Childhood Memoirs: Front Living Room

i knew the moment i saw this house online that i'd love it.
it was a total grandma house with a terrible front shot of the house on the home finder website, but you know when you just know something will be great?
i just knew it'd be.
it was unfortunately completely out of our price range, and huge.

one thing we were looking for in a house was a rental unit of some sort for our students or interns.
because this house was so big, there was the possibility of renting a portion out so i convinced our realtor to take us by even though it was drastically out of budget.
i said, "let's just look, and i'll show you what i'm looking for."
heeheehee.
it was the second house we pulled up to, the first day of looking, and we all fell in love.

this is the living room we walked into.
the beige walls had a lovely peach undertone and all the molding was so dark.
the outlet covers and switchplates were original 1973.
brass and ornate.
white carpet through out + 3 boys = hardwoods in my future...we're waiting until we've thoroughly thrashed these.

the bones of the house are impeccable, some kind of amazing "lifetime" roof, new water heater, new ac, new furnace, finished basement...
when we walked through the kitchen into the laundry room and realized the basement wasn't accessed through the main house but the garage, we knew it was a winner.
perfect set up for renting.
i'll have to show you the basement one of these days.
it's as big as the main floor.

the house is in this fantastic old neighborhood of custom homes from the 1970's.
i prefer old homes to new construction, but i wouldn't normally cheer on the architecture of the 70's.
that being said, there's so much charm and character to each one and really fun landscaping.
this house has fun details like this hand carved wood fireplace mantel with marble inset.
it's all super pretty and well constructed, just needs updating ;)

all the light bulbs were missing and the house was completely winterized.
it'd sat vacant for a year.
somehow it went on and off the market, the price dropped $129,000 (i KNOW!), and another $10,000 just while i was watching it online.
after our rent every month from 2 renters, we pay $350 less a month towards our mortgage than we payed for our 2 bedroom rent house.
no brainer.