Welcome to our home!

So I know David and I have been living in our new home since February and I'm just now getting pictures posted, but better late than never. I will proceed to take you through it, starting with the front.

I had to take quite a few shots to encompass the entire thing. So hopefully these will give you the whole picture.

And this is closer to our red front door.

Now I will proceed to take you through the rooms as though I was literally giving you a tour, which means I won't show a room downstairs and then randomly post another room upstairs, because that would be physically impossible in reality.

First, here is our entry way. There are a couple steps up to the main floor.

Yes, we do have a fish tank to the side. David already had some, which were being kept at his parents until we found a home. Now we have both contributed to decorating it, giving it a theme, and adding more fish as time has gone by.

Turning to the right is our front room or living room.

The piano came from David's parents. They had two pianos in their home, so they aren't missing it. I had it tuned and now it doesn't sound half bad. It's been nice to finally own one.

Moving forward, we have our dining room.

Here is another view that isn't quite so bright.

And we're moving, we're moving, past the dining room, on to the kitchen.

As you can see, we have a lovely overhang that allows us to look down into the family room.

 

Moving forward, turning around, this is another view of the kitchen. I wasn't fond of the black and white checkerboard in the beginning, but I think it might be growing on me. The cupboard space is really nice. But I could still use a little more countertop. One day we'll make some changes, but it is quite manageable in the meantime, much better than the other options we had for homes. I could hardly stand those kitchens.

Now we are on our way out of the kitchen. As you can see, it leads us back to the entryway.

So if we turn left, you will see stairs leading down to our family room.

We spend most of our time down here. So far it has stayed fairly cool on warmer days.

The following are more views of the family room.

Next to the tv is a door that leads to the laundry room. The door beyond that is the garage. We don't need to go in there. Nothing to see.

Step in the laundry room, turn left. Here is a half bathroom.

Back in the family room is another door next to the stairs. This is a closet that lies beneath the other stairway leading to the second floor. I've begun to find a use for it. I'm sure Harry Potter wouldn't have minded this broom cupboard. Quite roomy!

Back upstairs, we will now proceed to the second floor.

One thing you'll find throughout the whole top floor is that there are a lot of mirrors. But at the top of the stairs to the left are our spare rooms.

This room is the sparest of all. We sort of dubbed it our arts and crafts room, but I don't expect it to be used that often before it is occupied by our kids. For now, it's more of a guest room.

This has been transformed into David's office, which is currently getting a ceiling fan installed.

It is also his exercise room. The machine will hopefully be moved to a more convenient location.

On to the other rooms.

To the left is the upstairs bathroom.

I'm not fond of the shower doors. Not gonna lie. One day I hope we replace them.

Turning around. To the right of the stairs is Lucy's room.

Her room was one of those things that made me most excited about moving. Obviously, one of the reasons had to do with sleeping arrangements. Lucy is now accustomed to sleeping alone. The other is that her room, unlike the one in our apartment, is solely dedicated to holding her stuff and not our other boxes, spare furniture, or junk. Because now we have storage room for all of that.

(The rocking horse came from an enthusiastic great grandma, by the way.)

In our apartment, I couldn't even hang her clothes up. I had to keep them in boxes. Now it's easier for me to see which clothes fit her yet.

Her crib stuff came from David's mom as a gift.

Now, on to the last room, between the bathroom and Lucy's, is the master bedroom.

We still have our air mattress. David wants to construct our bed with his own hands and it is at the top of his list of wood-building projects, which is good because I think our mattress will one day say it's had enough!

The closet isn't very big, but it was one of those things that I decided I could live with. After this long, I think I can.

Now to the backyard. As you can see, we have a huge oak tree, which causes some concern should we ever have a natural disaster. Unfortunately, before we take it out, they have to send a notice to the whole area to see if anyone would protest. Not to mention, even if we could proceed in taking it out, the law requires that we put another one in. I'm not too happy with that law.

We have planted fruit trees along the back, such as orange, plum, peach, cherry, and a cocktail tree that has peach, apricot, and a third fruit which I believe is nectarine.

On the sides of the house, we have these elephant-size gates. The previous owner had deadbolts on them, but they didn't give us a key for them. David spent several days trying to cut them because they were that durable. He was so impressed by them, we bought the same ones. Only difference is we now have a key for them.

So now you've officially toured our new house. Once again, sorry I took so long to post pictures.