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Well, that's about it. I hope this gives you a better idea of what we're doing, the house we've fallen in love with, and the town that has drawn us in. I guess I've been a southern "girl" at heart since my school days in New Orleans in the late 50's, so if I could return to the south and live in what I think of as a southern home again, it would be pretty special after 45 years, and something I never thought would happen. Plus, did I mention that we'll be closer to Chicago, Madison and Minneapolis - yep, and that's just the icing on the cake!

The State House.

The former post office at left and a lovely southern-style inn above.

The Town Library

A couple of our favorite places: A Williams and Sonoma look-alike shop and an upscale restaurant with delicious cuisine.

65 miles of hiking trails in the woods only a couple of blocks from the house.

Beautiful old homes and stately boulevards.

Horses crossing the street and polo players in town.

More views of this darling town - very cute, very southern.

A fountain and a view of the shops on main street.

Bob and I had fun exploring a beautiful park near the center of town.

One of the store windows in town and a B&B on main street.

A popular restaurant with outdoor seating and a couple of the town's most interesting characters.

A view of the town:

The trees over one of the more famous streets in town and a mural painted on a brick building in an alley.

This is a map of the area around our little town. We're anxious to explore all of these places once we get settled in. Most of them are only 2-3 hours away by car.

And now for the quaint little southern town: It's not a coastal town. In fact, if there's a hurricane, there's an evacuee route to this town. It is a horse town, though. In the early 1900's the rich horsey people from the northeast used it for their winter and summer homes. They built large plantations, mansions, and ranches on the rolling hills to house their horses. Polo is played here and you see people on horses riding on unpaved neighborhood streets in some areas of town. Have I sold you on it yet?

Our CA/LV furniture does not reflect the feeling of this house, but that's why we liked it. I've seen interiors like this in showcase homes, but never thought I might own one myself. It has a very southern atmosphere, something we both love, and we're looking forward to eventually furnishing it with all new pieces.

This home also has a fully finished storage room behind the garage, an attic, and a full-height partial basement/crawl space at ground level. Very nice for us who have been living with virtually no storage in CA/NV for the past 12 years - and the home inspector said it was one of the best built homes he had ever seen.

The laundry room, which is located near all the bedrooms, a perfect spot, we thought.

A small office with a built-in desk and cabinets - will probably be my hobby room.

The same 2nd guest bedroom with French doors that lead to the front porch where two black rocking chairs set.

The 2nd guest bedroom.

The guest bathroom: A good shot of the solid wood french-styled doors throughout the house.

A rather poor shot of one of the guest rooms that will probably become Bob's study.

The sitting area in the master bedroom.

The bed in the spacious master bedroom.

This is the other side of the great room. The French doors to the right open to the master bedroom suite.

The slate fireplace is real, but we would probably have a gas log kit installed.

A view of the great room at the bay windows overlooking the golf course: The floors throughout the entire house are made of wide plank antique heart pine.

This is one-half of the back porch. It should be nice and shady in the late afternoon.

The view from the breakfast nook through the back porch and overlooking the golf course.

The breakfast nook at one end of the kitchen: The furniture in the house would be moved out, so we'd have a lot to replace.

The kitchen bar -how do you like the French country green? We decided we did. It needs barstools. The countertops are a new hard surface that's supposed to be smoother, less porous, and more chip and scratch resistent than granite.

The French country kitchen is huge. I'm checking out the bread drawer while our realtor looks on in this shot. There's also a convection oven, a full pantry, a broom closet, a trash compactor and a special cabinet for storing cookie sheets and cutting boards.

This is the beautiful dining room. I loved the federalist look.

The rotunda has four curved walls like the one shown here. Each curved area opens into a wide hallway leading to either the garage, the great room, the dining room or the bedrooms - a neat concept in the design that we really liked.

The rotunda ceiling and chandelier: Note the heavy crown molding. This 15" crown molding decorates the entire house, even in the bathrooms. There's also 10" baseboards.