A peek at our new house

We're off to the Cincinnati area next week, leaving our pretty 1920s condo and going back in time. To 1899. To this house. We like interesting homes, and nothing says interesting like a house with a servants' stairway. This place is lovely.


Or almost lovely. I adore orange, but this is Halloween all day, every day. You can see the potential awesomeness, though, with different paint and a new light fixture, right?


So far we've moved in a couple of our picture frames. They will look microscopic on the walls, because this place has... gulp, 12-foot ceilings. Nope, 10-foot ceilings. (The information on the listing was incorrect.)


Above is the living room.


Here's the master bedroom. See a pattern here? There is A LOT of dark wood. It's really dim inside. After reading old-house forums and Apartment Therapy for awhile, I know there are people who would stab me in the eyeballs for even thinking of painting trim white. On the other hand, they'd probably feel bad if the gloom caused me to fall into a deep depression and I jumped off an Ohio River bridge someday. But I will do everything humanly possible with wall paint, rugs, furniture, and light fixtures to avoid painting over the old wood and then re-evaluate. This bedroom with light, cool-toned walls already looks better than the living room.


Here's the kitchen. The design doesn't make me do cartwheels, but I'll be happy to cook and hang out here.

I'm terribly excited to get in there and start sprucing things up. It's a wonderful house with so much character, and we like projects. Wish us luck! I'll be sure to post lots of before and after shots.