Dreaming

There is a house a few blocks away I have been coveting.  For years.  I used to walk by and wonder what it was like inside.  It's an older brick home, with a porch a gazillion windows and views of the Cascade mountains.  It's a two story with a daylight basement.

It has had only a couple of owners so I was pretty sure that many of the original features were intact. 

Then last fall it went on the market.  The Sweetie is a real estate agent so he took me through it.  He warned me that it needed work - lots of work.  I didn't care. 

You might think that because he is in real estate I get to go through houses all the time.  I supposed I could if I asked.  The reality is that I go through about 1 a year.  Usually, it has to be something pretty special.  But, I digress...

So he opens up the front door and everything is original.  Windows, hardwood floors, lighting, oak staircase, fireplaces (yes, several).  Gorgeous.  I am in love.  I even know where the Christmas tree would go.

There is a downside to 'everything is original".  Electrical, plumbing, HVAC... the list goes on and on.  The sweetie keeps muttering 'money pit' as I swoon over new each room.

The listing price is well over my comfort zone (under a million but not by much) and it needs about $500k to bring it back to it's former glory.

It is a very large house (over 4,000 square feet) with something like 4 or 5 bedrooms - many with adjoining bathrooms and fireplaces, a sun porch, butler's pantry, work shop, two garages.  Totally impractical for nearly empty nesters.  And yes, it is a "money pit", but in the right hands....

So it's sold to some one who's going to fix it up.

But, last week the Sweetie tells me it's back on the market.  (What?!  How lucky could I be?) Overpriced - at over a million now.  And the remodeling, incomplete, doesn't seem in line with the money the owner claims to have spent.

We were driving in the car yesterday - together, in the same car, which almost never happens - and the "Money Pit" comes up.  And I launch into my fantasy...

We win the Lotto (which I never play).

We buy the Money Pit - even though it's overpriced.

We live in our current house while we remodel the Money Pit - with money being no object.  We do a great job, maintaining as many of the cool original features as possible.

We move into the Money Pit.  We keep our current house, which we allow the Kidlet to use once he graduates from college and begins his Life.

In the Money Pit we have plenty of room to have family to stay as guests.  Lot's of them.  Any time.  I fix up the yard with lots flowers.  Can't you almost imagine the Disney-esque birds helping sequence from Snow White or Cinderella?

The Sweetie looks over at me (worried) like I have lost my mind.  Which, of course, I have.  Then we have a laugh.

Now, if only I bought a Lotto ticket...