Well, I see that it's been quite a while since I blogged. We've been busy, but not with anything I felt anyone would want to read about. We spent the first part of the new year looking for a house. After an exhaustive search, we found one and put in an offer only to find a better one the very next day. Fortunately, because we had a very good agent & the first sellers were squabbling amongst themselves over whether to accept our offer and hadn't done so yet, we were able to get out of the first house and put in an offer on a house that had only been on the market for 11 days.
I will say that this is not a huge house (more like a cottage)nor is it perfect, but I feel that it is perfect for us and was such a good price that we just couldn't pass it up. Mainly because of its location. The first time we saw it, I was sold because of the sounds of the fast-rushing stream that runs alongside our property--can't wait to sleep with the windows open after pollen season is over.
Okay, now, it is in Hendersonville and it takes a drive down some pretty and winding roads to get to the little cove where it sits on a small hill in Willow Creek Farms Subdivision. It is sits on an acre of beautiful land, a gently sloping lot, with far off views of the mountains in the distance if you look out the back deck and of the pond and gazebo for the community if you look from our front porch.
It has my cathedral ceiling in the living room & a fireplace (that had a gorgeous stained glass firescreen in front of it, but the sellers took it with them, so I will be on the lookout for another). Oh, but the most whimsical part? It is BLUE!!! With red trim!
When we looked at the house, our agent, Bruce, whispered to me, you know you CAN paint it. : ) Yes, but I haven't decided yet whether I want to or not. I may like being the blue house on the hill. But I may decided to repaint it a beautiful gray to go along with the name we have decided to call it: Abbotsford Cottage. Ray came up with the name when he said it was to be "home to a retired Scott writer, with the main house 3874 miles away near Melrose, Scotland.
We visited my illustrious ancestor's home, Abbotsford House, on our last adventure abroad. This was after I determined that Sir Walter Scott was indeed my ancestor. His house is a gorgeous whimsical creation down in castle grey with turrets everywhere. So since I am also a writer & retired (from teaching) and since my maiden name is Scott & my lineage is in the Sir Walter Scott line, Ray says we can call our new home Abbotsford Cottage. Now he just has to get to work building those turrets!
We have BIG plans for renovating and remodeling that we have been working on since the moment we put the offer in. Ray has designed a great master suite that will be added to the right side of the house. To the back of that & also connected to the back deck will be a separate writer's cottage for me. He is also building a sunroom off what is now the dining room. We haven't yet decided what to do about the kitchen, but new appliances are a necessity. The bar that separates the living room from the kitchen will be moved out to the sunroom, creating a pub-like atmosphere.
What is now the dining room & master bedroom will be a library for all our books. The master suite will have a sitting area and 2 HUGE closets. We are ripping out the carpet from the entire house and most rooms will have hardwood floors; haven't decided whether the living room will be hardwood or slate.
Anyway, we are so ecited to finally have a home again. SO many projects ahead--enough to keep us busy for years, I am sure. But we will slowly make it ours.
Just wanted to share the news with everyone. Now back to turret-building and carpet tack removing. : )
Pictures all taken from ad for house: our house; view of mountains in distance; view of large pond in front; gazebo in front; stream.
