Our New Home!

Welcome to our new home in Royal Pines Place!

We placed an offer on Monday the 27th of December (the same day we viewed it) and yesterday our offer was accepted!  

Our inspection is today and we get to go over there to poke around a bit and chat with the inspector after he's finished.

The entry way is very bright and open.

I don't love the paint colors throughout the house, but we'll take care of that soon enough.

This room is directly to your right as you walk in the front door.

These rooms are usually wasted spaces, but it won't be wasted when we live there! 

It's going to be our library!

From the front door, this is what you see ahead of you:

There's a coat closet (nice-sized)

The dining area is straight ahead.  You can see the kitchen, the stairs to the upstairs, and the living room is across from the kitchen to the left.

Straight ahead are the sliding glass doors and THIS VIEW OF OUR POND (shoveled for skating in the first photo!)

There's a deck under the snow in the backyard.

Here is the house from the street on the back of the pond (the gray one without a deck):

I saw a woodpecker and a cardinal while we were there viewing the house.

The house feels as if it's in a rural area, but it's not far from anything.  We are excited about the NATURE that will surround us and the fun we will have exploring!

Back to the inside, this is the living area.  It's a bit of an awkward shape, but I'm looking forward to playing around with the arrangement and finding just the right furniture.

There's a beautiful fireplace!  Thankfully it's a gas fireplace so all we have to do is flip a switch to turn it on because I don't want to have to chop wood, carry wood, and deal with ashes.

The bookcases are nice (though we won't probably put the TV there).

Here's a photo from the bookshelf area towards the kitchen.

It's a big area, it has a gorgeous view, and it will be wonderful for entertaining our friends and lots of family members!

Closer to the dining area:

Here's the kitchen!

Though I prefer white cabinets and white countertops, this kitchen is better than the one I appreciate and used heavily in Arizona!  There is a LOT more storage, there's a lovely island, there's a great stone backsplash, a tall faucet, a PANTRY, and lots of counter top.  It's also bright and cheerful and looks out on the pond and the trees!

The older white appliances will need to be replaced soon, but that's great because then we can choose exactly what we want!

This is the main floor powder room.  What a horrible color (to me - I hate dirt colors inside houses),

but it's a great bathroom!

There is also a bedroom on the main floor:

AND A LAUNDRY ROOM!

That thing to the right is a dog kennel which will be removed by the seller before we move in.  I'm planning to put a bench there with shoe/boot storage/drainage underneath.  I'm excited to have such a lovely laundry room and mud room.  We'll enter this room when coming in from the (3-car!) garage, so it's nice that there's a big coat closet, too.

Now we have moved up the stairs.

This is the first of three bedrooms upstairs.

We will not be leaving it purple.  The closet is pink inside, so I'm pretty sure a princess lived here.

There's also a light grey room (why oh why is grey such a popular color right now?!)

This is the first upstairs bathroom.  Again, lots of dirt colors that feel depressing to me,

but I'll cheer it right up!

This is the main bedroom - look at the fabulous view!!! 

I'll get to wake up and look out at the sun rising over the pond.

This is the main bedroom closet and it's nice and long!  I already have some baskets in my Amazon cart for on the shelves above, because I think we need some help keeping things neat.

Here's our main bathroom.  Jacuzzi tub, double sinks, good light, shower;

that's more than what we need!

Even a lovely view!

I don't normally take baths, but a nice bubbling jacuzzi might be nice after getting chilly outside.

This is the downstairs bathroom.

There is a nice heater in there so anyone showering there will be warm and toasty.

This is the downstairs back room.

We don't know yet how we're going to arrange the downstairs.  There's a lot of room down there and it could work in lots of different ways.  I'm thinking this could be the foosball room.  It could be a yoga/exercise room.  It could be a downstairs game room or family/TV room.  The white door is under-stairs storage (not very big).

This is the main part of the basement.

The flooring is nice, there are a LOT of lights, the paint is new.  Also the view is lovely!

This part might be a seating area maybe with a TV?

Or perhaps we will also use it for ping pong?

Or we could perhaps install a gas fireplace on that outside wall?

This is the basement bedroom.  We are planning for this to be my office.  It's lovely, with lots of closet space.  It will be good to store my toys and equipment in there!  I don't yet have a good desk; in fact, we will need to assemble furniture over a long time span.  I hope to thrift a good amount of it because it's interesting to have a mix of styles.

Then, of course, we must discuss the fact that there's a POND in the backyard!

It's gorgeous and it's a HUGE blessing after living so long in the desert!

Here are the floor plans, in case you're interested in that sort of thing.

All floors:

Upper floor:

Main floor:

Basement:

 

We are VERY HAPPY and overwhelmed with God's goodness to us.

I would never have dreamed that we would even be living here in Minnesota again, to say nothing about having a beautiful home like this that will suit us so well!

Thanks to Greg's Dad, Rick, for being at the walk-through with us and for being willing to help us adjust the small things the inspector noted!  We appreciate you!