Buying a Botanical Masterpiece

In our search for a new home, we found out that we had a very little time to make up our mind and put in an offer due to circumstances beyond our control.  We would start off with a piece of good news, and then was almost immediately dealt a set back.  We did this back and forth during the entire process of buying this house (over the course of nearly two months), and so much so that I was not 100% sure that the deal would go through until the day it did.  In the end, everything worked out perfectly, and could not have happened without a little bit of luck, a lot of patience, and quite a bit of generosity from my parents.

Welcome to our new home…

All the photos in the post were taken during the inspection in mid-summer.  When we first toured the house, we already had another house in mind that we were thinking about putting an offer in on, and had planned to go back and see again that day.  This house is located just outside the circle I drew that I didn’t really want to live beyond, but something kept nagging at me to go see it.  I just knew I had to tour this house, and I am so thankful that I did because within a minute of seeing the upstairs and the garden, I KNEW this was the house I wanted.  After seeing the lower level, Mr. Lucky agreed that this house was “perfect” for us.

The upstairs is well-suited for entertaining guests.  You walk in through the front door (on the left in the picture above), and immediately are in the great room.  Kitchen and living room combined with a vaulted ceiling (reminding us of our last house). A couple of skylights let it a great amount of natural light.

The far wall you see in this picture is wall-papered.  Many people have said it looks like a cork wall in pictures.  Someday, we will take down the wallpaper, as it is already peeling.  But for now, until we get a good feeling for exactly what we want to do in this space, it stays.

To the other side of the front door is the dining room, with custom wood panels from the 1960s. Our home was built in 1984, but the previous owners parents had these panels custom made. Mirrors just add to the amount of light bouncing around.

Also on the upper level are two bedrooms, including the master, two bathrooms, and a total of 6 closets! There are 4 in the hallway, and one in each bedroom.

The hall bath, pictured below, I think was updated not too long ago…

And the Master bath needs a little updating…

I haven’t included any pictures of the actual bedrooms yet because without furniture in them, they just weren’t that exciting. What IS exciting, is the view from the upper level deck (just off of both the master bedroom and the sky room).

This was when I figured that this is no ordinary house and garden, this is a botanical masterpiece.

I don’t know exactly how many plants and different varieties are present in the garden, but it was lovingly planted.

There are views everywhere and every time I look out I feel as though I am discovering something new. I call it my secret garden now. There are two, maybe three, paths that go from the level of the house down to the lower level.  The property has a steep back yard going down to a stream.

This garden gives me so much pleasure to walk through and look at.  I know how difficult it must have been for the folks who designed and made this garden to leave it.

This is a mature garden that is full of perennials that just need gentle pruning.  We finally got to meet the previous owners the other day, and found out that this garden evolved over the course of 27 years.  They’ve won awards for this garden, and it was even included in an Henrico County video on local gardens.

There is something blooming at almost any time of the year.

But apparently Spring is when it will be magnificent.

Now back to the house..

There is an upper deck and a lower deck, and a three-season room that we call the sky room.  The sky room is where we hosted the pumpkin carving party.

Downstairs, or the lower level, has a large semi-finished space with room for the washer and dryer (along the far wall).

The majority of this room is currently being used to house my husband’s business, but this little extra side space is where our workout area is.  Our treadmill and weight rack and bench all fit in that little 9 x 10 foot area.

On the other side, through the door you can see on the right in the above photograph, is a bedroom, bathroom, and large open room.  Oh and did I mention more closets?  We have another 3 large walk-in closets on this floor.  The bathroom is just down the hall from the guest room, making a nice little guest suite for anyone who comes to visit.

And one more little added bonus from the previous owners- a campaign desk was left!

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I do think I’ll hold on to it for now…

And so concludes the first look at the Lucky Lass’s new house.  And really, boy am I lucky to have such a gorgeous view to wake up to every morning.