Exterior Photos

We bought our first house! It was estimated to have been built in 1895 here in our new home town of Lake Orion, MI. We first saw the house in August while visiting friends who live a scant 6 houses down from us. We were walking from their home to the Sagebrush Cantina when we passed this lovely pink home for sale and I literally walked backwards in order to gaze it at a bit longer....

We had just arrived in Michigan and it was far too soon to consider home ownership in earnest. We did, after all, just move from our 450 sq. foot Brooklyn Apartment, and my fondest wishes for living spaces were nothing more than a dishwasher and in-unit laundry options.
One Sunday in November, a price reduction on this house had caused it to pop up in one of the many property listings that I subscribe to and we called the realtor to schedule a visit that very day. It was the first house that we had visited that inspired us both-- there were so many wonderful details from the front porch, to the original woodwork and door brackets on the interior that captured our imaginations, and we spent the next few weeks looking more earnestly at other homes in the area to be sure that this was one indeed as great as it promised to be.
We saw a few more historic homes, which were dismal. Single bathrooms, creeky stairs and slightly scary basements. We saw some more modern homes, but decided that though they are often shiny and move-in ready, we wanted to move in to a home that had a bit of history and character where we could leave our own mark.

We made an offer the Monday before Thanksgiving, and it was accepted on Tuesday! We closed on December 21st and moved in after Christmas on December 30th.

The purpose of this blog will be to chronicle our adventures in renovating our Sweet new-old Victorian. When we moved in, our greatest wish was to know exactly how the house got to where it is currently-- was the third bedroom upstairs a late addition? Was the addition of the 2 upstairs bathrooms what prompted the removal of the original staircase? etc., etc... So this will also help us chronicle our research into the homes history, and explain our decisions.