Our New House & Things About it I am Thankful For

I kept holding off on posting pictures of our house until things were a little more settled and less chaotic.  But the chaos seems to be perpetual at this point...so I will post some pictures from the previous owners and some from before we moved in.

I'm thankful that our house has a nicely landscaped yard.  I'm hoping we can keep it nice, since we lack some yard maintenance genes.  I'm super thankful that it has a sprinkling system, which will aid us in our quest not to kill the yard.

I am grateful that someone decided to plant cute grapes by my front door.  And hoping that next year I will pick them before they go bad so that then I can make some grapes-of-the-front-door-jelly.

Here is view from inside of the front door, should we ever open both doors, which thus far we never do.  (But I am thankful we have that option, should we want it.)

I am thankful for the sunny side yard--this will have to be the garden spot right outside of the dining room windows. 

I'm thankful that someone had the foresight to build our future grandchildren a pool to play in.  And I think we will need to clean it out before then.

I am thankful that these "floating" stairs are close enough together that no one can fall through them.

Not so thankful for the walls of mirrors in the entry--the glass is dark/smoky and it contributes to the darkness of the entry.  The mirrors are going to have to go...

I am thankful that the powder room has plenty of wall space for Laila to come recreate a beach!!  (My friend who painted the upstairs of our NC house also painted the powder room downstairs, and I think it broke his heart to paint over the beach.  He asked several times if I was absolutely sure it had to be painted!)

One of the kids favorite things about the house that we're all super thankful for--the Harry Potter room under the stairs.  It's no longer that clean & empty--it now contains 2 oversized beanbags (what happens if you order online with no measurements) and one oversized stuffed bear.  The Harry Potter room is in use much of the day, every day by children reading, doing school work, and just hanging out.

 I'm thankful that we have a living room.  It would be awesome if it looked like this now, but sadly we don't have such minimalist furniture.  Right now it gets used mostly for music practice, but we're considering making it kind of a library/music room.  Gotta have a place for all of the books!

Here is our dining room.  It is strange to have to eat in a dining room (there is no breakfast area) but we're doing ok with it.  Not that it looks like this--this was the old owner's stuff.

I'm very thankful for our new picture that lives in the dining room--I didn't get a great picture of it, but this gives you an idea...

Here is our family room.  We're thankful for the fireplace, we've been really enjoying it.  We're also thankful that we figured out how to fit the party couch into the family room last week so that now we all have a place to sit.  And we're thankful for all of the windows to let in what sunshine there is.  ;)

I'm super super thankful for the kitchen.  Even though it has never looked this clean since the moment we moved in.  Since before we moved in, in fact, since I canned a bunch of peaches the week in it the week before we moved in. 

Tomorrow I have a feeling we're going to be really thankful for the double oven.

 We are always thankful for the cooktop.  It is awesome, awesome, awesome.  I've already done a ton of canning on this cooktop!

I'm thankful for the big window over the sink, it makes it easier for me to video skunks in my back yard.

I'm thankful for the master bathroom.  First of all it has a tub!  Yay! And the tub is surrounded by beautiful blue tile.

I was worried that I would hate the blue tiles in the shower.  I had issues with our shower in NC feeling dark & closed in, but this one doesn't at all.  It's plenty big and has enough light in it, and when I use it I feel like I'm in some kind of tropical spa.

I would say I'm thankful that all of the faucets are super cool late 70's faux petrified wood, but that would be a lie.  I'm thankful that faucets can be replaced. (the kids love them though!)

I'm thankful that the master bedroom fits our bed

 and has a great closet too.  It even has a belt rack for the man with only 2 belts.

I'm thankful that the laundry room has cabinets in it.  And that it has a motion-sensing light, so it goes on when we walk into the room.  Except that now I want all of the other lights to go on when I walk into the other rooms!

I'm very thankful to have not one linen closet, but two.  After 10 years without one this is exciting.

I'm thankful that the upstairs landing is big enough for more bookshelves.

I'm really really really really thankful that there is an office that will also be a sewing room.  Hooray! 

I'm thankful that if we had to buy a house with only 3 bedrooms, the kids' bedrooms are decent sizes.  We saw some really tiny bedrooms while we were looking.

Boy's room--

 Girl's room with small walk in closet.

The kids have a jack & jill bathroom.  I'm grateful they're managing to share it ok.

I'm thankful that our back yard just barely has enough room for the trampoline.  And the raccoon, and the skunk...

I'm thankful that the storage space in attic has flooring.  Hooray for storage space!

And I'm thankful that the garage came with wood in it.  Wish it was this empty now...oh well...

So there you have it--a short tour.  We love that the neighborhood has walking paths, pool, and tennis court.  The location is great--it takes us 90 seconds to drive to church and it takes Russ 10 minutes to drive to work.

I'm also thankful this year that Russ has a good job.  As hard as this last year has been, I know we have been amazingly blessed...