Mindy Carlson

One year ago this week we were skiing in Kandersteg as a part of a typical day in our Swiss lives. Now we are almost 8 months into our lives back on the east coast of the United States.

And it seems we are likely to remain here.

Because we’re buying a house.

We originally moved here in 2001 for Mark’s career, so it’s not like this unexpected, but it does make me wonder: When does one become “from” somewhere? Are we marked as “from” a place because we are born there? Or is it after we’ve lived in a place for X number of years?

Our kids were born here. Their whole lives are in Maryland. They are “from” Maryland. Is that enough to anchor us and make us “from,” too?

These existential questions aside, we are buying a house here and it is such a lovely house.

You walk right from a small foyer into a large and open living room. The windows face west and get tons of light.

Then you can either go into the kitchen (complete with an induction burner range) …

or into the generously spaced dining room. (The chandelier does not convey.)

And we even have our own office space!

We have an embarrassing number of bedrooms – 5 in total. There are 4 on the main level and 1 on the lower level. The one the boys are fighting over has that neat built in “cozy spot” with the closets and shelves.

We have what I’m calling a lower level. “Finished basement” doesn’t seem to really convey the feeling of the space. The full-sized windows make it bright and airy. The faux wood floor and fireplace make it feel like a real living room. And the doors walk right out into a huge back yard with a large slate patio.

The laundry room is the only part of the house that feels kind of basement like. Even then it is dry and clean and has the potential to be another kitchen if we wanted.

Check out the back yard!

The boys have tons of room to run around like dogs! I’m already sketching out improvements in my mind. Like a pergola. And a veggie garden.

Hilariously, we can see the golden spires of the Mormon Tabernacle looming up from beyond the treeline in our back yard. Mark is hoping we can hear the choir from the yard.

We’ve already had the inspection and the results were great! There are just a few things we will have to do, but nothing horrendous, and nothing that would make us back away from the sale.

I will need to shop for a new chandelier and I will be exercising some non-existent design muscles in figuring out where our stuff needs to go and keep the house looking beautiful. I like antiques and I like finding potential diamonds-in-the-rough, which sometimes get rougher after I’ve worked on them. Stay tuned for all that hilarity.

We will settle at the end of March and move in after the boys have finished the school year.

But yay! A house!