Our first house

February 2009

In February 2009, we bought our first house! The closing isn't until the end of April, but we are enjoying the anticipation of moving into our first house. Also, we are happy not to be throwing any more money away in the form of "rent".

Our new house is in Maynard, MA. Maynard, located on the Assabet River, was first settled in 1638 and was officially incorporated in 1871. Maynard, originally part of the towns of Stow and Sudbury, was named after Amory Maynard. The big mill in the center of town opened in 1847, and produced carpet and carpet yarn. Later, the mill housed the American Woolen Company. The American Woolen Company continued operations in the mill until 1950. Afterwards, the mill was converted to office space. Beginning in 1957, the mill was home to the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which is how Maynard became to be known as the "Mini Computer Capital of the World". The mill is currently home to several businesses, including the headquarters of monster.com. The mill complex is also home to the oldest working hand wound clock in the country.

This is what the front of our house will look like during the summer months.

This is what the front of our house will look like during February.

This is our driveway and the north side of the house.

This is what the driveway looks like in February.

This is a close-up of the chain-link fence that separates our driveway from our neighbors to the north.

This is the back of the house. Look, there's a three-season porch in the back too!

This will be our new back yard. It looks like there is plenty of room for a hammock.

This is another picture of our backyard, and it shows the wooden fence that runs along the southern edge of our property.

This is the front three-season porch.

The three-season porch is cold in the winter.

Another view in the three-season porch.

And one more picture of the three-season porch, looking at the dining room windows.

The front door of our house.

This is the living room. Try to imagine it with all of our stuff instead of the seller's stuff.

This is another view of the living room.

This picture was taken standing in the living room looking back at the front door.

This picture was taken from the living room looking into the dining room.

Our new dining room has one of those things built into the wall to put dishes and stuff.

This is our new kitchen.

This picture of the kitchen was taken perpendicular to the counter top.

This is the stove where we will cook lots of good food.

This photo was taken from the kitchen looking to the rear mud-room type area. The downstairs bathroom is to the left off the mud-room, and the rear three-season porch is to the right off the mud-room.

This picture was taken from the kitchen, looking to the north-east, back into the living room. The other door to the left of the living room door leads into the study.

This picture was taken from the study, looking back towards the kitchen.

The stairway to the basement connects to the kitchen. The hot water tank/heater is pretty new, but that oil boiler will need to be replaced in the near future. Getting a new boiler is at the top of our list; we will likely replace the oil boiler and oil tank with a new gas-fired boiler to heat our house.

These are the stairs that lead to the second floor of the house.

This is the view out of the window at the top of the stairs, looking into the back yard.

This is the top of the stairs, viewed from the upstairs hallway.

This is the upstairs hallway. The first door on the right is the upstairs bathroom. The second door on the right is bedroom #3. The door at the end of the hall is bedroom #2. The master bedroom (bedroom #1) is off to the left.

This is the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom. Alayne is excited about this bathtub.

Looking into bedroom #3 from the hallway.

Bedroom #3, on the south side of the house, gets lots of sunlight.

This photo was taken inside bedroom #2, looking back towards the hallway. There's a good chance we'll take off that wood paneling, but that is lower on the list.

This is the view from the window in bedroom #2, looking to the east.

This is inside the master bedroom. Although there are no photos of the closets, all bedrooms have a walk-in closet.

This view of the upstairs hall is taken from the doorway of the master bedroom. Bedroom #3 is straight ahead, and bedroom #2 is just off to the left outside of this photo.

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