A Glimpse Thru My Window

THIS is my formal dining room! Yes, I replaced the chandelier, and now it's our piano room, wii room, a few toys room, guest room with the sleeper sofa, and general hang-out room. I have always used my dining rooms just a few times a year...which has always felt like a lot of wasted space. We use this room every single day, so the switch was well worth it. Just know if you come over for dinner and don't fit on our table that's just big enough for us...then you'll be eating with a plate on your lap! Or we can go picnic style:)

All of the artwork in this room was done by 3 incredibly talented artists that happen to live here. This is by far my favorite keepsake to date. I went through the box of the kids artwork I am always collecting and pulled out my favorite pieces. Each frame and mat are filled with special creations from one child. I tried to arrange them in a creative way, and I think they look beautiful!

Here is our "jungle room"! If Elvis can have one, dang it, we can have one too!!!

I love this room. It's a "sunporch" with windows that can be removed to use the screens behind. With this 105 degree heat...the windows are ON! This is our playroom/reading room.

This is where we will hang our coats and backpacks...and there is an old white locker next to it. We each have our own shelf in the locker and that's where our shoes, hats, and sunglasses are kept. (I LOVE to be organized!)

The kids have their rocky-horse, play kitchen, train table, and word wall for learning.

Then they have a cozy, whimsical sitting area next to their bookshelf. The area is very inviting for my little emerging readers:) They love to sit under the leaves with me while I read to them.

This is my den.

With my sectional sofa, eating area (And yes, every chair at the table is different. It's on purpose. I'm weird that way.), my comfy chair, and a wall of windows over-looking the cove...it creates a room we are in the most. It's very cozy.

This is the girls room.

They love sharing a room...and since this house has only 3 bedrooms, that is a good thing:)

They have enough dress-up clothes and barbie dolls for a small village!

(And we are in love with this light lavender color on the walls! It's the best room color choice yet!)

We have hardwood floors throughout the whole house, which is awesome for a family filled with seasonal-allergy sufferers!

My wild-man's room!

My old home has a few wonderful built-in shelving areas. I had a lot of fun decorating the shelves in Connor's room...choosing pieces that are special and hold meaning. The shelving items really tell Connor's story.

I really tried to decorate and choose pieces for the kids rooms with them maturing in mind. My goal was to create rooms they could grow into; that they wouldn't "outgrow" in 2-3 years.

I somehow ended up with a HUGE master bedroom (with my first king size bed!) in this house!!! (Which is unheard of in an old home.) This wonderful built-in shelf was also fun to fill with my grandmother's collection of antique books, old family pixs, and special family mementos. It's a collection of special family memories.

I really, really love my room. It's my favorite room in the house. It's my sanctuary, and I've never had that! I've never had a master bedroom that I paid any attention to. They were always pushed aside with the need and attention going to the rooms in my house that people actually saw!

I love that it's big enough to put my desk in here...so I have everything for work and all my house/bill needs close. My non-working fireplace gives a cozy feel too:) The door you see leads to my laundry room, which works nicely being in my bedroom.
My bedroom furniture is a hodge-podge of things given to me (Some I've had since college!) so in order for it to not look a mess, I chose one thing to focus on and then build around that to tie in the many different pieces. I chose the rug I found. I loved the colors used that aren't traditionally seen together...like the dark red, creamy yellow, and baby blue. I had furniture in those colors and painted my consignment headboard the baby blue color, and then finished off the room with my dark red curtains from Wal-Mart!

The two chests at the end of my bed are Grace and Lilly's hope chests.

So.....that is my house! For my family and friends that haven't made it here, there you are! For my blog friends, hope you enjoyed! I'm really proud of it. I did A LOT to the house the week before the kids moved in...every single room was painted, I refnished a bathtub, had to replace appliances AND a hot water heater. It was hard work and lots of money spent, but worth every penny and all the sweat! This house is the perfect size for us. Big enough, but also small enough for one person to manage. It's in my all-time favorite neighborhood here with hills and LOTS of trees, and we're in a nice cove where the kids can ride bikes.

I have to be honest and say that I have wondered what the homes look like of those blog families I've followed for years. Especially those who seem to have great style. Maybe some of you will share what your dwellings look like! I know our homes definitely tell a story of us, and are an outward, tangible view of our personalities. I wonder what mine about me??? Hmmm. Maybe I don't want to know!

***And no worries. I do have bathrooms...just forgot to take pixs of those.

******And I also still have 3 children...and I did in fact take pixs of them yesterday like I said I was. I promise to post them tomorrow.