Want To Be Our Neighbor?

A house in our sweet little neighborhood is on the market. Here's a note from a local real estate agent, "Rare find open atrium style Eichler home on a large corner lot situated on a great Willow Glen neighborhood. This model like home is very bright and has been tastefully upgraded while preserving the original touch. Updated open kitchen over looks the large backyard w/ BBQ set up great for entertaining. All bathrooms are remodeled. A bonus room great for study or a 5th bedroom."

I went to the open house and it needs a little cleaning and some love. But I can certainly see the potential! Only drawback is that it's not on a cul-de-sac like our place ;)

Here are a few photos I took at the open house.

More info can be found here. 

PS- Word on the street is that it's bank-owned, so that price is probably flexible ;)

A Pretty Little Mess

Our house is still a work in progress, but we love living here! The community is wonderful and the house is coming along... slowly but surely!

We've unpacked a lot of boxes, but there are many left to go. Here are a few pretty pictures of our current state of living. I think they're kind of pretty. I'll be glad I have them once we're renovated, unpacked, and settled.

On tap for this week: finish painting the hallway so we can lay down some floor already! 

A Little Bit of House Progress

Hey- Just wanted to offer up a few photos that shows a bit of the progress we're making on the house! We've been here for about 1 1/2 months and are pleased as punch with how much we've gotten done! The whole kitchen is completely redone (Heath Ceramics kitchen backsplash... yay!)! And we have about half of the floors done! We've done a lot of painting -including the ceiling- in about half the rooms. We are doing all the work ourselves (Chris's parents were here for the first 2 weeks and were invaluable!) Hope you like what we've done so far! Let me know what you think!

(Before photos can be seen here)

YIPPEE!!! Our New House!!

After 3 years in our SF rental, we've decided to take the plunge and buy a house!! It's an amazing time to buy and we feel blessed that we're able to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there! Early in our search, we set our sights on buying an Eichler (<-- info link) ( or you can look at images of Eichlers) Their simple lines, use of outdoor space, and open layout appealed to us immediately! Both my parents have lived in Eichlers and Chris loves the mid-century modern era, so we instantly felt at home. There are a many neighborhoods of Eichlers on the peninsula and we chose to check out San Jose (Eichlers are, ahem, less expensive in San Jose than say, Palo Alto).

We found one that is structurally awesome (and includes solar panels on the roof!), but needs some updating throughout the house. First on the list are the kitchen and the floors. The kitchen is outdated so we're planning on starting over with new appliances, cabinets, and countertops. This is the biggest project for sure!! The tile and carpet floors aren't consistent with the Eichler aesthetic, so our plan is to take up the floors and polish the existing conrete floors throughout the house. Once those are done, we'll all move in. We'll tackle smaller projects like painting, etc. as we get settled and whatnot. 

We signed the papers yesterday and are scheduled to close tomorrow! We are so lucky that we found such a great place... can't wait to call it home!!

Here are a few 'before' pics. Hope you like them and can see our vision :)