Displaced Vol Fans: TN to AL: HGTV's House Hunters: Mobile, AL

So after ranting a bit about the awkwardness of wedding dress shopping, I figured I'd get into something a little more fun. At the end of May...Will and I bought a HOUSE! I mean...that's just crazy right? A house. We have a house. Ok...technically, Will bought a house. My name goes on the deed when we get married. But no need for technicalities. WE ARE HOMEOWNERS! And seriously...our house is just incredible. House hunting definitely trumps dress shopping, it's just a much longer process and slightly more expensive. Will and his parents had a friend living in Mobile who conveniently happened to be a realtor, so after we got engaged, we immediately began our own version of HGTV's House Hunters: Midtown Mobile. Before meeting with Lexi (realtor), Will and I went and visited a few open houses one Sunday. There was a street with a few houses for sale that Will and I had already seen online. They were all having open houses. There was one house in particular that we had no interest going into. We knew already we wanted at least 3 bedrooms with 2 full baths. Nothing else would do. However, we were already on the street, there was an open house, so we decided we'd quickly run inside the 2/2. Whoops.

Within seconds we fell in love. 9 North Reed was beautiful. Every architectural detail was something straight out of Southern Living. The ceilings (almost a whopping 12 ft high) loomed over us and transitioned from room to room with transoms, pocket doors, and huge wooden doors.

The light fixtures had amazing, ornate ceiling medallions.

Each main room of the house had an incredibly beautiful fireplace.

Master Bedroom

Dining Room

Living Room

Guest Bedroom

Oh and that third bedroom we so desperately wanted? Well...we made lemonade out of those lemons when we saw they had turned the third bedroom into a closet. Yes girls. That's right. I officially have a closet that is the size of a bedroom. I like to call it my "Sex and the City closet." Will didn't get that reference so I made him watch the first "Sex and the City" movie. I doubt he'll question anymore of my references. So, we thought for sure we'd found our dream house. And then.........we made it back into the kitchen.

It really doesn't matter what else the kitchen looks like. I'll brief you: white countertops, white cabinets, white appliances (we will most likely be replacing all of the aforementioned). They also did a whitewash on the hardwood floors in here, and I absolutely loved that. BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Because...there are satanic brown masks staring at me from every corner of this entire room. Our beautiful 12 foot high walls are plastered in this stuff. And yes you little smarty pants reader out there. I know. It's only wallpaper. It can be removed (as you can see I've already started to do). I kid you not, this wallpaper and this wallpaper alone was almost a deal breaker for me. I often show pictures of the wallpaper to my friends and don't tell them how much I hate it. I usually get responses such as "Oh that's very different" or "Wow how interesting." Once I tell them it's coming down ASAP or how much Will and I hate it (or fear it in my case), you can see extreme relief cross their faces as they express their utter disgust with the brown madness. So, as many of the pictures I will be posting on here of our house will be, consider this a way WAY before picture. If you look closely in this picture, you might be able to spot some future plans in store for our kitchen. ;)

I guess I got a little bit ahead of myself (which you'll notice is a trend for me). We bought our dream house. We looked at close to 20 other houses in the Midtown area. There were some really awesome ones out there. There were also some that Will and I didn't get past the front yard before politely declining to enter. We looked in a few other areas of Mobile as well (newer construction, suburbs, etc), but in the end 9 North Reed just didn't even compare with all of the other houses. The other huge sell was the street alone. It seriously was like stepping onto Mayberry. The neighbors sit on their porches with each other while their kids play in yards. The mailman walks up to your door and slips mail through your mail slot.