A Tour of Our "New" House

Many of you prayed us through the sale of our old house and the transition into this new house.  I finally got pictures taken!  I was waiting because each time I take some, I'd do something more to get the room ready.  So I'd wait.  Then I had to wait until the room was clean, and you know how long that can take!  But alas, I have some photos for you to view.  There is no photo of the front of the house as that is a blogging security no-no.  Sorry.  You'll have to come visit me to know what it looks like outside!

I'll start with the non-exciting areas.  :)  The bottom half of the house:

Our school room... really messy and totally in shambles, but that's my project for the next day or two.  I took this picture a long time ago.  Now it looks worse!  (I got it set up and we used it well for a week, then I had to rearrange stuff for the window installers.  I've not recovered.)

Yes, a totally uninteresting picture of our storage room, but some readers are family and care about things like storage rooms!  (For those of you who are visual, the storage room is the right half of the bottom level.  The red room below is the other half.)

Here's our basement/den/playroom.  I took this one on a really messy day too and never bothered to redo it.  The computer isn't down there anymore, thankfully.  And there are two windows we uncovered above the couch too.

The kids play down here often!  I was afraid it would feel too far away and removed, but they seem to enjoy it.  We can hear each other to and from there really well, so that may be why it doesn't feel so far away.  On the other hand, they are "far away" enough to give my ears a break when I need it!

Here is our patio/backyard area.  We had to do quite a bit of work on the patio for starters, but it was worth it.  We spend a LOT of time back here!

And below the patio is our backyard.  Our property goes back to the pine trees you can see in both photos.

The bedrooms:

It has been really fun to decorate these bedrooms in a way that expresses each of the kids personalities.  They shared a room in our other house and it was on the market for so long that I didn't want to put money into decorating anything.  I love the way these have turned out!

Mattie doesn't have a box spring or a headboard, so I bought bed risers to raise her bed to normal height and those wall stickers to draw your eyes to the head of her bed and give it the feel of a normal looking bed.  These flowers and butterflies are just right for her!

This dresser and nightstand were mine (and my older sister's and brother's) when we were growing up!  They have seen quite a few coats of paint, but they still hold clothes.

I had to look for several months for a quilt that Jacob loved.  He loves bright color, but is getting too old for all the little boy quilts that are out there.  And I'm mean and wouldn't decorate his bedroom in a character.  But I knew as soon as I saw this that he'd love it, and I was right!  I got it as a queen quilt/ 2 shams/ decorative pillow/ dust-ruffle.  And cutting off one side of the unused dust ruffle set me up to make the easiest valance I've ever done!  :)

This bed is a loft that my dad made for me when I was 15.  I was glad Jacob wanted to use it!

His stuff is awfully messy and I need to get him some cloth bins for organization in there.  He's kind of in a strange toy transition, so he's not playing with a lot of the stuff he was right before we moved.  And he's wanting to be in charge of what he saves and pitches.  I'm trying to let him, but all the clutter drives me iNsANe!  At least with the bed facing this direction, I can't really see it, aside from the train boxes we need to move downstairs.  :)

We didn't have too many arrangement option in this room because of the pieces of furniture that we have, so we ended up putting stuff in front of both windows.  I tried to use the double curtains to set the bed apart a bit and I think it turned out all right.  My dresser to the right is covering up the other window.  At least we don't need a shade!  It's not my favorite, and we could take my mirror off the dresser, but I like it.  So for now, that's how it will stay.

One day I'd like to have a set of quilts for the season changes.  (One advantage of neutral paint!)  I'd love to have a flowery one for Spring, a beachy one for Summer, a log-cabin-feel(I'd even take trout and animals) for fall and a cozy, snowflake one for winter.  I know it would be a total luxury, but it would be a luxury that would bring me joy every time I walked into my room.  For now, it's white because that's what we bought for staging at the old house.

This is our main family bath that is upstairs with the bedrooms.  At this point it is stripped of all personality (and blue and pink paisley wallpaper with a large cornice board).   It was pretty before, but not us and too busy.  Now it's just boring, but we're getting there.

The Main Level:

This area is certainly where we spend most of our time.

 

Here's the kitchen.  I just made the valances this week and love the splash of color they add to the otherwise neutral room.  While I was in NJ for 10 days in September, Robert repaired the walls in here and painted it for me!  What a blessing to come home and have that messy project taken care of!

I just added that little sitting area by the big window this week and have enjoyed it already.  It may be weird to have a rocker in one's kitchen, but that big window is one of my favorite spots in the house.  It looks out over the backyard where the kids play and allows me to enjoy the openness and sunshine!  And that rocker is my favorite chair.  I fully intend to enjoy that area quite often.

I love the white cabinets here.  They are painted wood.

From here you can see the openness of the kitchen/living room area. 

This room isn't my favorite as it is North facing and gets very little sunshine.  I LOVE my sunshine!  And I've learned I need it more than I ever knew.  But as the leaves are falling, the trees are clearing out and I'm getting direct sunshine in the windows!  I am one happy camper this week.  :)  This has been a gift to me.

Two before and afters:

Just two areas we've redone recently that I wanted to share so you can appreciate them!

This is the bathroom on the main level the way the previous owners had it decorated.  It had a leaking faucet, the vanity was not fastened to the wall, and the toilet was cracked really bad.  Three hundred dollars and a lot of our own (mostly Robert's) labor, we have this:

I love it!  Didn't Robert do a great job?!

We started out with our computer in the basement.  That's where the tv is and I thought it would be nice to have ti down there.  I ended up hating it!  It was very hard to get down there because the kids were outside so much, or when Robert was home in the evenings I hated to be holed up in the basement.  So we moved it up to the kitchen.

Then we had this.  Ugh is right.  I didn't mess that up just for the picture; that's what it normally looked like and I couldn't stand it.  I was using random pieces from all over the house to get the shelving and drawer space that I needed and it was horrible.  For the room where we spent most of our time, something had to be done!

This is what we have now!  I need to do some serious gathering of cords behind the computer, but this is so much better to me!

I have learned that I am an out-of-sight, out-of-mind person.  And that can get pretty dangerous when it comes to being a home manager.So I gave up trying to remember what I had put out of sight and tried to make it look appealing in plain sight. 

I bought the bookshelf (etagere, actually... learned a new word) for $43 including shipping/tax and the computer desk for $29!  So they are white, match my kitchen cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, and are organized!

~The white board has our calendar and my to do list right on it.  No more slips of paper or sticky notes stacked on my computer desk!  :)

~The magazines files on the shelf hold financial items that need to be paid or called on, things to read when I have time (never), and extra computer paper/notepads. 

~The basket to the right of the magazine files has revolutionized my life.  You know what it's full of??  Art/coloring supplies that now have a portable HOME!  It's one basket (with handles) that has markers, colored pencils, crayons, scissors/glue, and regular pencils and erasers all in ONE spot!  This is so exciting to me, you cannot even imagine.  Since the supplies are all in buckets of some sort, there is no lid that needs to be returned which exponentially increases the chances of said items being returned to their rightful homes!

~The top two or three shelves will be used for some small knick knacks or seasonal things.  Right now it just has a bit of everything as I'm trying to find what I have in boxes.

However it has worked out, I love this area now and don't mind it being in my kitchen at all.

Welcome to Our Home!  

I hope you enjoyed your tour!!