Open House

It's possible that some of you know what a delight I get from attending open houses.  Daniel occasionally allows me to indulge this happy past time when we come across an auction sign.  Somehow in passing I mentioned this to Sarah who replied, "I love open houses, too!"  I looked at her face seriously.  "How much do you like them?"  I asked her.  "A lot."  And then she magically added, "We should totally go to some open houses on Saturday."  My head exploded with glee as I enthused, "Okay!"  So, Sarah looked online at homes for sale near us hosting open times and we made a list to see the ones that looked most interesting.

In the four years that Sarah has lived in this house, she has often thought about kitchen and bathroom remodels, so we were going for practical reasons as well as for fun.  We wanted to get some ideas for how we could one day change our home.

Saturday morning I came downstairs to solidify my plans with Sarah.  I told her I had two ideas:
1. We go as two rich snobs who just came into some inheritance money and want to buy a fancy house.
2. We tell the truth that we're just looking for ideas for our own house.
Sarah was all about number 1, so I ran upstairs to put on make up.  (It makes my face look more fancy.)

The first house we visited is right around the corner from us so we walked down to have a peek.  It was huge!  Eight bedrooms (with the actual potential for eleven!), two kitchens and a swimming pool.  We rated this house a 7 - 71/2.  We still would have made changes to it, and for that much money, we didn't want to put in any work.  (You see how we are committed to our characters' story lines?)

Sarah likes the idea of glass panels in cupboards.

She was so game when I asked her to let me

take a photo of her on someone else's couch!

We loved this little screened in porch.

The second house was creepy and disgusting.  Sarah said twice she felt like she needed a shower after walking through it.  It was very old and no one had been living in it for a long time.  I think we rated this house a two because it had three neat fireplaces and I liked the backyard.

This fireplace is in the kitchen.

The broom behind Sarah is where the fridge would go.

This is downstairs; needs a little work.

Sarah almost put her head through a spider's web.

I warned her just in time!

The backyard was like an untamed jungle.

We had a few minutes before our next viewing so Sarah drove me to see one of her old houses in Brisbane.  That day she actually showed me three different places she has lived here.  This last one was on "whynot" street.  Apparently her housemate at the time chose the property solely for the purpose of living on such a cool street name.  

This is the most stolen street sign in our city.

I was lucky this one was here, at the other end, there was no sign.

The city replaces them monthly.

At the third house we were impressed with the large deck at the front, and the floors upstairs.  Overall we were not blown away.  Remember that we were playing snobs, so it was going to take a lot to impress us.  The agent at this house was an older man and he was extremely bored.  He gave us permission to take a photo at the piano.  And I think he was disappointed when he discovered that I couldn't actually play it (as was I).  He was, however, interested when he learned that I'm from America.  He had lots of say about New York, Las Vegas, and Hawaii.  And he had lots of ask me about the pacific north west.  I entertained his questions and encouraged him to do more traveling, promising that I would do the same.  Our countries are huge.  (so, yes I broke character temporarily, but he did let me plunk the piano keys which I felt merited my honesty.)

Window seats in master bedrooms we like. 

Another sofa, another comfy Sarah. 

I have piano fingers!

When will I learn to play?

We may have rated this house a six, which Sarah thought was generous because the downstairs was not complete.  Perhaps I was just rating the pretty baby grand.

Fourth and final house:

This is what we want to do with our kitchen,

open it onto the back deck with a bar.

Sarah is practicing holding a drink! 

I seriously could have napped in this swing, it was so comfortable! 

The two agents were upstairs with the couches so I suggested

Sarah hop up on this bed.  Laying down was her idea,

which I think is genius. 

Yes, I'm peeping on the bath.

Who puts a window from a bedroom into the bathroom?

(peepers, that's who)

So, this was our last home and we gave it the same rating as the first house.  Later we had to lower the number because Sarah noticed there was only one bathroom downstairs.  And that's just too many peepers for one bathroom.