House Tour

I was talking with my mom recently and she mentioned that it would be easier for her to picture us in our new house if she had some pictures.  So this post is mostly for her but also for anyone else who might be curious about what the new place looks like and how we're making it work for our family.  I didn't immediately fall in love with this house, but it's been growing on me a little at a time and the longer we are here the more I really like this place.  Alright, here we go with our little house tour!

Kitchen

Just in case anyone is unsure of the purpose of a kitchen . . . a little wall decor to remind you to EAT. The colors here make me happy and I *love love* the fun colanders.

Because we bought the house after seeing it just one time and we didn't even make an offer on the place until a couple of weeks after that first look, we didn't realize that our kitchen, while pretty, is seriously lacking in storage. Thankfully, the kitchen is spacious and has plenty of empty space  to put in our own storage. The cupboards underneath here are perfect for storing seldom used appliances and the open shelving above helps keep our most-used pantry items easily accessible. I stayed up waaaay too late one night making labels for the pantry containers but the lack of sleep was worth it because these labels are so sweet.  They make me smile every time I walk into the kitchen. The only thing that would make me like them more was if they were in matching canisters.

See that one little drawer next to the stove? That's one of only three drawers in our kitchen and it's the biggest one. It's a lovely kitchen though, I especially like the big fridge and the fact that the counters are taller than in most kitchens.

The Great Outdoors

We pretty much live in the woods. Our house is in a neighborhood, but we're up away from the road and are surrounded by trees. This spiderweb stretched from the railing of our deck to the back wall of the house. We're trying to keep the outside outside, but we occasionally see creepy crawlies like this guy in the house.

And here's the shady, tree-filled view from our back deck. Those oak trees are going crazy right now and we are fighting a losing battle with the autumn leaves. We could be out there sweeping every day and it would still look as if we hadn't done anything for a week or more.

Living Room

The living room actually doesn't look like this anymore because just last week we finally purchased furniture for this room! Now that we have a place to sit it's become a room that we use a little more often. For the month and a half that this room was empty except for the television, piano, and bookshelves it was a sort of everything room. When I took this picture the girls had set it up as a play library.

Eventually that wall behind and around the television will be filled with all those photos that are sitting on the floor - but first I have to find more frames for all the other pictures that I also want to hang up there. For now all those pictures are scattered around the upstairs waiting for the planned gallery wall to be completed.

Don't worry, this is not our new living room furniture! This was our makeshift furniture that we set up after a few weeks of living here. Two trundle bed mattresses stacked up on top of each other and every extra pillow in the house worked quite well until we found something more permanent. 

Bedrooms

Madison and Emily share a room. Can you guess which side belongs to which girl? Madison has always been an orderly person and Emily, well, she's always been a little more untidy. In case anyone is wondering, Madison is the oldest girl but she is sharing a room because she and Emily both get up early for seminary and this way they are less likely to disturb any younger sisters with their early morning wake ups.

Abigail is the lucky girl who gets her own room this time, but the trade off is that it is the smallest bedroom in the house. She doesn't seem to mind the smallish room and certainly appreciates having her own space. We just need to get her a bookcase - the movers broke most of ours - and she will be set.

Oh this room and that girl! We have to pick up and straighten this room every. single. day. It's tricky keeping a room spick-and-span when you're busy having fun in said room. Natalie and Samantha are once again sharing and if you look closely you can see that one sister, Sam on the bottom bunk, is neat and one sister, Natalie on the top bunk, is sloppy. This room used to be set up as an office with built in desks around three walls and cupboards above for storage. We pulled them out before our things were delivered, but the walls are pretty beat up from where they were installed. Eventually we'll finish patching up the walls and get that room repainted.

Our room is in the basement and is just right for the two of us. It's not too terribly big, but it fits our furniture easily and the closet, while not a walk-in, is at least as big as the wardrobes we were using for our things in Germany. The only thing that I'd like to do in this room is paint the trim. For some reason the previous owner painted most of the trim in the basement the same color as the walls. I'd much prefer it if the trim were painted white. Luckily, the previous owner left several cans of partially used paint in the utility room and one of them was labeled trim paint. So, there's another project added to our list.

Entryway/Laundry/Second Kitchen/Sewing Room

This room serves many purposes but it's most often used as our entryway.  We almost never use the front door here because it's not convenient to get to from the driveway - like at all. Also, our house has a split foyer entry, which means that you walk in the front door onto the landing of the stairs. It's not exactly the best space to hang coats or backpacks, or to put our shoes, and it certainly isn't a place that says welcome to our home.  So we come in the back basement door and I love it because there's plenty of space.  Sure, the washer and dryer don't scream welcome to our home, but at least there's enough room for more than two people to gather at one time. Plus, the washer and dryer are glorious and get gobs of use in our house.

I go back and forth on the benefit of having a second kitchen when we could have say, a fifth bedroom instead.  I definitely like having another refrigerator though and the second oven has really come in handy when I need to bake two things at the same time but at different temperatures. The counter at the far end without the lower cupboards has become my sewing room. Alright, alright - sewing space.

Family Room/Office/Everything Else

And finally, another multi-purpose room, our family room! This half (third?) of the room is the family room and the rest of the room is set up as an office, exercise area, and storage for Jared's military uniforms and other gear.  We are very excited that we have a wood stove in this room and Jared has been stockpiling firewood for the winter. Plus, we have a mantel for the first time ever and it makes me look forward to hanging Christmas stockings like never before.

So there you go, a quick tour of our Maryland home!