A Tour of Our Home

(*UPDATED 6/12/10*)

By reader request – the home tour. And of course, a disclaimer. My house is not always this clean, and the rooms are never all clean at the same time. I cleaned it up just for you, so come on in!

Of course, you’ll have to shove aside all of the kids’ junk in order to get to the front door. Today they’re pretending that their bikes are horses, tied to a hitching post.

If this sign is up, please knock quietly, because I’ve most likely spent the last hour trying to get my baby to sleep, and have only just succeeded.

I know he looks angelic, but he’s a little stinkweed this week!

This is our front entrance hallway, which is only for guests. I try my best to keep this area clean, pleasant and welcoming to visitors.

We always enter the house through our garage. From there, you can either go downstairs to our basement, or turn right into our kitchen.

You’ll pass our family mail center. The handpainted tiles were made by Bee in art class. I love to decorate with unique, handmade things, especially those made by my kids!

In her mail slot is a book called “Temperate Forests,” which Bee, who is seven, checked out from the school library. She read it from cover to cover in about 5 minutes. I’m telling you, I don’t know where that child gets her giant brain from. Not me. Also, how many 7-year-olds choose to read about temperate forests? I don’t even know what a temperate forest is.

To your left is our pantry and refrigerator. My husband painted an old bulletin board white, and mounted it to the pantry door so I would have a place for calendars and school papers.

Here’s the inside of my pantry. I take full advantage of all available space, including the back of the door. Because I have limited drawer space, the Rubbermaid 3-drawer cart holds my towels and dishcloths, plastic bags and wraps, and other kitchen utensils. We also keep our paper shredder, Dustbuster, and wall-mounted rechargeable battery organizer here.

All that alcohol is for, erm…cooking. Yes.

This is our kitchen island, which I bought online.

I use it as a baking center, with all of my baking supplies stored below.

Click here to read about how we remodeled our kitchen the frugal way!

This is our sunny dining area. The sliding door goes out to the backyard.

My computer and “office” are in a corner of the kitchen.

This is a cheerful place to work, especially with such a sweet, smiley boy on my monitor!

This is our living room. For now, I have to arrange decor around a playpen and a baby swing, but I don’t mind because my sweet baby boy can really light up a room

We just bought new furniture, after 12 years of living with the old. I find the change to be very refreshing.

Cakes had these little dogs, which we got for free at a garage sale, set up on the coffee table. It looks like they’re having a pow-wow (or would that be a “bow-wow?” Oh no, I’m sorry. That was bad).

Here’s the bookcase that I agonize over, trying to get the arrangement just right.

I’m so persnickety about stuff like that.

Pumpkin is sprawled out on his window perch.

He spends hours there, dozing in the sun, and chattering to birds and squirrels.

This is our china cabinet,

which houses my pretty, Melody Blue stoneware.

You’ve probably already guessed from my kitchen pictures that I love blue and white. It’s a clean, classic color combination that really appeals to me. When I found some of these dishes at Goodwill, I fell in love with them, and my sweet husband later purchased a huge set for me on eBay. Shortly after, we were watching the movie, “Hush” (very bad movie), and I was so excited to see these dishes displayed in the horrible mother-in-law’s farmhouse kitchen!

Now, let’s go down the hall to the bedrooms. The first door on the left is the girls’ shared room:

Directly across the hall is the very 70s kids’ bathroom, which we’ve been intending to remodel for the last 5 years. I’ve decided that from now on, I should just refer to it as “the bathroom,” because the pink toilet and swirly countertop pretty much scream 70s. You don’t need for me to tell you that, right?

(My husband actually replaced the pink toilet with a white one last night, because we discovered that it was leaking. Oh darn! I asked him what we should do with it, and he said we should put it on FreeBay because it’s “retro,” and someone will pick it up, put it in their yard, and plant flowers in it. That is just so tacky, I can’t even stand it).

In our hallway we have this charcoal portrait of me, which was done by my high school art teacher (it’s kind of a skeevy story that I’d rather not go into. Let’s just say he liked me, and leave it at that).

This caricature of my husband and me was done at an art fair in St. Paul, MN. I was pregnant with Bee at the time.

I can’t wait to get a bathtub shot of the Buckaroo, to add to this arrangement.

Bee did this self portrait in preschool, and I framed it because it makes me smile. This is how I like to think of her – happy and cheerful and dancing in flowers.

At the end of the hall, you can turn left into DJ’s room.

I got this little picture at a garage sale and thought it was so sweet, but my husband thought it wasn’t “manly” enough for a boy’s room. I hung it up anyway, because he’s a baby. I don’t want him to be manly!

Across the hall from DJ’s room is our room. On the left, we have two large closets which are hidden from view. Believe it or not, my husband really does like the deep purple wall behind the bed. It was his idea even!

See the fireplace clock on my husband’s nightstand? It’s responsible for Scary Alien Man.

This is our tiny, but very functional master bathroom.

Our laundry room, playroom, craft area, another bathroom, and my husband’s office are in the basement. I’ll update the basement tour soon, as it looks quite different since our recent purge fest!