A Summer Place, or Anyplace!

I think I may be nuts. Well, this isn’t unusual. See the bzz part of BzzLaraBzz? That’s because I’m incapable of doing one thing at a time, or turning my brain off for long. I’m always bzzzing.

I currently can’t stop thinking about a house. We looked at a house a few weeks ago (and again yesterday) that I thought had potential. It’s a big, old house, definitely in our price range. Way under in fact. The reason it’s way under is because it’s halfway renovated. A guy bought it with thoughts of renovating and flipping it but ran out of money halfway through and has to sell as-is. He’s bought most of the supplies, but cannot afford the time or the labor to do the rest. This means all plumbing and electrical is done, the walls are complete and re-textured, new subfloor is in, the exterior is painted, and he stopped. It’s actually nice that he stopped there, because he was going to carpet the whole place with this inappropriate carpeting and I would do wood floors. Actually, carbonized bamboo. And the carpet, if bound into smaller pieces, would make nice area rugs. It’s just wrong for wall-to-wall carpet in a house of this age and style. (I’m actually creeped out by wall-to-wall carpet. We have four kids, and two cats, and carpet does not fare well. I’m constantly shampooing it just to keep myself from being grossed out.)

The neighborhood is fine, mostly these big old houses interspersed with some smaller, less-old, but still old houses. (Craftsman bungalows, etc.) A lot of them are in the midst of being fixed up. You drive down the street during the day and there are a fair number of roofers and carpenters around, as well as some older folks puttering around in their gardens.

But, obviously this house still needs a lot of work. If I worked non-stop, there’s a possibility I could have it move-in ready in two weeks, but a month is more probable. And our current house has to sell before we can buy another. So, we’d be selling our house and moving in with someone else, or somewhere temporary while we finished the other house. But, completed, this house is my total dream house. Enough bedrooms for all the kids to have their own, plus have an activity/play room on the same level. A clawfoot bathtub in the kids’ bathroom. Enough living space on the main floor for me to have my own studio/craft room. A master suite with Jacuzzi tub and separate shower. Main floor laundry. A separate dining room. And it’s all financially feasible. If only our house will sell before someone else buys the other one.

I keep thinking about which window I would knit the bubbly curtain from Mason-Dixon Knitting for. What colors I would paint each room. Which kid gets which bedroom, and where the furniture would go.

Then I think, “Am I nuts? I’m getting so far ahead of myself, I’ve really got to be crazy!” But I really love this house. Sigh.

I stitched “A Summer Place” by Cross-Eyed Cricket (pictured above) while my tendon in my left arm was healing. (No knitting.) My 11 year-old daughter asked if we could just move in there. It’s on the beach; it’s cute. Why not?