open doors

This week has been a whirlwind.. beautifully chaotic. A little back story. We moved to Winkler in 2006 and moved into a house my parents lovingly picked for us. It was a small, quaint, lovely home we brought our boys home too and lived in for about 19 months. It was small and having twins had us outgrow it quickly. We also had come from missions and being self employed. At that time in Winkler there was nothing to buy that was used and no completely abused or overpriced so we decided to build. It was the best bang for our buck. So with employment under our belt and a good selling market we put our house up for sale and built the house we live in now. We moved into it January 2008. It's a nice house. We poured ourselves into it picking out each thing. Knowing in our minds it was never our dream. I love old, vintage, unique and character. This house checks none of those boxes.
We have been happy here since we moved and could have been happy here till we were old. Until one day last week I was just mindlessly flipping through the Lifestyles magazine (local real estate mag) I set my eyes on the most beautiful house. Old 2 story house with a wrap around porch. I read the description (although it had me at wrap around porch) and felt goosebumps. It was in a village about 5 minutes south of Winkler. I wish I could describe to my non manitoban friends what a village is but I can't. You would never get it even if I tried. Anyways... I had to see this house. But we were happy here?? why look. I just had too.
I called up our Realtor friend and asked him to set something up for that Thursday. I had an appt south of town anyways.. it would do no harm to look right?
The night before we drove up to it just to look and it seriously took my breathe away.. did something emotionally in me. I couldn't wait to get inside.
It did not disappoint. I walked through each room and it gave me that feeling! Old farmhouse.. orginal hardwood floors, trim, radiator covers, old doors and knobs. Beautiful old wood stairs and staircase. Lots of windows. Updated kitchen and updated bathrooms - 2.5 of them :)
The house had been moved in 2003 onto a new basement with a walkout!! A WALKOUT! seriously... It's on an acre with woods and a creek as backdoor neighbors.
I tried to reign myself in knowing that Dave would most likely not feel the same way. We made another appt to look the next afternoon.
We had to take the boys this time. They took off exploring the minute we got out of the van. Dave had the feeling too... I remember being in the basement and him walking out the double french doors into the backyard.. there was something about his shoulders and the way he let out a breath.. I could tell he was also in love. It was as if you could just picture our boys growing up here and playing. Having freedoms they didn't have now. A sense of adventure.
To make a long story short. We waited till the following Tuesday when my dad came back from vacation to have him walk through it. His final stamp of approval went something like. "Village living is not for me. But if I was you with a young family I would move here!" Done. Thanks Dad.
The next few days we made offers, countered, sold our house and were approved at the bank. Papers were signed and we are now owners of this beautiful house!
Possession is this coming Friday and we have til Nov 1 to be out of our house. It's been a crazy week and the next few won't be easy.. but when a door opens you just sometimes got to run through it. This is the only pic I have right now. I am going there tomorrow and will take more pics. I'll update this post when I have them.