New House!

So in early November, I returned to the States to sign the paperwork to buy a very expensive house that my husband and I had never seen. We also found out about a week before the purchase that I was being offered a position in Wellington, New Zealand, and we weren't going to be living in this house. Despite that small wrinkle in our otherwise flawless plan, the home purchase process was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be. Of course, I wasn't able to actually collect all of the money for the downpayment until around 24 hours before the house was signed for, which caused both me and the sellers a little bit of heartburn. The stress was in the fact that I signed around 11 AM on Armistice Day (aka Veterans' Day 11/11) and the banks were closed, so we had to make sure the funds were transferred a day early.

Our broker was wonderful, and worked with us for about 5 months on the whole process. Buying this house was serendipitous, since on the day we found out the sellers had dropped the price to our price range, we were literally about to sign an offer on a fixer-upper that was nowhere near as nice. Two minutes difference, literally! This house is in our desired high school "pyramid" area, and as a bonus actually attends a really great elementary school that is smaller than the one (with 600+ students) that most houses would have been in.

It's a 4-level house, but more like a two-level where half the house fell. So 3 bedrooms and a bath upstairs, kitchen/dining/living on the 3rd level, down to a bed, bath and family room on the second level, and then a basement that is unfinished (and sufficiently big that my brother would find it acceptable for projects...) The photos here are a little unusual, but since we hadn't seen the house, but there was an on-line show, and our agent sent us pictures, these are photos of things that I didn't think were clear from the other sources.

Below - standing in the living room looking out the back door to the yard, and the little kitchen is the piece on the left.
Entryway on the left, I'm in the living room, kitchen through the door on the right, stairs up and down. Small closet.Above you are standing by all of the bedroom doors, looking down to the living room. Bathroom is off to the left by my coat and purse.