat rack, etc) If looking at the kitchen picture, you see the counter that has no wall, and cabinets above it...the door is back behind that...behind that door is an arctic entry and coat closet.
-Open space withing the main living area (so if I'm cooking I can enjoy those not in the kitchen) I like that the dining area and kitchen are right there, and that you can see into the living room from there as well.
-Pantry (good size for Costco type dry food sizes, large appliances like crock pot, juicer & bread machine if they don't fit in the kitchen) This pantry is amazing! It has tons of storage. It's the size of a normal walk in closet.
-Laundry room (on same level as rooms, with a counter space for folding, cabinets for chemicals, hanging rack, sink for rinsing some items) This laundry room is on the upper level, so is on the same floor as the master and 1 room. I like that because I have wheeling laundry carts and they would come in handy. Right now, we have 2 stairs down to the garage and 13 stairs to the upstairs...carts don't works so well. I know that I would get laundry done and put away faster if it all has a place to go.
-Guest room (strictly set aside for visitors) As I mentioned before, there would be 1 extra room downstairs.
-Linen closets in bathrooms (for towels and necessary items) Obviously the master bathroom is set, the MIL bathroom has a linen closet, as does the main upstairs bathroom. The bathroom in the playroom doesn't have storage other than the cabinet under the sink because it is just a toilet and sink.
-More contemporary feel (not old, dark woods, paneling) Most of this house has been remodelled in the last 2 years or so. The master bath was done the end of 2007, along with the other bathrooms in 2006 and 2007 I believe. It all looks good to me, except...the 4 bedrooms have panelling. Not all of them have all walls done, but that would have to at least be painted over. The wood floor in the kitchen and dining area is mostly dark, but I like it. So a Cherry table or Maple table would look just fine because all of the shades are in the floor. The play room also has the 1/2 wall height of panelling, but I think that's fine...actually a protective barrier for the walls, so I would probably leave it. Maybe paint it for a splash of brightness though.
-Natural gas (for cooking and heat) The house has natural gas for heat and stove. The shop is currently on heating fuel. I would think that putting a wood stove in there would be quite efficient for heating it, rather than using the heating fuel.
What else does it have? It has a sparsly treed lot near the airstrip that a small cabin could go on for extra income. It also has a privately owned airstrip that goes through the middle of the property (owned by the neighbors that aren't there much). The airstrip is not used much, because the man is getting older, and could use the public airstrip if he wanted to.
What is it missing? Us.
So...with this blog, I ask for prayers. I have my heart set of raising kids in this house, and having a business from it as well, where I will have the opportunity to share God's love with others who may not already know it. God says in Matthew 7:7-8 "7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." I don't think wanting this house is ungodly. I don't want it to flaunt it. If you know me, you know my heart is not wicked. I believe that if we are supposed to have this house, we will have it. It's been on the market for almost 3 months this time. It was on the market last year for $100k more than it is now. Mike and I saw this house in February, by the owners (whom know my father-in-law). I really liked the space it offered then, and the outside was under snow still. It was just way too much for us then. I ruled it out then, even though I still liked it. I happened to be looking at what was out there, just to see...because this is also something I do, why, I don't know. But it was listed again! So the initial price last year was $499k. When I found it listed in June it was $399k! And upon some research, I found it had been listed in April for $440k. The family that owns it is quite well off. They owned Homesteaders Truss Plant in Big Lake, now owned by Spenard Builders' Supply. They have another home out of state. And the man of the house bought a full size road grader just to do their driveway! How amazing is that? That's not it though...he paid to have it shipped down to Colorado, rather than selling it up here and buying a new one.
A little background about how things would look if we lived there. Yes, the payments are slightly more...about $400 more per month than what they are now. However, from the profits from our house, we would have enough extra to pay off one of two student loans I have. We could pay both off, but the second's interest rate just went down to like 1.6%, so we're ok with that. The other one though is almost $400 a month, so...even steven. Plus, I have the intention of having my own business of before & after school care as mentioned in another blog. I don't think it's foolish, I think it's an investment. The asking price right now on the house is $59k more than what the borough has listed for the assessment and appraisal. My intention, when Mike is ready, is to offer $350k. I have a number in my head that I've had for over 2 months, that I believe we would be offered in return, and I would be ok with (but let's face it, I would buy it for $400k!). So that amount, for the record is $385k. That number has been in my head. I don't know if that will be the selling price, or the asking price when we make an offer. I believe it's a God thing though.
So anyway, thank you for your prayers in advance.
