We have settled on our house in Vermont and are …. not living in it. So while we have gone about moving from Montana to Vermont none of our belongings have arrived. They apparently are still sitting in Montana and will arrive when they arrive. The trucking company that is bringing them says, “things happen.” You don’t want to know what I thought after this remark. It is not suitable for a family blog. So, here we sit, living in the tiny trailer while my new house remains empty but for the cats. Sigh. It’s a good thing we still get along after almost 40 years of marriage.
ALL PURCHASE LINKS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS WHICH MEANS IF YOU BUY ANYTHING THROUGH THEM I WILL RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION (AT NO EXTRA CHARGE TO YOU)
The New House
We came out to Vermont for a week earlier in the year to go house hunting and after looking at many, many, MANY houses we put in an offer on one but were undercut by an all cash, no contingency offer. Our offer was all cash but we had to wait for the yurt to close. So we ended up going with our second choice…
…which was probably better anyway because it is closer to the center of Brattleboro and it is much smaller in size which was the goal of this whole exercise in the first place. The house was built, at least from what we were told, in 1901, which makes it the oldest house we have owned. Our Victorian was 1904. It is also mildly ironic that it is green as our very first house was an awful shade of lime green so we started with a green house and we are ending with a (nicer shade of) green house.
It Needs a LOT of Work
This little house is in need of quite a bit of work to bring it to where we want it to be. For example, the kitchen is practically non-existent.
As you can see in the photo there is NO counter space and well, there is very little cabinetry. What you see is all that there is. The other side is a dining area and there is a closet/pantry of sorts. Fortunately between these two rooms there is a lot of space to work with and hopefully we will find a contractor soon.
Only One Bathroom
The other big issue we need to fix is that there is only one bathroom and it is on the first floor. When you have two old people living in a house who end up having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night having to navigate a staircase in the dark is not the best situation.
It is OK in design but not exactly a beautiful room Also, it is right off of the dining room. The intention is to add a second bathroom upstairs so we won’t have to climb up and down in the middle of the night. I have ordered a gorgeous shower curtain to help brighten up the room a bit.
The Living Room
The main room on the first floor has just gorgeous light coming into it from the front window. We went out to a local store and ordered I don’t know how many bookcases to hold all of our books, In addition we also ordered an entertainment center and a stunning desk to place in the hallway so there will be a place to pay bills, house the computer, etc.
I will impatiently await their arrival but they are built to order and it is a 14 week wait. Hopefully our stuff will be here by then …
I am considering all of the different paint colors for the various rooms but this room is going to be a light apple green. That I know for sure. I am back and forth on the bannister – it will probably be a dark green but I am not completely sure yet.
The Master (?) Bedroom
None of the bedrooms are large. There are three and as I noted we are sacrificing the smallest one to closet/bathroom. That will leave two; one for us and one for guests. There is always the possibility of putting another bedroom in the basement but time will tell for that.
The bedroom we will use faces the front of the house and has a sloping ceiling on one side. I am thinking of a nice, sunny yellow for this room just like what I had in the yurt. It always made me happy to wake up to that color and my bedding and sheets match it so why not repeat a good thing? The floor might go the same green as the living room or maybe slightly darker. I will have to see the colors to be sure.
Surprisingly this room has a fairly large closet so that was a delightful surprise as houses of this age tend to not have decent closets at all. Our Victorian did not. It’s not at all sufficient for two people with four seasons of wardrobe plus needing to find a place for towels, bedding, etc., but still welcome. There is no attic so storage solutions wherever we can find them are needed. I am going to give serious consideration to another Rubbermaid Configurations Closet System. I so very much loved the one in the bedroom of the yurt. It made organization so easy and we were able to get so much more into that small closet because of it.
City Life
While Brattleboro is hardly a city like one would think of Philadelphia or Chicago or New York it is certainly busier than Superior, Montana. It will take a little getting used to having neighbors so close by. I will say that everyone in the neighborhood has been so welcoming. We are a short walk to the neighborhood grocery store so that makes life very easy.
I am looking forward to getting to know my new world here in Vermont. The cats are settling in to the new house. They are still a little skittish as this has been a very big change for them. As soon as the truck gets here (sense a theme?) their scratching post, loungers, and toys will also arrive and I am sure that will help them settle in.
I do hope you will enjoy reading about adventures and life here as you did from Montana.
