Our Little Piece of California?

Our house search may have come to fruition more quickly than we anticipated, since we are in escrow on a home already and if all goes well, we will be California home owners as of April 6th! We looked at perhaps 8 or 9 houses, this one being near the end, and we both fell in love with the property almost immediately. It is not perfect, but it meets nearly all of our criteria, and has a ton of potential. I did an inspection today, and crawled through every nook and cranny. Other than a few fairly minor issues, I am happy with the findings. Here are a few photos:

This is a shot from down the street, our house being center in the distance. The street is a half circle off of another street, which is nice for visual effect and will also limit traffic to those who live there since it doesn't go anywhere.

This is the house. It is deceiving, because it goes back a long ways on the other side so it is bigger than it appears. The front is cedar shake siding, but the other three sides are stucco which is typical here. In the future I will probably add a front porch roof.

This is the fireplace in the living room. There is a gas line, so we can burn wood or use a gas log set. The wallpaper border must go! The carpet and paint are brand new, but we will paint colors we like, and we checked and there are original hardwood floors under the carpet in every room! They will need sanded and refinished so we will take our time but eventually eliminate the carpeting. There is a large family room at the rear of the house which also has a brick fireplace and opens to the back yard.

This is the dining room, and beyond is the utility room with ample laundry space, a deep sink, and I will build a pantry since the kitchen is a bit small. The master bedroom suite is left from the utility room.This is part of the kitchen, which will need updating. It is very useable as is, but we will one day remodel from top to bottom.

This is part of the back yard. The tree in the corner of the house will come out immediately, but the one on the left is a lemon tree (I picked one today) so it will stay. We have plenty of room to plant other citrus trees, a nice vegetable garden, some palms, etc. There is also a nice covered patio off the side of the 2 car garage which will be great outdoor entertaining space.

It isn't ours yet, and there are still a few things that could torpedo the deal (appraisal results is the main last issue) but everything is looking good for a closing in about 2 weeks. Pray that if this is the right move for us, things will come together as planned.

That's it for now. Take care! Mark