The Dream Neighborhood and a Crazy Week.

Do you have a dream house? Or a dream location? Or a dream neighborhood?
Well, we do. We have wanted to live in an arts and crafts cottage in downtown Weaverville (an area around the old Weaverville College, and Main Street) for many years. For a variety of reasons (but not for a lack of looking), we have been unable to find the right house there. But recently, we found the right house there (pic). And, for the first time - it could be in reach.

Here is why:
So, as you may know from the previous post - we nonchalantly decided to put our house on the market on Monday. Though we have had our eyes on the aforementioned house, our expectations were quite low concerning the sale of our home. But, we accepted an offer on our house on Tuesday, and immediately placed an offer on the house that we really want in Weaverville. That offer was accepted yesterday. So, if everything holds together in this deal - we are moving to our dream neighborhood in mid April. We have our fingers crossed, and are once again realizing that the universe always has its way of working things out. It is typically my patience that needs the most help. :)

So, if I allow myself to daydream a bit, this is what it looks like: (cue "dream sequence" music here) I have taught school in this community just north of Asheville for 11 years now, and both Jessica and I have come to love it. So this could be our dream house. I could begin riding my bike to school. (My school is only 2.5 miles down the road) It is a 2 minute walk to the bakery, pizza place, public library, pharmacy, etc. It has an amazing front porch, and a giant rumpus room upstairs for the beautiful ones. It is a simpler house, in a simpler neighborhood - and we are all about simplifying our lives. So, there is much to get excited about, for sure.

But it is not perfect. (cue "back to reality" music here) It has the basically the same square footage as our present house - but it is sooo much older (example: Our current house was built during the George H. W. Bush administration. The dream house was built during the Calvin Coolidge Administration.) And with old houses come a whole new set of issues: draftiness, strange basements that may get damp, lack of storage, etc. In addition, it also only has one bathroom presently (though we would aim to remedy that immediately).

So we are feeling totally overwhelmed, excited, and nervous. But we are busy. And busy hands are happy hands. So now we roll with the punches, pray, follow directions, and try not to screw this up.
So listen up folks! If you have any great advice, or suggestions for contractors/carpenters that you would just love to tell us about, then send it 'em our way.