Our Virginia Home

Well, its official. I guess we are staying for awhile as we just bought a beautiful home in the mountains southeast of Charlottesville. It is a 20-25 minute drive into Charlottesville which is actually better than where we are now. Even though by miles we are closer now, with traffic it sometimes takes 45-50 minutes to get into Charlottesville. Everyone told us there was no traffic in C-Ville. That just isn't true. There are not a lot of freeways, but a lot of two lane roads and a lot of lights through the main part of the county. Our new house will avoid all that and sits on 3.5 acres of land. It has a fenced backyard and little play set and shed in the back. The land extends beyond the fence and there is a small creek with a little bridge that leads into the trees. The house is surrounded by tall, green trees that will give us lots of privacy. Although there is no tall brick wall like the yards in Arizona, we cannot really see our neighbors through the trees except in the driveway which is long and extends the length of the front yard. Plenty of pathway for the kids to play and ride their hot wheels. At the end of the driveway by the garage is a basketball hoop, which Tommy is really excited about. He has always wanted one since he was a kid.There is a front porch that covers the entire front of the house where I will eventually be placing a couple rocking chairs. There is a formal dining room to the right as you walk in and all hard wood floors on the first floor, except in the master bedroom which is also on the first floor. The master is not very large but it has enough space, lots of windows and even a cozy fireplace. Even though it is a two story house, there is nothing above the master so it should be nice, quiet and tucked away from the rest of the house. The main living area has a whole wall of built in shelves and another fireplace. Off that space at the front of the house is an office with two french doors connecting it to the living area. The kitchen is on the opposite end of first floor by the laundry room and garage entry. There is no pantry in the kitchen which is apparently very common here in Virginia but will take some getting use to for me. There are ceiling fans and light fixtures in every room which I never knew how important those were until we moved in the house we are in now that has none. We had to go buy a bunch of cheap lamps to keep the rooms light. Very odd.

On the second level there is brand new carpet, and you have two of the kids room off to the right across from each other. Mickey's will be navy and brown and the girls will be light blue like the sky. Even though they wont all 3 be in the same room, I am hoping since they can see into each others room and still talk, it will help Mickey who hates being by himself. Next to their rooms is a bathroom with double sinks and a window that looks like that of a cruise ship. The under the sea theme will be perfect. There are two other bedrooms upstairs, one with a closet and one without. One will be a guest room and I am not sure about the other one yet. Either another guest room (since there are no hotels nearby) or a craft room maybe? Last but not least, at the end of the hall, above the garage is a finished bonus area with wood floors that will be the kids play room. We are painting one of the walls in there with chalkboard paint. I cant wait to show the babes they can color on the walls.

As you drive up the mountain from Charlottesville, you will see the entrance to Monticello and many farms and vineyards. It really is breathtaking. It is a small two lane road and as you get to Palmyra, the city by Lake Monticello, there is one main area with a couple of casual restaurants, drug store, grocery store, nail salon, dry cleaners, etc. The basic necessities I suppose. The lake is 10 minutes from our house and is a gated community. Right now we are on our realtor's permanent guest list so we can go to the lake or the pool there anytime. There are 5 beaches there and you can rent boats, kayaks, go fishing, and all kinds of stuff. There is a snack bar as well. We talked about getting our own boat at some point, which would be amazing but that's a few years away at this point.

As you turn the corner into our neighborhood it just looks like something out of the movies to me. I need to get a picture of that I guess. The houses are sporadically placed among the tall greens trees and all the lots have just as much land as we do so we are part of a community but not on top of each other. I am looking forward to getting to know the neighbors and exploring. I am excited to let the kids run free in the back and not have to worry about them running into the street or onto someone else's porch. We do have lots of critters so the house and yard will be sprayed for  ticks and mosquito's and we also have to put a snake repellent down. Not for poisonous snakes. They are black snakes that eat the bad things but I don't want them in the yard anyway. Ha ha.

I cant wait to sit on the back porch with a glass of wine, watching the kids play and  lightening bugs fly around. There are still some projects I want to do to the house but over time. What I don't want to do is have to move again for a very long time. I am so ready to get comfortable. Tommy and I got to the point with this rental where we stopped unpacking boxes and we stopped putting up pictures, so half our stuff is still packed up.

Although this house appears probably really expensive, it wasn't. Our dream home was moderately affordable, at least I think so given what it has to offer. The houses in the heart of Charlottesville were much more expensive. We are not millionaire's and are still very careful with our purchases and monitor our budget closely. But we did work our butts off to get to this place in our lives. And that along with the fact that this house is just in the right spot, at the right time and was on the market for a year, we got lucky...again. There are no celebrities here (well except maybe Dave Matthews from time to time), but just really nice people living a somewhat quiet life. I cant imagine a more beautiful place to raise our family. I really hope the kids like it as they grow and we made the right choice to not be in the middle of everything. Its the first time for me not living in a big city, and although that had its advantages, I think this does too. I will try to post more updates and pics of the house as I can.