One Month In: The Latest House Tour...

So maybe this should say "Part 1" because there's no way I can cover the entire house in one post.  

Only because I really like the house and not in any way because our house is some sort of gigantic McMansion.  

It's not.

What it is, though, is ours.  And "ours" makes it my favorite.  

Some background on the house, we had all of about three days to sell our piece of paradise and buy our next place.  Paradise or not.  

Three days.

Thankfully, our place sold, twice, in that time frame.  

In the meantime, we saw almost every house in our price range.  21 houses.  

We like to think we're not overly picky.  And we're fast.  Our realtor, who got to spend some quality time with us for the second year in a row, thought we should only plan to see ten in a day.  Chris was all, call him back and tell him we'll see 15.  We're fast.

And we were.  

For the most part, we know what we need, what we can change, what we can't and what type of location.  This time, we really needed a yard.  We couldn't move back into the .13 acre yard we had.  And we knew we couldn't afford the third of an acre we were leaving.  A pool would have been wonderful but, more important, was a yard for the kids to run and play.

That's a tall order.

Most every house we saw either had a good house and no yard or a great yard and an unworkable house.  Or, as in the case of one place, a nice amount of both but some really questionable remodeling and HORRIBLE paint.  Those owners were under the false impression the work they'd done was AMAZING and priced it accordingly.  

Only not.

All that to say, the house we landed in was the best of the best out of those houses on the market during those three days.

How's that for a build up?

At this point, you're CRAZY excited to see what kind of hovel we are living in.

We love the house.  Truly.  It just needs and needed some elbow grease.  The house had been a rental property for years.  According to our neighbors, it's been a revolving door of people.  Lots of people equals some pretty nasty carpet, beaten up walls, general repairs for things like toilets and sinks.  Not to mention an over grown exterior.  

So, work.

Since we were working with a razor thin time frame, we didn't have time to do any of that before we moved in.  Ideally, painting and floors would have been done before we put all of our stuff inside.  BUT, we needed to be in the house so AK could start school.  We moved in on a Saturday and we walked her to school on Monday morning.

What we COULD do was some kitchen updates.  There's an entire post coming about the kitchen updates.  For now, we've done new counter tops, back splash and all new appliances.  

This time around, having Chris here to get the big items up on the walls has been the challenge.  With band camp and school starting, he's been a little busy.  He worked really hard on getting the garage set up too.  That's mostly done now too.

ANYWAY.  There's some background on our latest house.  We do really love it!  We miss our pool.  FOR SERIOUS.  But the trade off has been sweet neighbors to play with and more living space for us to hang out in.  

And our closets.  

They are things of beauty.

Okay, done with the talking.  On to the pictures!

Front door!  Yes, that's a fall wreath.  Because I'm hoping decorating for fall will remind the summer to kindly MOVE ON DOWN THE ROAD.  It was 100 degrees here today.  

Summer.  Leave already.

The poor front door needs a good paint job.  It's been beaten up something awful.  I tried cleaning it but that only made the nicks and scratches shinier.

Also, the front of our house gets afternoon sun.  Which is literally MELTING my wreaths.  I took this picture in the morning.  The wreath is now on my dining room table awaiting repair.  With what, I have no idea.  The heat is melting even super glue.  Any suggestions?

Walking in the door is the dining room.  Listen, we could open up our dining room table and seat twelve people.  And still have room.  It's, by far, our largest dining room.  

Also, I clearly was not kidding about decorating for fall.  It was the last box I unpacked.  And I did that Saturday night.  So instead of putting it away, I simply decorated.  Why not?

This is the entrance wall.  The piano is here.  It's that big black thing, in case you were wondering.  I painted the mirror this weekend.  I kinda love it.  I also kinda love the art work my kids contributed.  Precious littles.

Dining room wall.  Those shutters are the headboard Chris made out of the trash my friend grabbed off the side of the road for me.  They were poop green before.  Kinda like the current color of my dining room.  Who thought that color was a good idea?  Oh!  The medallion in the center is an antique.  I got it for ten bucks off a trading site.  It's falling apart.  Which clearly means I should hang it on the wall by a ribbon.

Right next to the front door is my desk.  It's that faint thing on the right of the picture.  That desk came out of a hotel room on Sea Island.  The original Cloister Hotel.  I dust it.  That's it.  I'm changing absolutely ZIPPO about that desk.  Ever.

I'm not horribly sentimental about STUFF but that desk?  It's going with me to The Home.

The back wall of the dining room is my favorite spot in the whole house.  The kitchen...well, really, the pantry...is much smaller than either of our houses in the north.  These southern metroplex builders put in just regular closet pantries.  Obviously, all my white serving pieces can't fit in a closet.  And really, they're better off being on display.  

That's my scrapbook cabinet.  I made the curtains for it for staging at the last house.  It hides all the various colors of the scrapbook.  

The shutters I got for free off a neighborhood trading site.  She'd intended to Pinterest them up but never got around to it and the husband made her get rid of them.  

He was crazy.

But I was thrilled.

Moving down the hall, this is my gallery wall.  I had to lay it out on the floor, send a picture for approval to my design whisperer, Tabitha, and then Chris spent the next FOUR HOURS getting it hung.  He like measures and stuff.  I would have just driven a whole bunch of nails in until I got it right.  He's a way better person than I am.

You'll notice the poop green stops with the dining room.  The rest of the house is khaki.  

Brown.

So 2001.

On to the great room.  

Have I ever told the story of this couch?  I used to have an old brown thing.  That I had because someone allowed me to select furniture at 25 years old.  And then Chris held me to that very poor decision for the next 15 years.  

Chris told me I could replace the big brown monstrosity if I found the one I wanted for $100 or less.  

I found one for $50.  I then bought a new slipcover off Ebay for $60.  So all total I went over by ten bucks.  

I think I win.

Although, really, don't we all win when bad decorating decisions are rectified?  

Yes.  Yes, we do.

There's not much to say.  Other than OPEN.  It's a large space and it's so open.  I adore that.  Plus, the fireplace.  It's a corner fireplace.  And I swoon every time I look at it.  Oh, here's what it looks like NOT decorated for fall...

I know.  It's kinda boring.  Thankfully, there's always something for which it can be decorated.  Fall turns into Christmas turns into Valentine's turns into Easter turns into Summer and that, thankfully, turns back into fall.  

I had to take those pictures after the sun set.  Those windows are FABULOUS.  So much amazing light pours into the room all day long.  But I haven't figured out how to take even really bad iPhone photos facing all that natural light.

We passed the kitchen to get to the great room.  This kitchen is very literally smack in the middle of the house.  The heart of the home.  Cute, huh?

New dishwasher, oven and microwave.  They're swanky.  

View into the kitchen.  It's really open.  There's no hiding the junk.  

Subway tile.  I LOVE IT.  

This is the view from my sink into the great room.  I can see straight out to the patio too.  Not that the kids are ever out there.  Because did I mention it was 100 degrees today?  It's a nice size patio and a nice backyard.  I'll post pictures of that once it's clean and not looking so much like Samford & Son's junk yard.

And so, thus, ends our tour for today.  Bedrooms will have to come in on Part 2.