The New House: The Main Level

When I realized just how many pics I took of the house, I decided to separate the blog posts further.  So here is the upstairs of the new house.  I would have taken some pics out, but I wanted them all for family history purposes.  I was going to take pictures when the house was clean (roughly 12:00 to 2:00 on Saturday after all the Saturday's work has been done) but then I forgot.  You all know my preference for sloth anyway, so it's not like I'd fool anyone.

 This room--the room you find yourself in upon walking through the front door--is a hotbed of controversy currently.  It was going to be the music room as evidenced by the musical instruments.  Eventually I was going to make it really funky and fun with no couch and no possible way to misinterpret it as a parlor or "home teacher room."  We'd jam, baby.

But then my cousin Clay had the brilliant idea of ripping out half the wall and turning it into the dining room instead.  Examine the picture below.  The wall behind the wardrobe thingy separates the music room from the kitchen.  If we took out the top half of the wall we wouldn't have to move any appliances, but it would create an open-concept kitchen and I could see what kids were doing at the dining room table.  It would be awesome.

The drawback, of course, is that you walk into a dining room.  Since almost nobody visits us anyway, I don't see that as enough of a problem to forgo the plan.  Timothy, sadly, hasn't yet decided to let me do what I want.  I mean, do what I want.  I don't build things, actually.

 Emeline's walking out the front door.

 The beautiful window in the music room.  This window is the other reason I really want to make this room the dining room.  The view is much prettier than in the current dining room and we spend a lot of time at the dining room table--mostly for schooling purposes, but also to eat.

 The other side of the music room leads to the kitchen, the dining room, Oskar's bedroom, and the main bath.  It also has these awesome cupboards.  Some might protest taking out kitchen cupboards, but several are empty because I have so much more room than I did before.  I would still have plenty of space.

 The kitchen.  Notice the dishwasher.  I'm really starting to like that thing.  I am IN LOVE, however, with the garburator.  Awesome!!!

 The wall in the above picture is the connecting wall.  We'd take out those top cupboards and move them downstairs to house art supplies, rip out the wall, put in an island so kids could sit at the island and chat with me while I am in the kitchen.  Genius.

 The side door and the stairs.  This is why we can't just connect the kitchen to the existing dining room--the stairs are in the way.

 More useful cupboards.  Miriam was mad I took her picture (but she didn't move out of the way).

 The dining room.

 Oskar's room.  This room will be the nursery for Oskar until the arrival of baby #7, due on Christmas day 2014, then Oskar will move to the boy's room downstairs and this will be New Baby's nursery.  When New Baby is old enough, it will become a master bath and walk-in closet.

 See that door in Oskar's room?  It connects to the master bedroom.  The lady who used to live here was a huge crafter, so she connected her bedroom to her craft room.  I'm pretty sure my Aunt Darlene or Aunt Judy would understand a decision like that.  That door will eventually lead from the master bath to the master bed.  We'll put in a separate door leading to the walk-in closet.  In the meantime, it is SUPER AWESOME to have a nursery that only functions as a nursery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 The current dining room.  This room has probably made the most difference in my life of any in the house.  We don't have to pull the table out every time we use it.  We don't have to squeeze past the table to go down the stairs.  We were able to put a leaf in the table and so now we aren't squished at all.  It is lovely, I tell you, just lovely.  This would, in the event of my getting my own way, turn into the music room.  Picture guitars hanging on the wall and you'll have the general idea.

 You go through the dining room to get to the library.  Hi, Oskar!!  Look at you walking!

 Before moving on to the library, I must show you the closet in the dining room.  In the original house before they added on in 1988, the dining room was a bedroom so this was a bedroom closet.  The previous owner used the closet as a pantry but I turned it into the homeschool closet.  So AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 The library.  This is the sacred center of our home.  :)  When I first showed Harriet this house and explained to her that it was our new house, she looked around and said, "But where are the books?"  Aww.  I got a little misty-eyed.  Eventually, Timothy will build bookshelves  to line both walls.  Beautiful, wood, built-in bookshelves.  It is going to be amazing, and the number one reason I'm never moving.  A library!!  I've always dreamt about having one, but never thought I'd really get one.

 In the meantime, our Billy Budd bookshelves look quite nice in here.  Also, you see where that pink chair is in the above picture?  In that corner of the room Timothy is going to build a reading nook.  There will be a big platform kind of deal (a glorified window-seat, if you will) with a bunch of pillows and cushions, and underneath the platform will be the "Children's Section" of the library for all the picture books.  I'm so glad I married someone handy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad I have a library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 More of the library. In the above picture you can see the back door.  Also, the yellow chair I've been asking my Mom to give me since she bought it nine years ago.  It is the perfect chair for nursing a baby.  Mom also gave me the tan chair and footrest.  The rest of the furniture that you haven't seen before the previous owner left for us.  She's a total sweetheart.  She was downsizing so she left everything that didn't fit in her new place.  That has been a tremendous help.  The coffee table has already been banished.  The boys were trying to touch the fans by jumping off the table.  Argh!!!

 The back porch.  No, dog food is not allowed on it.  I don't understand what happened.  Our back yard is small (thank heavens) because of the addition.  All the green stuff you see around the rocks?--mostly thistles.  Just that little bit of space is going to be way more work than I want to do.  I'll worry about it next year when I'm not so tired/grumpy/pregnant.

 More of the rocks.

 It's a Patsy!  Patsy and Cowen head to the mountains every day for a few hours, along with another of the children.  I don't let them go alone.  It has been awesome for boy and dog.

 So that door is the one that leads to Oskar's room.  This is the master bed.  Remember that it was a craft room, so it is kind of long and skinny for a bedroom.  We don't care.  We have about a bajillion times more space than we had in our last house.  I still sometimes go in there and sit on the bed and look around in amazement.  I also started making my bed.  I'm shocked too.  It is so much easier when you don't have to try and poke the quilt down in the 1/4 inch between the bed and dressers.

 The bed was made!!  I promise!!!  It was made before we went to church but was unmade for the all-important Sunday afternoon nap.

 Our home office.  (Ha--doesn't that sound fancy!)  We're in need of a desk so that table can move downstairs to the art room.  If you know of any available, give us a call.  Don't you love all the glorious windows!!

 Timothy's board game collection and a few books.  And other stuff.  Our room is a disaster.  We stuck everything that we couldn't figure out what to do with in our room.  It is going to take awhile to make it nice.

 Our room from the other end.  That second door opens to the library.

 The main bath.  It has a door at both ends, so you can enter from the hallway by the music room or from the library.

 Love the cupboards in the bathroom!!

If you go down the stairs you'll be in the downstairs.  But I'll save that for another post since this one is already outrageously long.