BURSTING THE BUBBLE

This has been a week of highs and lows. The highs included excitement and anticipation over touring a country house build in 1919. The house, barn, farm meadows behind it, and even the winding country road on which the house sits, all seem to add to the perfect country scene. I wanted to live in that setting. Spouse and I met our realtor at the house last evening and began our tour in the barn. It appeared the barn had been unused for decades. We'd been told (by the listing realtor) that a workshop had been built onto the rear exterior and ran the entire length of the barn. That was not true. The workshop turned out to be just two old musty make-shift rooms built inside the barn. Both were full of wood remnants and other "stuff", and one had a mountain of empty cardboard boxes in the middle of it. I had to leave the "workshop" area because of the strong aroma of mold and mildew.

The part of the barn which would have housed my furry felines was odor free and large enough to hold them comfortably, with lots of room for play, but there were no windows so the area was dark. Windows would have to be installed before I'd ever house my cats there. So the barn wasn't exactly as I'd pictured it. It actually wasn't at all as I'd thought it would be, but Spouse and I told ourselves we could open it up, air it out, remove the debris and make it work. Then we went into the house.

The house interior was decorated with a Victorian theme and was clean and inviting, but since there had been many room additions through the years, the layout of the house was a little confusing - it had no "flow". There were areas I loved, such as the family room with its gorgeous brick fireplace, and the light, airy all-seasons room with a wonderful view of the meadows and neighboring farms. I could have stayed in that room all evening, but there were also areas I didn't like at all. The two tiny second-story rooms, which I though might be a cozy sewing room and a small guest bedroom, were less than charming. It was obvious those rooms hadn't been touched for years. The bathrooms, while clean and nicely decorated, were simply too small for comfort and then there was the basement, which was downright creepy.

The kitchen was ok but very closed-in. I'm used to having a window over the sink and a view of my cabin and the woods behind it. Overall, I think my biggest problem with the house was how dark it was inside. There were windows, but due to the overhang on the outside of the house, the light wasn't getting inside. In the end, we pretty much decided this was not the house for us. I so much wanted it to be the one in which we would live and entertain family and friends, but even our realtor suggested we should keep looking, and so we will.