No. 9 - Our House Becomes a Home

The Bungalow

About a week before we got married in 2008, Blake and I became the proud owners of an adorable little (and I mean little) bungalow (or at least I call it a bungalow) near Butler University here in Indianapolis.  Since moving in, we've painted a couple of rooms (and had our first marital dispute over what shade of blue to use for the bathr0om), replaced the old kitchen appliances with stainless steel, spent a small fortune on new windows, and made a variety of other necessary (new furnace) and unnecessary (landscaping) changes.  All of these changes have made us happy and even prouder of our little house.

Despite all of these great changes and updates, there was always one little thing that bothered us about the house (and made us wonder about the sanity of previous owners)...

Our bedroom is huge.  Huge as in, its easily the biggest room in the house (apart from the unfinished basement).  We could easily fit two king-sized beds in there.

Or a sectional.  

Or both of our cars.  (These are not our cars.)

The first thing every visitor says is "man, your room is huge!"  Trust me, we know. 

With all that space, we've always wished there were a walk in closet (which would totally fit without compromising the parking options) or even better, a master bath.  While both of those things are physically possible, they don't make financial sense.  We knew this before we even asked, but the professionals told us the same thing.  The house is just too small to support such a big investment, especially because we won't live there forever. 
 
So, we pushed those dreams aside and focused on something that did make some financial (and architectural) sense.  We pulled a God-move and closed a door only to open a window.  Well, it wasn't quite like that.  But we did remove a door and replace it with a window.  And remove a window and replace it with a door.  We decided that french doors opening onto the driveway just wasn't working for us.  We also decided that a window looking into the fenced-in backyard wasn't going to work for us or for our future dog (Toby!).  So, we laid down another small fortune and had the suckers switched.  Super successful project.  It looks great and as though it should have always been that way.  And the best part?  We can just let Toby right out into the backyard without walking around the house, up the driveway and through a pesky gate.

So, why our house has always been a house, a cute one at that, it now really feels like a home that is fully functional, has no obviously questionable features, and meets just about all of our needs and the needs of our growing family.  We are so blessed to be homeowners during this difficult economic time, and though I know this won't be our forever-home, the memories we are making there will last a lifetime.

Three cheers for the best bungalow on the block (or maybe the only one?),
Kate