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Monday, May 03, 2010

We Have Moved. I Am Dead Tired, But Here's a Tour

I'm pretty sure I've lived the equivalent of four or five days in the last two days. I haven't been sleeping well at all. The excitement and the stress has give me insomnia. On Saturday, I woke up at 4:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep, because I was positive I was going to sleep in too much, since my alarm clock was packed, and miss all the people who were supposed to arrive at 8:00 am to start loading the truck. Somehow, it didn't occur to me until 6:00 that my children never sleep past 7:00 and are louder than a action flick. I never sleep much past 7:00.

Anyway, we got everything moved and I would guess we are more than half way done putting stuff away. One problem we have is that we don't have enough furniture. For instance, the only thing in Aubrey's rooms is her crib and a box. She really could use a dresser of some sort. We have not a stitch of living room furniture, except for the piano and piano bench. I'm sure we will be filling it up fast though, but it makes right now a wee bit awkward.

Anyway, on with the tour.

The outside. This is the photo that we up on the MLS listing. We almost didn't put it on our list, because we wanted a garage and the outside just seemed ugly, but we decided to look at it anyway. It is so pretty inside and actually a lot more charming in person.It has a huge back yard and tons of mature trees. The carport is generously sized. We can pull up next to each other and the doors still swing open all the way.

Ok, open the front door and you will see this stair case down to the basement.

To the right is the kitchen and eating area. Those countertops are crazy orange. Or, I should say, were crazy orange, because I painted them. More on that later. For now, enjoy the orange.DISHWASHER! DISHWASHER! DISHWASHER! Ehem. Excuse my excited outburst.

This is the view from the kitchen to the eating area and the front door. That is the beautiful table that David (and I) built. More on that later. That chair is one of 8 that we bought for $8 a piece and I have fantastic plans for them. But more on that later.

This is the quirky pass through to the living room. I was clueless until I asked our inspector what he thought it was for. He was quite the character, and he told me, "You see, there used to be these kinds of telephones that had to be plugged into the wall. . ." Oh duh, yeah, a place for the telephone, so you could answer it in the kitchen or the living room. I have plans to change it, as I always want to bend over and look through it. That door is my pantry.Moving on to the living room, which is on the left when you come in the door. It's a long narrow room, and eventually it will have three areas, with a main sitting area in the middle.

From the front of the room looking to the back.

We are also planning on putting in a door to the back yard in the side window, and a patio area out there. I find it a bit odd that there isn't a back door, or even a door into the back yard. The door in the kitchen leads out to the carport. Somehow, the computer ate my picture of this window, so just trust that it's there, in the right of the above photo.

A shot looking back into the kitchen.

Next, to the hallway. . . This isn't visible from the front door. You can come in through the kitchen or living room. The door on the right is the bathroom, the door straight ahead is my craft room and the door to the left is the master bedroom.

Let's look at the bathroom first, shall we? It's got some ivy stenciling in it. I don't really mind it, but I wouldn't say I like it either. It's going, particularly because as I sit in bed, I can see it if the door is open.

Love that it has a window! Natural light in the shower? I feel so spoiled.

In the hallway, there is one of these built in shelves and drawer combos you find in older homes. I really love this feature and it reminds me that this house has 35 years of history behind it.

Next is the master. It's pretty big and it has two windows. The ceiling fan is on the ugly side and there are no closet doors, and it's not a walk in, but I think it will work just fine anyway. All our clothes are in there now and it's a good fit, so we have all the room we need.

The other bedroom on the main floor is my craft room. It had a darling rodeo theme in it. Since I've never been nor will I ever be a six-year-old boy, it was the first thing I covered over. That IKEA bookcase of mine would be a pain to move and paint behind, so it was the first thing I did. David helped me a lot and it currently looks much better, even if it is filled with boxes. I'll show you some of it once it's put together a bit more.

Ok, so that is it for the main floor.

Once you go down the stairs, the family room is on the left, right under the living room on the main floor. I actually love the brick and find it quite charming. We are planning on building a huge entertainment center with plenty of bookshelves, with the brick showing through.

I'm surprised at how much room there is down here. When we looked at the house, there was this huge set of couches just tossed down there and it looked a lot smaller. This set up works much better with the flow of the room.
There's only one small window in this room, but it actually gets an incredible amount of light in the afternoon, and it's pretty good for a media room anyway.

There is a storage room at the back of this, which we have made the play room. Right now, all their toys are tossed on the floor, but we plan to put up shelves and make it much more inviting.

Ok, now to the right of the stairs and under the kitchen and eating area, there is a huge storage room. The kids are fascinated by our new washer and dryer. Here is it doing the inaugural load. Love this set, btw. LOVE! And even better, it was a housewarming present from a pair of loving relatives. We appreciate it so much!

Here is the rest of the room, pre-organization. It looks so good now, and there is still a lot of room for stuff.

Going down the rest of the hall, there is again a bedroom straight ahead, a bathroom to the right and a larger bedroom to the left, the same layout as the main floor. The larger bedroom is under the master, but it's a bit smaller, because the family room takes up a little bit of it.

This bathroom has much nicer finishes than the one upstairs. I'm a little bit jealous of my kids' bathroom. Someday we'll update the main floor bath though.

Then, we have Aubrey's room right under my craft room. It's a candy apple green, which I like. I might change it when I go to decorate her room, but for now, it works for her. She really likes it and her crib looks very pretty against the wall.

She has two closets too, lucky girl.

Then the boys' room is under the master and has a large closet. It's just right for the bunk and the toddler bed, although we want to give Griffin his own twin before too long. He's getting so tall he almost doesn't fit in the bed now.

So, that's the inside of our house. I love living here so far and it's just perfect for us. So far, I've done a ton of painting, but hopefully soon I will get to hanging shelves and pictures. I have a lot of big plans for our house.
I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

9 comments:

  1. The house looks awesome!! I'm sure you are so excited to be in a house!!!

    Congratulations!

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  2. Your house is perfectly charming! And yes, dishwashers are pretty fab! :) ;)

    Loved the tour!

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  3. Congratulations! Can't wait to see what you do with it all!

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  4. Cute house! Thanks for the tour! We will be moving to our first house this summer, and your post made me so excited to get in there! Good luck with all the painting and decorating! Can't wait to see it on your blog!

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  5. Your home is wonderful!! I love the older homes. They have so much character that can't necessarily be replicated into the newer ones!!!

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  6. Sandra A7:56 AM

    What an exciting time for all of you. When a washer/dryer fascinates kids, you know it's a new adventure you've just entered. Looking forward to your many project updates. God bless you all.

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  7. It is pretty inside! I can't wait to see what you did with the craft room, we'll have to have an inaugural crop in there once you get it set up! I'm so lame for not hosting it at my house yet, I always have way too much on my plate that housework is the last thing done around here sadly...

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  8. Kara,
    Your narrative on your new house was so entertaining! How you found the time just amazes me. I'm a grandmother of five and in the process of downsizing. It's a hectic time, but will be over the end of June. I'm furiously quilling up my inventory before the move and working out of boxes. UGH Best of everything to you and your family in your new home.
    Also enjoyed your Quilled Monogram tutorial, but alas can't locate a proper font. Any hints. Fran

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  9. Your home is beautiful and I could literally picture it as you were telling it! Congratulations!

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