‘Adulting’

Now that you know a big part of what Kiley and I have been up to for the past six months, maybe it’s time for a little background…

We were living at The Gallery, which is a fantastic, historic 1940s knitting mill that was renovated into lofts several years ago.  Our loft was awesome.  We loved it.  However…since we lived right next door to an active railroad and the windows were thin, we knew it wasn’t going to be a long term home for the both of us.  Initially, we weren’t even looking for a house, especially one that we could label a more ‘permanent’ one.  But hey, it wasn’t the first time where something that we weren’t directly looking for came along…I mean, that’s kind of how we met!

Anyways, we looked at probably 30 different places, and none of them felt like they could be our new home.  At this point, we decided that we were looking for a house, but the search was seeming endless.  After a few more weeks…somehow, somewhere along the way, we ended up finding one. It was a little different than the others and in mid-February we went over and visited it.  It was a ‘For Sale By Owner’ house that was located in the area we were interested in, and Kiley spotted it 5 minutes after it was posted online (if that tells you at all how often we were checking the internet for a new place).  The minute we pulled into the gravel driveway, we knew something was unique about it.  Something special.

We opened the door, and wow. It was special, alright. We immediately thought it would be perfect! Well…we saw it that way, but in reality and to just about everyone else, it was the equivalent to a halloween-themed fun house.  You know, like one of the ones with the wacky, lopsided floors and walls and cobwebs everywhere; almost looks like its falling apart but somehow you’re still able to stand up. Oh, and without the ‘fun’ part.  Yeah…it was pretty bad, but we loved it anyway.

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It had tiny bedrooms and bathrooms, with a bright sun porch on the right side and a fireplace right when you walked in the front door.  The staircase was wooden and four layer of lead paint-coated, and there was orange and green wallpaper everywhere.  Wood floors had paint stains and shag carpet remnants (scars from surviving the 70s) and the kitchen floor was actually sinking in.  Windows were shattered and doors had been sawed down from decades of settling.  Ivy was everywhere, seriously…everywhere.

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We asked Kiley’s dad to come over that same day and look the place through, since he’s a licensed contractor and home inspector in the triad.  I honestly can’t remember the first words out of his mouth but I bet it was something along the lines of “this is something else”.  True.  We could tell he saw a lot wrong with it, especially after he was done working his way through the house.

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He didn’t approve right away, but we convinced him.  The place was perfect; “it has so much potential,” we kept saying.  And eventually he agreed with us, and said we should try to go for it.  So here we are, renovating the home of our dreams and ‘adulting’.