The Purdys Go West

...well, kind of...at least on summer weekends.  After an intense week-long search (trust me, it felt much, much longer than that), we just bought this cute little house in Grand Haven:

In my mind, this thing was sold as soon as I saw the front porch - ADORABLE!

 

This house came on the market on a Friday (after we tried and failed to put an offer on another home a block south and east of it).  We immediately contacted our realtor to set up a showing the following day, only to find out by mid-afternoon that it was already SOLD!  I'm telling you, this market is C.R.A.Z.Y.  We moved on, and looked at a fresh batch of homes over the weekend.  We were ready to write an offer on a much smaller home (very much the cottage in the city that I was going for, but in need of some major fix-ups) just across the street on Monday, when our agent let us know that the buyer's financing had fallen through on this one, and it was once again back on the market!!  We hustled out there on Tuesday (the soonest the sellers were ready to show it) and beat three other interested parties to the punch with our offer.  Though it was still possible that we could have been outbid, we were excited to hear the news Tuesday night that they had accepted our offer.

Here is a look around our second chance, second home:

Did I mention how much I love the front porch? 
The wood is currently unfinished, but I have plans to stain it - these plans are always so simple in my head...

F.E.N.C.E.D. I.N. B.A.C.K.Y.A.R.D.
We don't even have this at our real house, and I'm so excited to do this for Lacey...because you know, all major real estate decisions should be made around your dog...
Seriously though, it's such a cute little backyard, and I love the giant tree that shades most of the yard all day long.

We love the brick patio area, too!  We will move our portable fire pit from our Grand Rapids house to Grand Haven, where opportunities to enjoy s'mores in the backyard are a bit more plentiful.

Moving inside, here is a look at the living room.

Another view of the living room + dining room

View from living room, looking at the kitchen + snack bar (half bath is through the doorway in the center).  The kids will be thrilled with the snack bar - for whatever reason, they find eating while sitting on a bar stool to be a hundred times more fun.

The kitchen - I will be kiboshing the green approximately 15 minutes after we have the keys (I actually don't hate it, but it doesn't fit the beach house color scheme I'm going for)

Other side of the kitchen.  All appliances stay - yay for us!

We love the exposed beams on the cathedral ceilings, and the two skylights
in the living room give the place tons of natural light.

They didn't include pictures of the bedrooms in the real estate listing, so I will have to follow up with those, but up the stairs (which are currently bare and a total death trap for our danger-prone Hannah) are two bedrooms and a full bathroom.  The girls will be up there (once we've anti-slipped the stairs and/or Hannah's feet).  We've promised Megan pink bunk beds - you can imagine her excitement!