Today is the house tour! I've finally got my act together, (don't look at the curtain situation, or lack thereof in most rooms) and took a few photos of each room in our new house. The kids' rooms are messy, partly because I snapped these during quiet time, when they occupy, play in, and untidy the room for 2.5 hours, and partly because I haven't done a deep clean with each of them in about a month. You'll get the general idea, though. I took all the photos in black and white to save you from the horrible colors of the paint. Really and truly, about 3 of my 5 least favorite colors are in this house, and we have no plans to change them because this house has already been sold to a developer.
Above and below are two views of Ani's room, full of dolly items, My Little Pony figures, and books. We don't really dictate what goes on the wall or where, with the exception of a few pieces. I chose the spot for the 5-panel picture frame, made by her Aunty Kristen, and she randomly hung the cross and stencil (?) where she wanted. Her room is perhaps the only normal color, though it's still fairly morose. It's a brownish maroon, with cream-colored carpeting.
Below is a half photo of our main bathroom. It's very plain. One shower, a toilet behind that, and two sinks. The cabinet space below is amazing and still half-way empty. We can fit an entire costco toilet paper pack under there! I'm impressed.
Below is a entry view of Lukka's room. This room is a horrid shade of neon green, and there are so many pock-marks on the wall from nails and screws it's unbelievable. It also has cream carpeting on the floor, along with a leftover from the previous tenants--about 7 strips of sticky leftover adhesive ON the carpet. I've tried a couple tricks to get it off, but nothing comes off. Who puts adhesive on the carpet? Oh well, for the time being, we cover it with a multi-colored rug. Both rooms have great light, which is a bonus. Unseen: a closet, a bookcase, and the bench you see in the lower right-hand corner folds over to become his desk. He enjoys rearranging the furniture every so often to change things up.
Here's only a small view of our room. The window is three panels long (!) and behind me is a large dresser (Stefan's), and a half bath. To the left of this photo are two large closets with shelving above both of them. We also have most space in here unused, there are about 5 closets throughout the hallway, and most of them are empty. We have TONS of room in this house. I knew we wouldn't be nearly as cramped as we were the past 18 months in Blaine. This rental is almost double the size!
Next is our large 'bonus room'. I'm not sure what this room would have been used for originally. There is a wood paneled ceiling (?), the room is gigantic, and the floor is cement. To the left of the photo below is an extra large sliding glass double door that opens to the large covered back patio. Since we moved in the Fall, we didn't use our patio but once we clean it off (the glass covering is full of rotting leaves before we moved in, it really needs to be cleaned), I'm sure we'll host barbecues frequently. Currently our outdoor table and chairs are here and we use the other area for cutting wood for our fireplace.
Since you can see above, the kids have made their little play corner their own. The large cardboard spread is Ani's project she's been working on and off of for about a month. It is covered in art she's made, pom poms glued on, etc. I'm not sure what she uses it for other than when they play "restaurant", they use it to 'enclose the kitchen'. Behind it is the little wooden kitchen items: a handmade stove & oven, and a handmade refrigerator. Next to that is her dollhouse, and across the carpet on the other side is the art easel next to our filing cabinet, printer, and desk.
Again, the photo was taken during 'restaurant' season, so those upside down tubs and tops are the restaurant's tables and chairs. The space is huge, though the photos don't do the square footage justice. This is used 5X/week as my workout room. Twice a week I ride my spinning bike and three times a week I do a Jillian Michael's workout. Since this room is huge and has a cement floor, it's perfect for that because you can't hear anything either below or from the bedrooms. I get my workout in every morning before the kids even wake up. It's perfect! You can also see the huge 3 paneled window near the desk, and the OTHER sliding glass door near the bike. That leads out to a covered, and quite long, front deck. See the view I see while on the bike here.
This room is huge, what can I say. This is the third view of the bonus room, basically the wall of storage. That Canada school map covers up some random stuff that was pasted to the wall ages ago, and the little dresser in front of it holds Stefan's tools. All our bikes are hung up, and the rest of the shelving goes to things like camping gear, Christmas decor, and other random things you'd find in a garage (we don't have one). It's not beautiful, but it totally works!
The door you can see in the above photo is actually the entry door we use everyday. This house has a large front door (well, 2 front doors, actually!) area that is just completely wasted space. There is no walkway or path up to the front door, and it's not near the parking area, either, so we just use the back door. They pretty much stay locked and the kids play on the carpeted steps that you'd walk up if you used it. Whatever! This above view is a long view of 1/2 our kitchen. Yes, it's huge compared to what we've had in the past, and it is sooo nice to have a lot of people in here without feeling completely crowded. This wall of cabinetry is full of pantry goods and baking supplies, but the cabinets below the counter aren't. Some are still empty, that's how much space we have!
Here is a second view of the kitchen, standing near the door you saw in the last (above) photo. You can see more (TONS MORE!) cabinets, dishwasher, oven, stove top and connected island. I love this kitchen, but I hate the floor. It's white vinyl. It's only one step up from the sweet black and white checkered vinyl we had in our owned home back in Nebraska. You can clean it and it will look spotless, for *maybe* ten minutes. It looks dirty every day. I sweet it every other day, and I can't ever get some of the stains off the floor. Sigh. White! It's a mistake. Especially in a kitchen.
The photo above is one view of our family/living room. You can see a large mantle, wood-burning fireplace (with "Winter" banner hanging in front of it), and where our TV is. Our couch looks so small in this large room with a near-full wall of window, but frankly, we're fine with it. There are three (think Goldilocks and the Three Bears') sizes of rocking chairs off to the side, and we can always bring more chairs in with lots of people over.
Here is the view of the back of the room, where our three bookcases are, and the sliver of black you can see in the bottom left-hand corner is our old TV armoire. Right now it houses Stefan's large amp on the inside, his base hung on the side, and photos up top. Any piece of furniture I can close to spare me from the eyesore of cords and the like is a bonus!
Finally, the last view of the family room. See what I mean about the Three Bears' rockers? We have track lighting in 3 places in this room, and it's a good amount of light. Good thing, because we literally own two lamps, and the other is in our bedroom on our nightstand. We're very happy with this rental and we will savor the years we get to live here before they they tear down the neighborhood (!) to put in 1/2 acre plots and houses. We live in an area where everyone has a number of acres of property, and all of it is mostly forested, so we know it will take awhile to develop. We just don't know how long we'll get. All the other houses that are sold have renters living in them, so although it's temporary, and it's big, and we love it (and the location is wonderful, too), it won't last forever and we knew that going in. We'll enjoy it while we can!
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