EEEEeeeeee!

That, my friends, is the sound of a pre-teen squeal of sheer excitement. But it is not coming out of The Bean; it's coming out of me.

I've bought a house. It's been nearly three weeks of visiting the house, visiting it again, putting down an offer, negotiating the price, settling on a price, getting quotes, lining up the financing, signing myriad papers, lost sleep (lots of lost sleep), house inspection, second guessing, more lost sleep, and one final decision: I'll take it.

The house, not unlike my life right now, is a project. It is 80 to 90 years old, and the last time it was on the market was in the 1950s! So the little old lady who had lived there had been there for a while. And it shows. The kitchen is classic 1950s - ugly. The bathroom is ancient and needs gutting. The windows are original wood casing. The furnace is actually older than me. But because it hasn't been touched in 60+ years, there are advantages. All of the wood trim in the main floor and most of the second floor is unpainted and gorgeous. The dining room still has the unpainted wood wainscotting. There is hardwood throughout, some of it covered by other flooring. And, as the house inspector pointed out, when work hasn't been done, at least it hasn't been done wrong or poorly. You get to do it and make sure it's done right.

The new place is in the same neighbourhood as Dad, and just a block from my current house, which I'm renting. Given the neighbourhood, I'm getting the house for a song. Oh, and I get it in nine days (yes, NINE!). I'll be giving my notice in the house I'm in now. I'll have just under two months to pull up floors in three rooms, update some of the electrical, gut and redo the bathroom, get a new furnace, replace the windows, paint, and get the floor refinished.

I've got quotes on all the work. I'll be doing some of it myself and already have at least a couple of volunteers to help with some of the demolition.

The house itself is a little quirky. Like there's a sink in one of the bedrooms. As soon as I told the kids about it, The Bean called dibs. And the closets are weird: there is none in the room with the sink, and the other two bedroom closets aren't deep enough to put a hanger in. Thank goodness we're already experienced with small or non-existent closets and have armoires.

It is time to start building new dreams. And they start in this new little house. The three of us are very excited. And happy.