Christie O: A New Home

It has been forever since I've had a chance to blog. Time seems to be flying by this year and there has just been so much going on! We have just purchased a home which we are SO excited about. We've been renting for the last 2 years and have probably looked at over 100 homes. Finally we found one that was the right fit! While I didn't completely love the floor plan initially, it had everything on my check list which was the first one we saw like that. We could use 1 more bedroom but we'll figure that out in time. I have a ton of the 'before pics' - there are alot of things we'd like to do to this house which will happen over time but for now I thought I'd show you our new home. As we complete our projects, I'll add the before and after pics for you.
When we bought this house, as I said, it had everything on my check list but I didn't think it was my dream home - now that we are in - I am absolutely in love with this house and SO SO thankful that God has once again blessed our family abundantly above what we could ever think or imagine!! I've had my friend and neighbor from our other house, Rachelle over. She is a horticulturist and has come up with an amazing plan for our back yard. We've had the contractor over to give us quotes on a covered deck for the front and some other small jobs we need done and I've had the decorator here to help me pick out some paint colors! I'm so excited to get started but we do have to pace ourselves - not to mention that this house is substantially larger than our last one so we dont' have nearly enough furniture - giggle. Our house is on the nicest street in Kindersley (IMHO). It is across the street from the river and walking path and we have green space across from us with a ball diamond and 2 playgrounds not far away!
Okay, here we go:
The front exterior: (don't love the exterior at all - there are french doors out to the front yard but no deck - (that's where the covered deck comes in).

A little closer up

This monstrosity is what you see as soon as you walk in the front door. It is a fire place with no chimney - someone had big plans at one time but it completely closes off the whole main floor so it will be coming out!

Here are Charlie & Daisy checking out the new diggs! This is our living room. That door on the far wall is the master bedroom.

The front door from the inside - as you can see there is NO coat closet or anywhere to leave your shoes so I'll have to be very creative in coming up with an esthetically pleasing option for this busy family until we can build a mud room!

This is my itty bitty teeny weeny little laundry room - otherwise known as the hallway to the garage - LOL! It is also much smaller than I would have liked but is on the main floor and once the mud room is built we should be able to make this room larger.

This is Eli's room - technically a den but with a living room, family room and rec room we needed the bedroom space so that is what it will be! We'll be taking the french doors off eventually and just putting 1 regular door here.

The message center. Also not extremely functional with the small space between the cupboards and countertop but this space will eventually be made into a floor to ceiling linen closet!

This is Benjamin & Jacob's room - basic - but who puts a ceiling light in the corner of a room - ugh.

This is the boys bathroom. I am not a beige person. I love white, crisp and clean but this tub is sure enough beige and in such like new condition that it will not be going anywhere for quite some time so I will pick some colors for the wall that I think will make it more 'me'.

This is our kitchen which I originally thought would drive me totally crazy because it is quite small but there is actually more cupboard space in here than in our other house and because the space is well designed, my kitchen is actually more organized than ever!

This is our family room - LOVE LOVE LOVE that I have a wood burning fireplace!!

The empty dining room

And with our table: If you have ever been to our home you know that we have a substantial sized table. It is heavy and solid and there was barely enough room to walk around it in our other house - you can see this room dwarfs the table - it looks so small now ;0) I love all the space!!

The master bedroom

Our ensuite - ya gotta love the burgandy and brass - hmmm, wonder what decade this house was built - LOL! With that being said - my burgandy tub is heavenly to have a bubble bath in. I absolutely adore it and also is phenomenal condition so again, hoping to disquise the '80s theme with some great paint colors.

On to the basement: This is our guest bath

not very exciting at all...

This is just outside the bathroom and there is a giant black board painted on the wall. This entire basement was a kids play area when the previous owners were here and we are now containing that space :0). This will be our new workout area with the treadmill and some weights.

This space is opporsite the chalk board wall and will be our new rec room where we'll watch movies with the kids and Andy will play video games here - Alot I'm sure - LOL!

This area will be my craft space with a craft area for the kids at the end where the built in counter top is. The closed door just to the right of the counter will be the play room.

The is the room above with the open door. Right now it is Isaiah's room but with him going away, it may be turned into a guest room - much to his chagrin. If anyone can think of an amazing way to decorate a guest room so that it also functions for a young adult male - PLEASE email me!!