shore shack: Our Gondolier Estate

So first things first...we are new homeowners living the dream in Gondolier Estates. That's not really the name, but that's what Aaron calls it because he can't remember what it really is. Of course a gondolier is an oarsman in a gondola (think Venice), which of course isn't appropriate in this case. Or is it???

We took possession of our new house on Saturday, March 28th. Here's a pic of me walking inside for the very first time:

Please note the awful door. And the awful light. Let's just say that door didn't have a chance - Aaron took it down immediately. The light is still hanging out until we can figure out what should go in its place. Oh - and those scrolls on the ends of the railings are going too.

Back to our first day in the house...we had a great time! We had never seen it empty and it seemed so much bigger and better than we remembered it. Only a few glitches - they forgot to leave the fridge and didn't remove the swingset. No worries - it was taken care of in less than a week thanks to our realtor.

Aaron was pretty excited to find a big screen in the basement.

Too bad it didn't work and there were mouse turds underneath!

We also discovered the "moat"our first day in the house. You see, we knew there was a drainage issue at the house. Forty year-old yews surrounded the house and they were creating a negative grade. We just happened to get an unexpected March snow storm that first day, and we saw just how much water accumulated around the house. Yuck. We may need a gondola to get around in all that water after all. Seriously!

Luckily the snow and all that water dried up in the next few days. Here are a few pics of the house taken during our first week owning it.