Tag: Tuscany Home

What it Has. What is Doesn’t Have.

On By debweeksIn Gardening, Tuscany HomeLeave a comment

Maybe I shouldn’t be getting so carried away with plans for our Tuscany home, but it’s hard not to.

My visit to the house during the inspection put my mind in hyper-planning mode.

I’ve already begun to map out projects and the order in which they need to be done.

I’m scouring the internet looking at Tuscan decorating ideas. I love the Tuscan style and with a house on Tuscany, going the Tuscan route in a must.

I’ve begun pricing some of the things we’ll need to purchase.

I’m making lists and adding to those lists on a regular basis.

When we were looking at houses, the outdoor space was as important as the indoor space. As we continued to shop for homes, it became increasingly clear that we were going to have to make some choices. Without unlimited funds, or at least more funds than we currently have available, it was going to be very difficult to get a home that had the indoor space we required with a pool and a yard.

From the beginning, we said a pool was non-negotiable. The Tuscany home has a pool.

A non-negotiable for me, was an open floor plan. I didn’t want to live in a house where walls were eating up the square footage of the main living area of the home. I wanted space where we could spread out when we had company over for dinner. Space that was open and airy. Space that flowed nicely between the living area and kitchen. The Tuscany home has the open floor plan I want.

We were non-negotiable on our space requirements. With the right set-up, hubby is able to work from home 2-3 days a week. We needed a house that provided us good office space. The Tuscany home has a 4th bedroom that can easily be used as an office/guest bedroom.

What we wanted was a home with a yard. Space for the dogs and space for me to build my vegetable garden. The Tuscany home does not have ample yard space. It has plenty of grassy area along one side of the house for the dogs and that is necessary space. The other thing it has is a larger area with patio pavers.

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This area will become my vegetable garden and a little more yard for the dogs. It’s not the space we had hoped to have, but it is certainly space that can be utilized to do at least some of what we want to do.

For now though, we negotiate some of the items from the inspection report and then wait.

Wait for the appraisal.

Wait for the paperwork.

Wait to see if the Tuscany home will become ours.

To and Fro

On By debweeksIn Tuscany Home, UncategorizedLeave a comment

When I began blogging back in 2007, I quickly discovered the popularity of blogging.  My blog was all about it adoption journey and it have me an outlet to release some of my thoughts and feelings as hubby and I sailed the sometimes choppy waters of adoption.

When we brought Lili home, my blog morphed into a diary of sorts.  I shared photos and stories of our beautiful little girl as well as bits and pieces of our life.

My blog transitioned back to its beginnings as we pursued Naomi’s adoption.  Once we brought her home, it was back to photos and stories of our life.

Many shared in the joy of our growing family.  Many more expressed their deepest sympathies when I shared the tragic news that our youngest son had died.

I had only one mission when I wrote posts and that was to keep my family and friends up to date on our adoption journey and lives.

Somewhere along the line, I began to feel a bit lost.  I have consistently had ideas for blog posted, but have struggled to put those ideas down in writing.  Not that I haven’t tried.  Draft after draft has gone unfinished.  Ideas that seemed good when I began writing them soon didn’t seem that good.  As a result, days and sometimes weeks would go by without a post.  Ideas tossed to and fro, only to be tossed aside because I couldn’t find the right words.

This morning, while reading one of my favorite blogs, I realized that the reason I struggle is because I’ve tried to turn my blog into something it was never meant to be.  My blog was never meant to be about anything other than our life in the World of Weeks.  My intentions were to share photos and stories about our life.  It was meant to keep family and friends informed, but like a ship being tossed to and fro in stormy water, my blog lost its way.

It’s taken a very long time to get this blog back on course, but I think I’m getting there. I need to stay the course and stick with posts about our family and our life. No more trying to venture into other territory. I certainly have some thoughts and strong feeling regarding other topics, but those aren’t for this blog. This blog is called World of Weeks for a reason and now back to that story which is now about our house buying adventure.

So I’ll end with an update and photos from today.

The home inspector went to the Tuscany house today. We were there for a good portion of the inspection and when we left, he was getting ready to inspect the pool and would then be done with the house.

I’m happy to say that, he had not found any major problems at all. Yes, he found a lot of minor things, but that is to be expected on a 20 year old home.

While there, I had time to more closely take a look at all the upgrades we intend to make. We were there almost two hours, so there was a lot of time for me to add to my ever growing list of to-do items. I suppose for some, it would become overwhelming. Since houses around here sell within a matter of hours to a few days, the fact that this house has been on the market over three weeks is an indication that most don’t want a house that requires much work. On the other hand, I found myself becoming more and more excited about the possibilities. Yes, it will be a lot of work and that work will cost money, but I still strongly believe that the value of the home will increase over two times the amount we put into it.

We still need VA approval and I expect they will want some of the inspection items taken care of before approval, but we believe the seller will be willing to take care of those since the home is still their responsibility.

Next, is the appraisal and I have no idea what to expect there. So far, things are moving more quickly than I expected and that’s a good thing.

The girls expressed their growing excitement about the house today. They had a great time running around, playing and exploring the house that we hope will become our home in the not too distant future.

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My plan is to pull up all the pavers and shrubs so I can build a key hole garden along the fence.  The rest will be grass so the dogs have a little more space.
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The girls were running, doing cartwheel and front rolls around the living/dining area.  It’s obvious they really like the house and hope we will one day live there.