Inside Outside Upside Down-The Tour, Part One

This weekend, we got a few more things done around the house, including cleaning! It was the perfect time to take pictures before my little destruction crew came through again.

There are a LOT of pictures! By the end of this, you will either be in the middle of a good snooze or completely giddy by getting your voyeur fix today!

The "before" pics were taken by my husband after he purchased the house.

Before I ever saw it!

Many were amazed at his fearlessness! It turned out OK in this case, but he certainly was playing with fire! We really didn't have much choice around here. The housing market was slim and overpriced. This was a steal compared to the many others he looked at over the last year.

The house is about 30 years old, but was completely redone on the inside by the previous owners. It is only a few hundred square feet smaller than our other house, but the 30-year structural differences are significant. I tried to purge prior to moving and more so after we got here, but some days it still feels crowded. Thank goodness I sold some furniture before we moved.

(He took the pics with my KodakEasyShare. I took pics with my NikonD60. Again, I am amazed at the difference!!)

Welcome to the tour today! Grab your mouse and please follow me!

Living Room:


(The BIG black box was a house warming gift from his parents. My husband was pretty disappointed with their efforts! HA! My poor TV armoire is now lonely in the garage!)



(I found some curtains 1/2 price this weekend and can't wait for them to arrive!)



(We only had to purchase an area rug for this room. My husband finally got his new fake leather recliner for Father's Day. I made him "suffer" without one for a few years since throwing out his atrocity from college!)



(This little alcove is between the living room and kitchen. I am putting up a mirror and little black curtain rods from our old bedroom. The rods have clips which I will use to hang the kids' art work/school work. I am also thinking of doing a small magnet/chalkboard space using paint. No outlets, so lighting is the only issue.)




(Those pictures you see are some of my favorites of the kids. The four series are of each of the kids as newborns-face, belly, hands, feet. The 10x10 is of her 6 year old face. I am going to do the same with his 4 year old pics once I get them done. I did the newborn pics myself and the faces are courtesy of Target!)

Dining Room:


(For the last almost 2 months, I have had PILES of STUFF on the table and floor surrounding the buffet! I just shifted stuff around for us to eat! You can see I have a very small pile left in the back corner under the buffet. Such a relief!)


Office:



(The doors go out to the backyard patio. I didn't have the energy to clean the office before taking this pic. The bookshelves are housing both our books AND our framed pictures until we can get them on the walls! The built-in will hold my Willow Tree figurines and our filing cabinet is tucked away under the red tablecloth.)

Kitchen:






(The kitchen has all new cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances. There is a lot more cabinet/drawer space than my last kitchen. I like this long countertop. I can fold or iron while watching tv or the kids play.)



Laundry/Pantry:


This room has two tall cabinets for my pantry items. And as you can see, I still rely on my trusty "shoe" holders! I finally have a place to store dirty laundry and hang clean stuff.)



(Overhead laundry cabinets-PTL! Don't you love how I am not afraid to "air" my dirty laundry for y'all!)


(HOW DOES ONE person collect THIRTEEN FLOWER VASES! It was not from 13 boys, I can assure you!)

Kitchen Drawers:

(My coffee bar!)


(The kids' self-service cabinet which includes the many activity books I have collected over the years.)


(I have 4 kitchen drawers allocated for all the kids' crafty/activity supplies. They have easy access and I can watch over their creativity! It rocks!)

Our Room:
The house has a tiny bedroom with adjoining bathroom downstairs. It has a small bedroom and hallway bathroom upstairs. Also upstairs is the HUGE "master" bedroom with a HUGE closet and vanity area. Before we moved in, my husband mentioned to my daughter that she would have the big upstairs bedroom. That meant the tiny downstairs suite for us! It all worked out, but she wasn't too happy about storing all our extra clothes and linens in her closet!

We used all the bedding and decor that I had made for our previous guest room to do our new master bedroom.



(We still need to hang the window valance!)







Up looking Down:
Eventually, a lot of my pictures will go along these stair walls. For now, they are stacked up in the office!


Sister's room:





(We actually designated her room as the playroom also. That means we keep a good bit of shared items in this area and she has to let her brother play in the room most of the time. I know we will have to deal with it differently at some point, but at their age, it works out ok for now. A word about the television. I am NOT really an advocate for tv in kids' rooms. We did not hook up the cable and they can only watch their movies upstairs.)





(She loves this vanity area! I set up her kitchen and dress-up bins under the counter top and she has a sink on the other side.)



(THE closet houses all her clothes (all seasons!), his AND our off-season clothes, some of her toys, AND all our extra linens!)

Brother's Room:





(He got a bed for his birthday! I found it on sale with free shipping and it matched his dresser perfectly! We are waiting to put the trundle in until we actually need it. Plus we don't have an extra mattress yet. We figure it will come in handy around the holidays! I love the storage under the bed w/o the trundle!)





(Lest you worry, I am not depriving my son of clothes! I keep some in his drawers. Plus, the kid loves to change clothes and I could not stand to find tons of clothes and empty hangers on the floor all the time. Minimal clothes means minimal mess! Well, not really, but I can dream! He has two big empty wall spaces in his closet. I eventually want to create an art/activity center on the walls so he won't have to be in sister's room all the time for activities.)

Thanks for joining me today! I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Come back tomorrow for a MUCH shorter continuation!

Stacey