I was starting to really wonder if I’d ever get these pictures posted! We are so happy and pleased with our cute little house. I kept waiting to take pics until we had our pictures on the walls, and that was just a project that stayed on the back burner over and over again. :) David and I both would start the day with the proclamation: “Tonight, we are hanging pictures!!” Then by the time we’d get home, our grand proclamation would become, “I just need to eat and sleep. I don’t even care if the walls are bare.” hehehe.
We decided to try to keep the house very simple and low maintenance. I would love to say that we are trying to keep things as minimalistic as possible, but I think we still have too much stuff to qualify as minimalists! (A goal to continue striving for….)
So, without further ado:
Front of the house.
Standing on the front porch, however, is a completely different view!
The front yard!
What makes me laugh about this picture is that if you don’t really know any better, you’d think we didn’t have any neighbors. We actually do, but we’re on a corner, and the house directly in front of us is up on a slight hill, so other than the house directly to the west of us, we do have some degree of isolation. I really loved the contrast of fall colors in this picture! The red tree shed its leaves within days of this photo, but I really enjoyed it while it lasted. (And, take in the view of our brand new mailbox! That was one of David’s first projects when we moved.)
The front door from the inside - "Who Goes There!?!"
This is the inside view of our front door. Fairly typical, except for our little green window. (Which I love.) The little knob in the lower left corner lets you slide the glass up diagonally, creating this amusing (to me) “Halt!!! Who Goes There??” effect. I feel like the little guy in “Wizard of Oz” who was guarding the door to the castle in the Emerald City:
"Who Rang that Bell???"
View of the dining room and living room (one room in an L-shape):
View of dining area from front door
Living room
Living room
I am really enjoying these floors! David and I had often talked about how nice it would be not to have carpet all throughout the house. The bedrooms do have carpet, but we don’t mind that since we don’t normally eat (or wear shoes) in the bedrooms. I feel like it’s much more clean this way. If crumbs fall onto the floor, we can just sweep or vacuum them up – and we know we pretty much got them all! With carpet, even with the best efforts, stuff just grinds its way further and further in. The fact that the floors are really pretty is also a nice feature. (Of course, we have really had to adjust to the fact that these floors are much more slick than all the carpet we’ve been used to! I’ve learned to take corners a little more slowly, hehe. No more traction like before!)
Kitchen
This is the kitchen, which of course we saw previously. I am loving my new appliances, but I surprised myself by really liking the design and location of the kitchen in the house. It’s in back of the house and is a room unto itself – not open to view of the living room, etc. I wasn’t sure I’d like that at first, but it’s really great. We don’t have to cross through the kitchen to get everywhere else in the house, first of all, and its location means that there’s no need to drag guests through the kitchen unless there is a specific reason. That’s nice! The size of the kitchen is great too. It’s very small (one person at a time, or else!) but everything is right at hand. It’s not like I really cook that much anyway, so it fits us well.
Guest room.... aka David's Hangout
Guest room
Both of the bedrooms in the house required blackout curtains. :) (We didn’t have nearly as many windows in our old apartment, so we’re like moles emerging from our burrows into the bright sunlight in this house!) I love all the natural light we get, but it’s hard to sleep through and streetlights shine through pretty brightly at night. So, the living room area is nice and bright, and then we have the option of keeping the bedrooms dark if we want.
Bathroom
As you can see, the bathroom is pretty tiny, but here’s the main thing it has going for it: the heated fan! Love! There is a regular fan and then another switch that controls the heated fan. I am in the lap of luxury on these cool mornings, hehe. That heated fan works so well that I hardly use it for more than just a few minutes after a shower. It’ll break you out in a sweat in no time flat. Most everything in the bathroom is brand new, so between that, the fans and actually having a window in there, we hardly notice the small square footage.
Bedroom
Bedroom
It’s hard for the pictures to really show how nicely the bedroom turned out. The layout is much more spacious than what we had before, and (on the wall you can’t see) – two closets! Yay for that!
We are pleased with our new setting. It’s a much more efficient layout than what we had before, and the addition of the garage makes my car quite happy.
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On another note, I’d like to state that I’ve only gone to the old apartment TWO times in error since we moved. I have surprised myself by keeping the number that low! Both times I realized where I was going before I actually got TO the apartment, but I was undeniably heading that direction! :)
It’s funny though, for all the years we lived there – now it all seems like it was so long ago. We were aware that new people moved into the apartment within just days after we moved out – didn’t stay empty any time at all. We have passed by there several times during the past two months and it’s like the place is already fading into the background with the rest of the street. It’s a strange truth to consider. Life moves you forward.
