House Tour BEFORE pics

I just wanted to give you a quick tour of my house. I know I gave you a small peak when we first moved in, but I took some more pictures as we slowly starting settling in.

Remember these are all BEFORE pictures. I've done nothing to the home yet, except move in.
It literally took me months before I was brave enough to put a nail in the wall.

Since these pictures were taken, I've done a couple things, and I will start showing you those updates soon. I hope you get an idea of what I am working with through these pictures.

Here goes....

The front of the house. I could not wait to do something about those overgrown bushes since the first day we moved in. They were driving me CRAZY!

Ok, lets go for a tour shall we?

 When you walk in the front door, this room is immediately to the right. I love the window, and I love the arches. I don't love the couch in there, and I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to utilize the room better with the piano in there.

 The piano room and dining room are together. I seriously love the open feeling of this room, but it's pretty empty at this point. Too bad since it is the first thing you see when you walk in the house. I guess I should get it together pretty fast!

 Here's another view of the beautiful window in the piano room. The front door is right there on the right.

 Here's a view from the piano room, looking into the dining room. The kitchen is through the door.

 This is the view from the dining room. The foyer, hmmm. I never know what to do in these rooms. The bench is practical, but is the perfect place to dump crap, which I'm afraid will continue to happen as long as it's there, or I find a better alternative. I need to work on this very important area.

 The kitchen. There is no lack of cabinet space in this kitchen. In fact the cabinets are so tall that I don't even utilize the top shelves. I really want to get sliding drawers on the bottom cabinets again, I miss those from my old house. What a space saver, and so much easier to store everything.

 When we were house hunting, I really wanted a kitchen sink overlooking the backyard, or with a window over it. This was the next best thing, I get to look out that big beautiful window, and I'm not staring at a backsplash. This day I was trying to save my poor plants. They were so desperate for water, I'm surprised they survived at all.

 Our new fridge. Can you believe that the first couple weeks we moved in, we were eating out of a cooler? Yup, it took almost 3 weeks for our fridge to arrive. I was so happy when it came.

 Our little computer area in the kitchen. It's the perfect place for the family computer.

 My new pantry. OH MY GOSH!! Dare I say that even though this one is bigger "technically" I like my old one better. Darn, I know it's crazy, but I need to work on this pantry so bad. It is driving me mad. I HATE those wire shelves. Ok, enough about that. :)

 Here's another interesting fact about our home. For some reason the kitchen stove was missing the top. So there was no way you could cook anything. I think even those caps are not the correct size, they don't fit properly. The microwave was missing the glass plate. The oven was missing the racks. YAHHHH, I know. I've been without a oven since we moved in, no biggie I have a small toaster oven. The microwave, I don't really use anyway. BUT the stove, well, I knew, I had to figure something out. So as tacky as it is, I figured I could use my BBQ grills to place on top. That's what you see here. It worked, but would slip easily. For the time being, it's what we use. :( I'm keeping my eye out for a GOOD SALE or a GOOD DEAL on second hand items. I'm open because what I'm looking for is pretty darn expensive. Have you ever priced built in appliances for the kitchen??

 Here is our new couch. I kinda fell in love with it. We have always had recliners, but I knew it would be too big for this room, and we needed something long to seat a lot of people. I also didn't want to cover up the window.

 See, you can walk behind the sofa. That was important to me. I also love that the sofas are not tall. They are very low to the ground, so even without kicking your feet up you sit very comfortably.

 Remember when I was trying to figure out where to place the TV? Well against that wall it finally went. It just RECENTLY got installed on my wall, (thank you brother), but for months it sadly looked just like in this picture. Lots of cords :)

 This fireplace mantle needs to be decorated big time. I just haven't found what I want to do with it yet. There are lots of ideas, but I'm still very lost. Do you guys have any suggestions???

 There's that beautiful window. Not such a beautiful view YET, but still. I knew I didn't want to cover that window, except when I wanted to cover it. You know what I mean. No blinds, no shades. I'm happy to say that I DID make some curtains which I am very proud of. I will share that project soon.

 Did I mention the house has lots of arches??? Love that! You see the bar area? Well it is there, but it's hardly big enough to actually sit at. Much different than my old house. Gosh that was a HUGE bar area, and soooo helpful for parties.

The table just barely fit, I'm sure you can see how a round one would fit much better though, right?

 I'm not completely sure what to do with this wall yet. I really want it to be the kids ART wall, but everyone seems to be fighting me on it. Lets see.

 Downstairs bath. Finally got a shower curtain up.

 So plain in there, I need some color.

 Hahaha, how's that for color. I know, sad, very sad.

Downstairs we have one bedroom. This is next to the bathroom, and next to the living room. Totally looks like a guest room right? (JUNK ROOM is more like it)

 I had to figure out a way to create a small office, and a guest room in there. I kinda accomplished that, pics to come.

 Oh my gosh, so much stuff. I'm so glad my house doesn't look QUITE like this anymore. Oh boy, did I mention how glad I am that we are finally unpacked, and almost settled in.

 Ok, lets go upstairs shall we? That darn spindle was broken since we moved in, and it seriously took me MONTHS to fix it. I wish I could say it was super hard, but besides the fact I didn't measure it properly a couple times, it took me less than 5 minutes to actually fix, ALL BY MYSELF. I know unbelievable.

 Our fabulous laundry room. The kitties temporary sleeping area, and litter area. So glad they don't stay there anymore. I love my kitties, but I just don't think I'm an indoor pet kinda gal. I just don't deal well with accidents on my floor :( On another note, did you see that window. I love that we have so many windows, everywhere.

 The girls room.

 So many boxes.

 The bed fits perfectly, but it's so plain. I need ideas on how to decorate this room.

 So terribly boring.

 There is potential, I need suggestions though. Give me some ideas please!!!

 Her bathroom.

 The landing spot at the top of the stairs. The stairs are on the left, the boys rooms are up ahead, the girls room is behind me along with the laundry room, and my room is to the right.

 Here's the boys room. The big boys room.

 We're trying to get it together.

 Slowly but surely, we'll get there.

 His closet.

 My little guys room.

 The boys share a bathroom.

 This room is also so plain. I just don't know what to do in boys rooms.

 Boys Bathroom.

 Entrance to my room.

 Yeah, can't believe I'm showing you this. See those lovely sofas there, yup, they are HUGE. I have nowhere else to put them, so I put the bed in the corner hoping I could somehow create a sitting area next to the window. This just wasn't working, no way no how.

 So much unloading, so much laundry, so much stuff. Oh it sure was fun unpacking I tell you.

 Oh joy, what is that? Oh MORE BOXES.

 That wall is also full of potential, for something. Oh ideas, come to me. I wish I could just figure it out, but I have a feeling it will take me years before I get it done.

 A peek inside my closet.

 Our bathroom.

 The smallest shower EVER. At least the doors close smoothly. Oh and that tub has broken seals around the jets, so I can't even use it. Does anyone know if that can be fixed, or do I need a new tub?

Getting unpacked.

 So love that even our toilet has a window, YAYYYY!!!

 Ok, well the only place you haven't seen yet is my GARAGE, and BASEMENT. The basement isn't finished, but I will take some before pics of that to show you for now. The garage is getting there. I've kinda sorta started organizing it, and will show you pics of that soon too.

The only other thing I need to show you is my GARDEN. You know how I love working outside, and couldn't resist to get it in shape. Although I have more work than I can handle around here, I'm glad to say I've started on it.

Thanks for coming on a house tour with me. I had fun, and am so stinking excited to share the progress with you as I slowly but surely make this house HOME.