My House, My Home

We have lived in the same house since we got married almost 11 years ago.  Well, for the first 3 months of our marriage we lived with my parents while we were waiting for our house to be finished being built.  We moved in in September of 2001.  When we bought the home, we expected to be there only 3 to 5 years.  Well, a couple years later the market in Vegas went CRAZY!  Homes like ours, that we bought for a base price of $165,000 were selling for $450,000!  We couldn’t sell our house and move into something else because we wanted to stay in Las Vegas and we couldn’t afford a $600,000 mortgage.  As our family grew we rearranged rooms to try to fit everyone in.  We have rearranged the furniture in our house about a million times, switched kids around into different rooms, even turned our family room into part of our kitchen and made our living/dining room into a family room/craft office. 

We love our little house.  Our four youngest children came home from the hospital to it.  We have many good memories there.  It is home.  And it is OUR home, small though it may be.  We will be so sad to leave, but the time has come for us to move.  We are going to be living in a different home, a much larger home.  And while we are excited to have more room to spread out, my heart is breaking a little at the thought of leaving this home that we have put so much love and work into. 

We will be renting out our home to some friends of ours, which makes me feel very happy.  I cleaned it ALL for them to come and take a look at it.  And since having my WHOLE house clean all at the same time is an extremely rare occasion, I decided to take that opportunity to photograph my home.  I thought it would be fun to “get real” and show you my house.  Some of it is not so great.  Projects we never got finished…repairs we never got around to (though we will for the renters!)…redecorating we could never afford.  But it is a home full of love and learning and for better or worse we love it!

So, let’s start with the good.  I love my kitchen.  About three years ago we got new countertops and backsplash and sink and faucet.  I repainted the kitchen island, which we widened to support the large granite top.  I added some textured, paintable wall paper to it to make it more architecturally interesting.  We got new hardware on the cabinets.  It is a small kitchen, but a very efficient one.  Here it is.

See the mirrors sitting on the floor?  Those are a project I never got to.  I meant to mount them on some cool old doors and paint them to match the buffet.  Some things just aren’t at the top of the priority list!

My table was a custom sized table from one of those Mexican furniture stores.  It is 48” wide and can seat 12.  It has been a nice table for us.  I got it with no finish so that I wouldn’t be mad if my kids scratched it or colored on it.  And they have done both numerous times.  The great thing is I can just sand it down!  The chairs are outdoor chairs that came with little tables from Wal-Mart.  I got that padded bench at Marshall’s a couple years ago and I store potatoes and onions, among other things in it. I’ve been meaning to make a little slipcover for the top, but haven’t gotten around to that either!

If you have kids I highly advise AGAINST rush seat stools.  These were from Ballard Designs and the straw is always all over the floor and it pokes the kids in the bums, knees, etc.  I HATE them and my husband is in the process of cutting me new wood tops for them to replace the rush seats. 

I got this awesome 70’s dresser, the mirrors, a king sized headboard, an actual buffet you will see in the craft space all for $100 from Craig’s list!  It’s a long story, but I basically bought it from someone who had bought it from the original seller.  They kept the two nightstands and sold us the rest for $100 which is what they had paid for all of it.  I was THRILLED!  I had fallen in love with this dresser and the buffet and when the original seller told me he had already sold it I was so sad.  I asked him to call the people and see if they really wanted all of it.  They were willing to sell me all those things and I couldn’t have been happier!

This is my only expensive buffet.  It came from Ballard Designs.  I love it.  I love the white aged finish and I love being able to display dishes and my pumpkin yellow ware collection.  I hope I can find a place for it when we move.

This is the door to the closet under that stairs, which is between the kitchen and the living room.  We use the space for food storage. 

Its sort of a mess, but it holds a lot of food since our pantry is small.

Well, that is my kitchen.  I will be sad to say goodbye to it.  It’s not perfect, but it makes me happy!

What is your favorite room in your house?