Home Tour (part I)

We were blessed to be able to move on March 30th of this year.

We have a slightly bigger home with lots of storage space,

a study, a large formal dining/piano room, double closets (more storage) --

 [in Texas, we have no basements and attics are about 180 degrees in the summer] (and most are tiny!),

a guest bedroom (come visit!),

a gameroom/upstairs family room/den (we love it!)

a shady backyard with a bigger patio--yea!!!

This house has gorgeous new carpet and some dark wood floors (love)

and mostly a very cozy and spacious (at the same time: vaulted ceilings) and bright feeling. The sun comes in the living room and kitchen in the mornings and feels soooo good!

So, my favorite colors are green and yellow. and lately, orange. I decorated our 'powder room' in those colors with some black accents and I love it!

The blue bathroom is the master bathroom with lots of white towels and accents; ocean shells, plants and beach pics/photos--I am in heaven there...

The dining and piano room--big windows to the right look out front and over lots of shrubs, etc...

Gameroom/upstairs family room: bright, open and has computer nook in left corner...

When you come downstairs from the gameroom you see this: the living room and part of kitchen counter/bar--we kept our furniture and color scheme from old house which are still my favs, including a bright salmon colored chairs (see next photo)--

Here is a view from the other side of the living room and from ground level

and somehow Ted's singing deer (named, appropriately, BUCK) got into this line-up. It sings a line from Sweet Home Alabama that Nick loves, "Big wheels keep on turnin' "  oh boy. When I told Ted he could hang that up in his new study, he replied, "Now that is proving your love!" Well, he gets one room, I get all the rest (as a decorator)...

Nick's room! Sports and books and trophies and a basket ball hoop over the closet: that is his favorite part!

Maddie's room in in progress: red walls, zebra stripes and some cool IKEA decor...

our room needs some TLC

and our guest room was perfection when my mom came last month, but now all the leftover boxes from the garage are in there...tune in next month to see it.

We're HOME!

With the help of MANY church and neighborhood friends, we made our move smoothly onto the quirky-cowboy-named street of Leather Strap Drive. We are in HEAVEN with the house! the new paint! the landscaping, the huge closets, the super tall ceilings and arches into the kitchen...the wood flooring and new carpeting. And most of all the warmness we feel as a family, arranging each room, hanging our mountains of family photos, relaxing after 5 long years of knowing that we were not in our final house...knowing we hoped for one more house that included a 'game room' for the kids & their amigos; a guest room for our dear and looney relatives when they come (the loonies know who they are! hee hee), a "man-cave" for Ted, a/k/a "a study" that is covered in pictures of France, his diplomas, superheroes, Elvis, books, French stuff, Ansel Adams and bookshelves filled to the brim all the way around the room. Don't forget, the recliner off to the side, where Ted can lay back every weekend for his private movie viewing along with chums, Ben and Jerry.

Moi: I have a huge space in the spare bedroom for my books, crafts, scrapbooking stuff, etc. I also ADORE the huge pantry and the butler's pantry (as it's called: this breezeway between formal dining and kitchen) and I am in love with the yellow (accented with black wrought-iron fixtures) bathroom that has avocado-colored towels, candles, fruity soaps, homemade artwork by Nick and has a very soft rug  that looks like a sea anenemoe (spell that?!) with long ruggy tentacles. It's groovy! I love having a GUEST BATHROOM--sweeeeeet!

And not to forget, now that we have 2 stories, we have a huge "Harry Potter closet under the stairs" where Nick professed he would sleep when he first saw it; it has become the treasure spot for all our of food storage and 72 hour kits, coats, extra bags, sleeping bags, etc. And it is a room with no outside walls (which is critical in a state like Texas that gets tornados yearly). So we can climb in there if need be: eat a granola bar, raisins, water, color, do a crossword puzzle, dig out a rain poncho and play the ABC game if we get bored. hee hee

I will take photos of this DREAMY house when I FIND MY CAMERA! ARG! Come one, come all, come visit us!!!! We have a special room for you, new bed and my mom called it "the spa room" when she was here, so that might get your wheels turning towards a vacation!