The New Digs

I wanted to wait until I had all my furniture bought and all my rooms decorated and all my pictures hung to post pictures of our new house. I naively thought it wouldn't take me too long to get this place set up. 

Then came the reality of having two small kids who need my constant attention, and a never-ending flow of worker guys randomly popping in to finish things up, tracking their dirty boots all over my floors and not picking up after themselves. It has kept me quite busy, and although decorating has been constantly on my mind, I haven't had enough hands to bring my ideas to life. Why humans haven't yet evolved to have three or four sets of hands is beyond me.

So, without further ado, I will attempt to satisfy those of you who have been ruthlessly harassing me about posting pictures. Ruthlessly, I tell you! Didn't I mention in my last post that I have other important things to do? Like watch TV?

Let's start with the front door. I would post a picture of the whole front of the house, but the address numbers are up now and I don't want to share that info with the whole internet. So if you'd like, you can go back to this post to see the outside a few months ago. It's basically the same except for the two columns and the front door.

The great room. Waiting on a piece of art to go above the fireplace, and the rest of the decor colors will come from there. That's why all the shelves are empty.

This kitchen makes me want to cook. Cook and bake. Cook and bake and EAT. In the four weeks we've lived here, I have prepared every single meal (minus a few nights of picking up pizza) with extreme joy. It's my favorite place to be.

Looking into the great room from the hallway that leads back to the bedrooms. These windows are going to be my saving grace in the cold dark Michigan winters.

 Just so you don't mistakenly think my house is always as clean as those pictures, here's a look at some of the "pile" areas I strategically hid from view.

This is Matt's office, which I refuse to organize until we find desk furniture. I really should keep this door shut since it's right off the dining area and such a mess, but I guess I just love the constant guilt of seeing things unfinished all day every day.

Oh hello there! Do I need to put the camera down and get you some food?

Here is Josh's favorite place in the house: the pantry. Complete with cereal dispensers, per Matt's request.

Here's one of the rooms I can't quite put together. It's supposed to be the library/piano room, but I obviously don't have a real piano yet or any kind of nice furniture to fit nicely around it. SO, this room has been serving as Jude's sleeping room since it's close to the master, has glass doors so I can peek at him anytime, and the big crib isn't set up yet in the boys room. I promise, little piano room, you will have the beauty you were built for someday!

I love our master bath. For all the headaches we had in getting it just the way we wanted, it ended up being totally worth it.

One of Matt's happiest surprises thus far in the new house: the big master closet. Never in his life has he been able to see all his clothes at the same time! He says it makes dressing for work much more enjoyable.

Another look at my reality -- our shower floor always has toys strewn about. Josh and Jude love to take family showers in here because there's enough space to play and not get constantly sprayed by the scalding hot water that is my drug. It is my coffee in the morning. It is my warm milk before bed. It is my Tylenol and my cold medicine. For the first time in my life, I have a shower that I actually love to be in. So even with toys on the ground, yeah it's pretty much heaven.

Our master bedroom has nothing in it except the bed we already had. We can't bear to spend the money on a bedroom set yet with nightstands and a headboard and all the fancy furniture we've never had, so for a while this room will be pretty empty. We do have the most comfortable bed in the whole wide world, though, and I am so happy to have it back in my life after a summer of bad rental furniture!

Half bath, still not decorated.

The bedroom we use as a playroom has a window out to the garage, so Josh can watch for Daddy to come home from work. It also gives us a view of the lovely piles of sand and dirt in the next lot over.

Kids bath. I just finished a wall project for that space right there.

Guest room / Mommy's purple room / future baby girl room. It looks really dark here, but it's the same plum color as the half bath and the laundry room. I love it. And it's all yours if you come visit us! So come!

I'm not at liberty to post photos of the boys' room yet...because I'm almost done decorating it and want to give it its own post later. Same goes for the playroom. So for now, here are some pictures of the boys in their room on the day the carpet came.  Is it sad that carpet is such a huge luxury to us? Let's just say Josh wasn't the only one rubbing his face around in it that day.

Here's the hall to the bedrooms. It is a most excellent floor for long distance sock sliding. I'm getting pretty good at it, so...I guess you could say I'm a pretty big deal. I will probably challenge you when you come over.

My lovely laundry room. 5000 times more pleasant than washing clothes in the creepy gross basement of our Chicago apartment building.

Mud room. A work in progress as far as organization goes, but I'm loving the functionality!

And now for some more reality shots. 

My messy "drop zone" by the back door.

A mountain of empty boxes in the garage.

Lots of junk waiting to be organized.

And this is how my kitchen really looks on any given night.

Our kitchen sink is like Mary Poppins' purse...much deeper than it seems. You could pull a hat rack and a tall bejeweled lamp out of there and I wouldn't be surprised. I was looking for my nice big cookie sheet yesterday and it was sitting flat on the bottom of the sink. Never would've guessed it could fit there!

And that's the house so far! I'll put up some more pictures of those unfinished rooms once I get them put together. Or you could just COME VISIT ME and see it all in person. Please? I would love that.