an introduction to our bungalow

Hi there! On August 31st, 2005, my husband and I received the keys to our very first home. We had searched high and low for an older home in good shape, with a few odd requirements:

- a two car detached garage (my husband is enamored with detached garages)
- a kitchen that needed remodeling
- something that will accomodate a second child, should we decide to have another
- a designated office area that doesn't impede on our living space
- hardwood floors
- no linoleum! Oh dear God, the humanity.
- a backyard that will accomodate the needs of a growing child
- a playground or park in walking distance

The San Francisco Bay Area has many beautiful older neighborhoods with every imaginable period style. Now take our quirky requirements and try to make it affordable... say, under 700K, which is what we decided our maximum to be. Virtually anywhere else in the country... nay, make that planet... 700K will buy you a cute little fort complete with cannons to call your own - emphasis on the word "fort". Sadly, 700K in most of this area is a cute little condo or ranch style home - emphasis on the word "little".

In Santa Clara county, home of the Silicon Valley, the best place to find a variety of old, charming houses is in Downtown San Jose (or if you're a local, it's "sanozay"). The pro side to the downtown area is that it's lively with lots of festivals, attracts a large variety of people, is where San Jose State University is, is centrally located to most major areas where work is to be found in the internet industry, and is slowly becoming gentrified. The cons: "lively with lots of festivals" means noisy, "attracts a large variety of people" means a bum might make a home under your front steps or there are teenagers cruising around the block late at night with their bumpers vibrating, "is where San Jose State University is" means there is never street parking, "centrally located" means all freeways converge downtown, so there is always a freeway or an entrance/exit closer to your house than you'd like, and "slowly becoming gentrified" means there are still a lot of poor renters/ scumbag landlords/ poor homeowners who do not fix up/paint their houses, mow their lawns, or who put up a chain link fence around their front yard instead of paying a little more for something more appealing. We won't even get into the fact that the public schools downtown aren't as great as others in the area.

Phew. That paragraph took it out of me. Anyways, back to the point - we ended up buying a bungalow downtown. For all its cons, this house was the one and only that floated our boat and tooted our horn all at the same time, so concessions were made. In months of looking, this one was THE ONE, and I knew it from the instant I saw it on MLS (and that was without interior pictures posted on the listing).

A few facts about our home, which we move into next tuesday:
- according to the city of SJ, it was built in 1901, but the former homeowner says she was told 1906 by the people she bought it from
- originally a two bedroom/ one bath, a master bedroom with en suite master bathroom was added to the rear of the house in the 60's (so it's now a three bed/ two bath for all you geniuses out there)
- the house is 1,585 square feet, and the property is 6,337 square feet
- has a deep two car detached garage with workbench and shelving
- house features oak hardwood in the front four rooms (living, dining, and two original rooms), tile in the kitchen, front bathroom, kitchen nook, and laundry area, and... get this... PERGO in the master bedroom AND BATHROOM. Apparently when the former owner bought the house it had wall-to-wall carpet, but it seems she lacked the desire (or funds) to do matching hardwood for the room and tile for the bathroom.
- has a box garden area that is irrigated. The former owner never had the time to do anything with it after she had it installed
- is apparently made from "old grove" redwood, but I don't know how much truth is in that. A spaz my duplex neighbor hired to chase off some raccoons told me that the houses in that area are all made from old grove redwood. The only reason I think it may be true is because some minor termite repairs were just made to the house and the termite guys replaced everything with redwood.

I bet you want pictures. Yay for pictures! I like pictures.

I'll post more later about what is great about the house, what isn't so great, and I want to do (insert insane obsessed emot here). Enjoy the pictures!