Alright, let's take a look at the inside of this bad boy.

No, I didn't just kill a juvenile delinquent, and I don't wish to dissect him.

Sorry.  I just watched Bones while I was working out.  It puts you into that dissecting and murdering state of mind, I guess.

I'm-a show you the inside of our soon-to-be-house!  We've gone there roughly 72 billion times in the past week to get measurements, meet contractors, tell the contractors what we want to do, have contractors measure stuff, listen to Gage mess with some old 1979 air filter in the bathroom, listen to Gage open and slam shut that big outlet that you can, like, put some kind of hose on and vacuum your whole house with, etc., etc.  I know my friend Em's mom had one of those vacuum thingeys.  Where does the dust go when you use those?  Any idea?  I always knew when Em's mom was vacuuming, because it was looud.  I could hear it across the street.

Anywho, are you ready for the tour?  Here it is.  And I'll tell you what we might do with our limited budget.  We've been crunching a whole lotta numbers.  And for those of you who hate to look at houses, this post will not be your favorite.  But I have several friends who loooooove to look at houses who will enjoy this immensely.

Kay.  Here's the front of the house:

Sorry I don't have a better picture.  I originally took my camera that day because I wanted to just document the things that needed fixing.  And the lawn needs fixing.  However, we aren't sure that the kind of loan we're getting to do the rehab on the home has provisions for lawn fixing.  So, um, hopefully the lawn will come back next spring?  It's dead as a doornail.

To the right of the driveway is a little strip of garden that belongs to our property:

I can't wait to get in there and dig all that crap out and plant some bulbs or something.  Yeee!

There are some damaged pieces of wood and some peeling paint:

As you saw in the last post, Ben wanted to put a new exterior on the house.  But after a little more thought, we decided we wanted most of the budget to go to the inside of the house.  Since that's where we're stuck 8 months out of the year, basically.  So we're going to paint it a few different colors, kind of going along with the idea Ben had - lighter brown on part, a deep, dark brown on part.... he'll figure it out.  I'm sure he's already figured it out.

As you walk up to the front door, behind you, you see a breezeway that leads into the backyard.  We might need to make a little gate there or something to keep our three-year-old safely inside the back:

 Let's go in the front door.  Here is what it looks like just inside the front door:

Ben doesn't like the laminate.  He's a floor snob.  He found some really inexpensive darkly stained bamboo flooring that he wants to put in all of the main living spaces upstairs.

In front of you, you see the stairway leading downstairs:

Yep, that fixture is old, but it will have to do right now.  As will the railing.  But the carpet you see in this main walkway of the house will be replaced by the dark bamboo.  That carpet is thrashed.  There are bleach stains, tears, dark stains, threadbare portions....it will be good to have a nice hard surface for such an oft-used pathway in the house.

Look, there's a coat closet.  AN ACTUAL COAT CLOSET.  We haven't had one of those in six years:

If you bear right, you will see the linen closet and laundry closet:

It's going to be such a dream come true to have the laundry on the main floor.  So excited.  And I think that tile is going to stay.

To the right are two bedrooms.  We thought we'd put the Two Littles in these rooms.  Kid's bedroom #1 (Micah has called this one):

 Kid's bedroom #2 (this will be Gage's room):

We're carpeting these two rooms.  Ben's floor snobbishness coming into play.  The carpet he picked is really luscious and soft, though. And the Home Depot installs carpet for free!  Can I get a what-what?

Oh, and here is the kids' upstairs bathroom.  All of the bathrooms have been updated and look so cool:

 Next to the kids' room is the master bedroom.  You will die:

Ben is okay with this laminate.  It's newer and nicer.  And he (and I) like the dark wood look.  Here is our closet (two doors, one space):

 We have an en suite bathroom.  Here is our sink:

I think I might swap this mirror for the mirror that's currently in our bathroom that I love.  We'll see. Our shower:

 A separate bathtub:

 And a pooping room!!!

Now we don't have to smell each other while brushing our teeth.  So awesome.  The master bathroom goes out onto a deck.  Don't worry - there are blinds in those glass doors:

Now, if you were to go from the front door to the left, you'd see the front room.  Which I don't have a picture of, for some reason.  Duh.  It's awesome, though.  The carpet there will be replaced with that dark bamboo.

If you go further in, you see this dining room (the dark bamboo will run through here):

 Then, if you turn right, you will enter the kitchen (my favorite part of the house):

The kitchen floor will also have that dark bamboo on it.

LOOK AT HOW BIG THIS THING IS!  It's going to be a dream to prepare meals in this space!!!

And there are these two huge pantries!!!  I've never had a pantry!  EEeeeeee!!!! 

You can tell better in this picture that there are two of them (and a cute little area for the kids to sit on stools and eat their cereal in the morning):

Unfortunately, there are fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen.  And they aren't working right now.  Ben moved one of the panels to look at them.  But we'll get some new bulbs.  Someday we can fix the lighting in there:

The living room (carpet will be replaced by that dark bamboo):

So the house kind of makes a circle, starting at the front door and circling left through front room and dining room toward the kitchen or circling right through the hall that leads to the bedrooms, through the living room, and toward the kitchen.  A person could run in a big circle in our house if a person wanted to.  I know four kids who most definitely will utilize that plan.

Let's go downstairs, shall we?

We're putting new carpet on the stairs - matching the carpet in the Two Littles' rooms:

And we'll fix this hole that got punched in the wall:

To your left you see this huge room (and Mikey and Ben and the realtor representing the house, Dave):

 The floor is cement.  A person could rollerskate down there while listening to Poison.  That's what my sister and I did when my family moved to our house when I was 8. 

The cement is painted.  I don't have anything against painted cement, as long as it has some kind of heated subflooring under it.  Where this doesn't, Ben thinks we should just carpet the whole thing.

Behind where Ben is standing in that picture is where we're going to frame in a bedroom for Dylan.  And Ben wants to put drywall over the wood paneling and paint it.

There will be a hallway running to the left of Dylan's room that will lead to the bathroom that he and Sadie will share:

A THIRD BATHROOM, you guys.  We currently have one 6 foot by 6 foot bathroom.  Can you feel the excitement that is emanating from me?  Feel it.  And again, could these bathrooms be any cooler?  There is  a bathtub there to the left.

Sadie's room is kind of on the other side of the mass of red cement.  It will also be carpeted that same color of carpet that will be throughout the house:

 This will be the perfect room for her to grow into a teenager in, because it has a MASSIVE closet.

And then she'll go to college and have a teensy-weensy little closet and be like, "Wha?"  Hahaha!

At the base of the stairs to the right is going to be my craft room.  Ben's actually drywalling and carpeting a craft room for me.  Because he's a rock star:

Here is the view from my future craft room.  Picture a wall with a door about halfway down this room.  Beyond that door will be our storage room:

Kay.  So the backyard.  You can access it from the living room or from the master bedroom.  Here is what it looks like to the left of the living room door - gate going to the front yard:

To your right - the deck that comes off the master bedroom.

Beyond that, a jacuzzi, which may or may not work:

Then you curve right.  This is the space behind the house.  The actual backyard.  It's MASSIVE.

And dead.  And there's a little boxed garden area in the corner:

I guess now I won't have an excuse as to why I don't do vegetable gardens.  In the past I've had an excuse - my entire backyard is like a shady forest and won't grow diddly squat.  Now I won't be able to say that.  Looking from the garden toward the front of the house - a gate to the left there.  The left building is the garage.  Those two windows to the right are the kids' upstairs rooms:

Oh, and here's the inside of the garage.  A two-car garage.  The luxury.

Kay, next time we go over, I'll take a picture of the front room.  Duh.  Sorry 'bout that.

We still aren't even close to closing.  The contractors have to give us their bids, and then we choose the contractors, and then we submit that paperwork, and then we can start the process of closing, which will still take 30 to 45 days.  And only after it officially closes can the contractors do their work.  For reals, yo.  So we have awhile to wait yet.

In the meantime, we'll be prepping our own house to sell.  More on that later.