House Tour November 2014

We're settling into our life back here in our old house.  It's been over three weeks now and I actually got the house almost fully unpacked about a week ago.  We were having some friends over to do some crafting projects last week, and Steven was about to go on a long trip, so I figured it would be best to get things in order quickly!

It definitely makes me feel more emotionally stable when the house isn't a disaster.  But now I've got a few more boxes out for the winter clothing changeover, so things are starting to get crazy again!  We had an increase in house showings for our other house last week, but nothing has come of any of them.  St. Joseph, pray for us!  It still kind of feels like we're visiting; I hope that once the other house sells I can finally take a deep breath and really, really feel like this has all come together and we're actually HOME.

But without further ado I bring to you our almost-unpacked house...

From the street

I love having a front porch, and especially love seeing our rockers there. Our backyard needs a lot of work and isn't pictured yet.  Right now it's just a blank patio with some lawn chairs and the grass with huge overgrown bushes along one side!

The entryway

Living room

and a few other angles

Just one view of the kitchen, because it kind of gives me hives. The vinyl flooring is so hard to clean, and the pantry, cabinets, and baseboards are grimy and in need of replacing.  I'm trying to not think too wistfully about our kitchen in the other house. And this one doesn't look so bad when it's not a close-up :)

Here in the front of the house, the formal living/dining are our schoolroom/playroom.  We likely won't use the dining table to dine on for awhile, since there's carpet underneath!  Eeek!  I'm still getting used to having all carpet again, but it's nice for an almost-mobile baby.

My friend and I are making special felt wall calendars which I'll probably hang under the bunting here in the playroom.

A few different views of the schoolroom. The lighting makes the wall colors in all the rooms different from every angle! This room is almost always a mess with books, paper, and crayons everywhere, but I'm glad it's well-used. 

Those maps have made lots of moves with us and are on their last legs, all beat up and torn in the corners.  I have a couple new ones in my Amazon cart to get sometime soon.

I still need to hang some things in the entryway, but I'm really happy with the way it looks painted white on the lower half!  I'm still not totally sold on my "Wheat Bread" color I chose for the main living areas, but it'll do for now.

Here are the bedrooms.  I've kind of let the kids take on their own rooms.  Ellie still doesn't have things up on the wall on this side.  We left the other twin bed in the garage because there's just not enough room for it when she wants to have the chalkboard wall open!

See how much space the chalkboard wall takes? I'm on the lookout for some kind of storage for her boxes of trinkets on the floor in the corner, maybe a small armoire or cabinet.

 And now the boys' room when it's not littered with Legos and Halloween candy!

I'm thinking of taking off the top bunk.  I think one of these days someone is going to fall off or knock their head on the ceiling fan.  They never sleep up there anyway.

 Mary Clare has chosen everything in her own room, from the furniture placement to the wall hangings, and the bedding from the guest room in the other house. I'm not crazy about her bed against the wall, but she's happy.  And I'm glad it still has the wall color from my old "mom cave."

Here's one angle of our room.  I still need to hang the pictures and shelves on the other walls.  Hopefully we will retrieve our curtains from the other house at some point.  I'll wait to share photos of the bathrooms.  They're a bit scary.  Ours needs a major overhaul ASAP due to some water damage and mold.  Gotta love the brothers there on the floor watching a show on my iPhone....

I'm anxious to make some changes in the areas I mentioned but am glad we have made some progress in the other rooms.  It feels so good to be back, and I'm very grateful we had this home to come back to! And we have some pretty awesome neighbors too.  Hope more of our friends and family will come and visit us back in our old digs!