We moved into our new house the first weekend of the new year. Here’s a little bit of information about the house:

• It is a cottage house, the style emphasized by the light gray siding with white trim.
• It is SO OLD! It was built in 1903, about 20 years earlier than the houses in this neighborhood and town.
• It is SO SMALL! It’s less than 1300 sq ft, which isn’t tiny and is perfect for just the two of us, but you really get a sense of how small it is when you realize just how small each room is. I guess a better word for small would be cozy. You also get a sense of how small it is when you see it compared to every other house on the block and in the neighborhood. But maybe we also have the coziest house.
• The backyard matches the size of the house. Cozy. For some reason, serving this cozy house and this cozy yard, there is a detached three-car garage. Not cozy. We have big DIY plans on how to make better use of the garage and driveway and make the backyard a more livable space for us (and a future dog??!!) to hang out.
• We have stained glass windows. Three, to be exact. How awesome is that??!!

In fact, we have plans for every single room. Some of the plans are as simple as changing the paint color and getting furniture to fit each space better. Some of the plans are more big-time DIY, such as removing wallpaper and vinyl flooring and…maybe even redoing the kitchen ourselves. And then there are the renovation plans that involve bringing in a contractor, such as changing the floor plan of the bedrooms.

We hope to accomplish as much as possible in our first year so we can enjoy the house just the way we want it for as long as possible. But some major projects, such as a new kitchen, will just have to wait.