EASTHOME

Here's the new castle.

In a fit of originality, we named it Easthome.

We bought it in December of 2001 after being scared to death of what we could get for our old place after 9/11. Fortunately for us, we got a fair price for the old house and took advantage of slightly depressed prices in our current neighborhood to get a rude deal on our current place.

It's essentially our old old place writ in capital letters. It's a big foursquare, 3 bedrooms and a bath up with an extra bathroom in the basement. It's a move up in pretty much every direction. It has a fireplace, we've budgeted for central air, it has a deck on top of the attached garage and the only thing that's less desirable than the old place is the one car garage. I'm going to need more project space, but hopefully I won't need to relinquish the garage for the sake of the car.

Speaking of the added extras, it has a garage door opener, a nice shower in the basement, decent appliances and, best of all, original wood work that's never been painted. Yes, the upper sashes even come down. How cool is that?