This is the site you see when you walk in the front door.
The bath on the main floor. It's right after the french door you saw in the above picture. I love the sink. Oh the possibilities of a bathroom with a cool sink.
The dining and kitchen. Notice, it's relatively free of boxes...thanks to my sister and her moving everything. But the boxes will be revealed.
The living room. I'm thinking that my original thought of reusing all my furniture might not work. We'll see. It needs pazzazz!
Here are the boxes....lots of boxes with no where to go. There is no built in storage in this house. Nothing. No linen closets, no shelving in the pantry, broom closet. There's no coat closet. Strange, but it will create the opportunity to be creative. I've got to have something to do.
I am currently sitting in the black chair here at the desk. This is the "craft" room - but for now it's going to be Balin's office. It's got great light so maybe down the road it will be my indoor plant room....it's got a balcony. 
This is the landing from the stairs going to all the bedrooms. We put a couch in and a bookshelf and it has turned out to be a great idea! (Thanks Christie!) We find the smaller space is good for watching a video and reading books. 
This room is on the left as you enter the front door. It's a little strange I have to admit. We're going to call it the "library" as there is a funky space at the end of it where we're hoping one day to put floor to ceiling book shelves. One day.....
The staircase going upstairs. Lovely, just lovely. Makes me want to have christmas decorations up. Love it.I'm showing these pictures of our house in the unorganized, "boxed" stage because this is real life baby. This is my life for right now and honestly I love it. Love it, love it, love it. So let me start at the beginning of the weekend.
We were supposed to move on Tuesday the 7th with the house closing on the 3rd. Balin left today the 6th for 2 weeks and upon his arrival we have good friends from Minnesota coming for the weekend. All that to say, I decided to test my marriage and move the Friday the day the house closed. In fact the movers got to our house around 8am were packed up and headed over to the Park house within a couple hours of the house closing. Good thing there were no snaffoos as I guess you can't move in until the house closes. :) Whew!
The movers were unloading and setting up beds until 9pm Friday night. We had pathways staked out for walkways and had sheets on our bed. The kids were at a playdate with classmates of Sam (THANK YOU TERRY!) and they had a blast! That afternoon my mom came over and brought us dinner (Thank you MOM!), my sister dropped by as well as 13 other friends. It was awesome!!! The first day and we were doing just what we've been wanting to do - have friends gather. Anna and Dana took the kids around 8pm and had them spend the night with them (THANK YOU ANNA!) and took them to the skate park the next morning.
The next morning while the kids were scootin' away, Balin and I got up at 6:30am and walked downtown for breakfast. It was so AWESOME! We went to a great place called the Diner Bell, where a friend met us for coffee and then drove us home. Not an hour after Christy left another friend and Young Life student stopped by and chatted for about an hour. Then the neighbor kids stopped by and played with Sam and Perrin for the afternoon. It was exactly what Balin and I had hoped for. We were very happy to be in Williamson Valley for the last five years and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but it is clear to us that we are meant to be at this house, at this time. It's funny because one of the major drawbacks to this house is that it sits on a pretty busy 2 lane road - but to me it's kind of blessing. People see my car in the driveway and they stop by. How cool is that? Love it.
Today the neighbor girls came over, as did my niece Sophie for a couple hours. They screamed, played, ran around outside, made dog forts, ate, and laughed a lot. After playtime at our house, I took everyone to the zoo (minus Sophie) for lunch and play time. It was so fun and easy. Literally it took 10 minutes to get to the zoo. The store is only 5 minutes and I could easily ride my bike via sidewalks to the store, coffee shop, library in less than 10 minutes.
Our main hope with this house is that we engage with people and are in relationship with kids, teens and adults. If the first 3 days are any indication, I think it's going to meet our goals and then some.
Now, in regards to the house, there are a few things that need to be addressed. There is no garage. The house was on the market for 18 months and dropped significantly in price and everyone would agree that not having a garage was a major set back. It is. But, the good news is that we get to build one. (I think that's good news...) The plans are in process of being drawn and we're hoping we can break ground this winter. We're going to have a two car garage with a one bedroom mother-in-law suite. The bedroom will serve as Balin's office and work space. But, it's a big if as we have no idea what Balin's work schedule will be and whether we can afford it.
The other items we're going to be working on our privacy fencing and a gate across the driveway for safety. Currently the kids don't go past the rock wall on the property, but there's no way we can have dogs here as they'd be off. Speaking of dogs, we left them at the twin oaks house with Jaime, who is renting the house. She is Balin's bookkeeper and admin and she's awesome. She's excited to garden and be out in Williamson Valley. She also wants to keep Stretch. And the cats. Maybe Stanley if we let her. (I have to admit that not having a dog(s), cat(s) has made my life much simpler and cleaner!) We'll see about Stanley. Jaime actually wants to keep the dogs and by the looks of it they won't want to leave. They get to sleep in bed, on the couch...spoiled.
The other project that is paramount is storage. There are no upper cabinets, which looks really clean, but is a bummer with storage. But, we have two walk in pantries, with no shelving. So the first order of business is to get some place to put food and all the other stuff one needs to cook. I'll post before and after pictures hopefully soon. I'm thinking that it'll happen in the next month or so - but hopefully sooner.
Meanwhile, I am really in no hurry to make things perfect. Life doesn't work that way i'm finding. The best things are found while experiencing life and are inspiring. I want to sit back, play with the kids, have their friends over, bake brownies after school, mix up milkshakes and see how this beautiful house wants to express herself. I am patient.
Exterior pictures coming next.
As of today
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