The minute we walked into this house, we knew it was the "project" house we'd been wanting. It is old enough to have charm and to need work, is well-built and well-maintained so it doesn't need massive structural work, and has not been updated for many decades (excepting some fixture replacements...not all...and a few things here/there...all perfectly acceptable!). A blacksmithing family built the house in the late 1800s--we have a photo dated 1890 in which the house figures prominently, so it was built at least by then--and five generations of the family subsequently lived there. The folks who sold it to us were doing so to settle the family estate. They are the last of the family line and live very far away, so they cannot live in the house themselves, but they wanted to ensure that the "right" buyers purchased it. Apparently it has been in limbo for some time and they have turned down flat several offers to buy the house/land because they feared the house would be torn down or unappreciated. My DH and I wrote a letter to accompany our purchase offer: he is a planner with an architectural background, and I recently graduated with my MAHP, so historic houses are just our thing. :) It's the funniest thing...when the realtor was showing it to us she was very apologetic about the kitchen/bathroom and how dated they are. To me, the kitchen is one of the best rooms in the house because it hasn't been gutted of any of its 1940s-50s charm. It's an addition that hasn't changed much since it was built, as far as we can tell. PERFECT! I had to tell the realtor after the closing how much her apologies had fallen on deaf ears. Every time we walk through the door I'm struck by how it feels like home. We have an electrical crew rewiring right now (fishing new wiring into the old K&T chases), but once they're done it'll be ready to move into. I can't wait. As we've explored the various trunks, dressers, hutches, etc. that are there we've found some fascinating family history as well as some great house history. I have shivers just writing about it. Of course, there are a few problems. At one point the upstairs bath (a closet with a toilet and the tiniest sink in the world) had a minor leak. We'll need to do some probing to ensure that there's no rot or fungal problem lurking. And, probably because of the moisture and heat, the kitchen plaster walls are not in the greatest of shape. However, the plaster in the other rooms is lovely, and from what I could see in the attic, at least the second-story ceilings are remarkably well keyed. Woohoo! The woodwork has not experienced the dozens of paint layers that frequently accompany old houses. There's no real wood rot, even on the exterior wood, that I can find. We'll need to strip off the steel siding to reveal the clapboard underneath, but that will wait until spring, after we've gotten a few other things taken care of. I know this is the longest post EVER, but I can't resist telling the story of this house to some folks who will appreciate it! Most of our friends/family seem to fall into the camp of "Are you nuts? You must be absolutely nuts!!"

graywings, thank you for the brochure idea. Don't know how I didn't think of that also. (Truth to tell, you GW folks are usually my first and sometimes my only thought.) The roof color is pretty accurate. I'd call it a medium blue. Probably in the second photo the part of the house on the left is the closest. I'm not sure what "marine blue" is, but on my monitor SW "Lobelia" looks like the roof color. Thank you very much.

Caroline, this one is just a desk-size lamp. I have no idea what he would do with the real big one which comes in a wooden box marked "fragile" or Fra geel ea as the Dad would say. Glenda and Sue, the fun of this gift will be to hear his laugh when he opens it. When I showed it to DH he cracked up which is exactly what I expect from my son. I shall wrap it and put it in the closet with all the Christmas wrappings, that way I'm not likely to forget it next year. The fun gift this year was a baseball cap from the Masters with several pro signatures on it. He collects baseball hats.

Here you go!!! Some pics on this post: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/rtrm-furniture-layout-for-mb-lr-dining-dsvw-vd~5439784  We don't even have a coffee maker! HAHAHAHA. But I'll try to do a little something something :D Even if it's just saying hello with some ultra nutty pecan bars :D I'm hoping to buy some bar stools for the kitchen asap... ones that will go under the island as temp eating. We are also going to be getting one of those 6 or 8ft tables from costco with folding chairs for the mean time, if that's what we eat on for Thanksgiving, so be it. It will give us the "Remeber 35 years ago, our first thanksgiving in a new home and we ate on folding chairs and paper plates?" -- well we have plates. hehe. We figure that this type of table/chairs will ALWAYS come in handy during parties. Also more links about our journey there.