Want vs. Get

When we decided to buy a house, there were a few things that we decided we really wanted. We wanted at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Sure the extra bathroom isn't a necessity, but to us it was important enough to exclude any house that didn't have at least 2. We also wanted a house that was not too far from his office. That meant both actual miles as well as the time that it took to drive those miles. We looked online a lot to narrow the search. We set a budget, and admitted to ourselves that to get our ideal location, we were probably going to have to sacrifice condition. You can change a house, but you can't change its location, at least not without a huge cost increase. The probable sacrifice was ok with us as we are pretty handy and have family and friends who know things and can help out when we need it. We also wanted to be able to put our own stamp on the house and make it ours. No one wants to rip out granite because they hate the color someone else chose, you know what I mean? We ended up buying a house in a great neighborhood that's close to work, school, shopping and everything else, but it was stuck in the 80's. We are trying to resuscitate it, but it's still a work in progress. We have a lengthy list of things that we'd like to do to it, and we frequently go over that list and make revisions and adjustments based on what's driving us the most nuts at the time. Here are a few examples of want vs. get.

We wanted a good looking house. We got this pink house with purple shutters & huge trees & bushes.

We wanted to put vinyl siding on, but we have that budget thing so we got paint. ( and a chainsaw)

Not too bad huh?



We wanted an open floor plan, but we got this divided kitchen and dining room.

So. Much. Wallpaper. :(

We have slowly rehabbed it into this. *Note: the pink carpet will be disappearing in a week! WOOT!

We added the bar, the window over the bar (which used to be the back door),  the french doors & the coffee bar. We have not however, added a real countertop to the bar. (It's on the list)

For now I will stop there, but be assured that there have been many more improvements which I will post later. Sometimes it's not what you get that you have to live with, but rather what you want. Make it happen!