Keys hold significance
While the Bastille key meant tyranny to the prisoners. to Lafayette, it became the symbol of freedom.
For Martha Jefferson Randolph, keys helped her to properly oversee Monticello.
As we yielded the keys of our Texas house to the real estate agent, closure paperwork for Bexar County (a former Spanish colony) was officially signed and notarized in Fairfax County.
Meanwhile we searched for a new set of keys in Virginia, or more importantly, for the house that they would open.
House Hunting in Northern Virginia
Despite offers on the Gunston Hall house, and others, hard cash edged us out.
Um, thought we were in a deep recession.
Although I had my eyes on a colonial style house in a colonial styled neighborhood with a glorious view of the Blue Ridge, not all were in agreement.
Eventually, the benefits of that house became clear.
Finally Securing a House
Better than any of the other houses we put offers on, this house was secured with an offer in late March.
While waiting for that paperwork to close, we left our temporary abode in Bowie, Maryland. How Texan is that?
Our new temporary abode was in Fredericksburg, Virginia…funny that I’ve always wanted to live in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Two towns, same name, different history.
Civil War Homeschool Field Trips in Fredericksburg
Since we were studying the Civil War, we were in the perfect location to take advantage of all the sites: historic Fredericksburg, Chatham Manor, Battle of Fredericksburg, and all the surrounding battlefields of Fredericksburg, Wilderness, Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania.
On the weekends we toured the cherry blossoms, Mount Vernon’s National Treasure Tour, the National Marine Corps Museum, and Colonial Williamsburg’s religion month programming.
Our New Virginia Keys
Today we finally closed on our new house, so have a new set of Virginia house keys!
There have been a few funny events through this process.
While lost on Cemetery Road while driving to the house for the first time, my son piped up: That’s where everyone ended up, looking for this road we can’t find!
Arriving at the new house after closing, we opened the door to our new home with our new keys.
Colonial Style Home in Colonial Style Neighborhood
It’s a lovely neighborhood that looks like Colonial Williamsburg: 18th century fencing, colonial style houses, even ha-ha walls.
With rolling hills and meandering paths, we can see the Blue Ridge in the distance.
Our real estate agent surprised us with a basket that contained Virginia goodies, including from Colonial Williamsburg!
Virginia Fixer Upper
This ten-year-old house needs lots of work, probably why it sat on the market for six months before we arrived.
However it has great bones with colonial elements, like lots of pillars throughout the main floor.
I’m thinking a bit of 18th century with a touch of French Country in honor of Lafayette.
Movers bring our goods the next day
Because we had such a late day, our time for drooling over home ownership, we drove to the nearby Red Robin to celebrate, then we drove back to our temporary abode in Fredericksburg.
Although I had imagined an entire week of leisurely taking all the before photos and painting all the walls and inside closets without stuff in the way, my dream world came to an end when the moving company shockingly announced their ability to arrive early the morning after our signing!
The next morning the kids and I hauled all our stuff out of the hotel into the van, then drove an hour to the house to meet the moving van…which arrived hours past the expected time.
Trying to kill time, I never once thought to take before photos of the empty house. =/
Lafayette sighting
Although previously told the storage unit for our belongings was in Manassas, we learned the moving truck drove up from Fredericksburg, but got stuck in traffic on I-95.
Fredericksburg? Our stuff was stored near us the entire time we were in Fredericksburg? Where at?
Lafayette Boulevard! No way! Lafayette is everywhere!
All this time I’ve been homesick, missing my stuff while in Fredericksburg, thinking it was stored in Manassas, when it was actually stored down the road on a street named after my hero!
THE FURNITURE FITS
When the movers were here, my son told them he wanted his room painted. They asked what color it was. He said pink mocha.
Laughing, they agreed it needed repainting!
Meanwhile all my big furniture perfectly fit into the small family room, turning it into a grand looking comfy space.
Think the previous homeowner’s sparse clunky furniture arrangement made it look smaller than it really was, to the point of not being suitable for a family.
GREAT BONES
Wow!!! With our furniture in place, it felt like home!
All the windows in the back of the house’s main floor look out far and wide, making me feel like I live in a birdhouse.
I love the colonial style of the house, especially now that we live in Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, most populous, and most British of the thirteen colonies.
Some Jefferson details include columns throughout the house!
Charmingly we have a bump out bay window on the side of the house.
Although the house has great bones, the paint colors were deplorable, likely the reason why the house had sat on the market for six months while everything else was snatched up.
Everything in this ten year old house needed a refresh, which doesn’t need to be expensive.
We’ve proved that in our Texas house that sold in one day during the recession.
I was looking forward to converting all the tired dreariness into cheery French Country style in the house and gardens.
But now it’s time to unpack boxes!
