Chalet du Francais: How we met.

Back in September a house popped up in my email. It was in a great neighborhood, but it was scary. And I mean scary... as in.. this was the nicest room in the house. But I saw potential.... like this chandelier. The house was trashed, we called it the "Trash House" and for two weeks we talked to contractors, architects to figure out how to take it from Trash to Treasure. It would be pricey, but we felt it was a house worth saving. In the end, the house would be EXACTLY what we want. In the end, we lost the house in a bidding war. I'm not going to lie.... I cried. The "trash house" lit a fire under us to start looking at houses. I felt a lot like Goldilocks when I started to look. This one was too small, this one was too pricey, this one was awkward.... I almost gave up. I just wanted a big yard in the big city. Then one morning, I saw a tiny house with a big yard pop up on my realtor's report, it peaked my interest. I was headed up to LA for a birthday dinner anyway, so I decided to look at it, but I was not very optimistic. I walked around the house and called Mr. Man and said, "This is it." The "trash house" had made us fall in love with the idea of a house that we could customize and add on to. This new house had great bones... and while teeny, it was clean and the location could NOT be beat. This house is an oasis in the big city, and it feels way more like a "country house" than a house in the big city. . It had a ton of potential, room to add on and Mr. Man took a leap of faith and signed the offer before seeing the house.We got word that we were one of 21 offers submitted on this house. My heart sank, and I figured it was hopeless, while Mr. Man remained optimistic. He had finally seen the house and could picture our family in it. A week later, we learned our counter offer was accepted. I couldn't believe it. I literally jumped out of my chair and screamed. This house has been such a surprise, mostly good. The rooms are bigger than I remember, the kitchen is charming, and the hills... oh I could do 100 posts about our daily hikes...

For now... we've named the house Chalet du Francais. "The mountain house" while not architecturally a true chalet... close enough... oui?