I guess it's about time I posted pictures of our new place. We live in New Hope, a north-west suburb of Minneapolis. It's been great having so much more SPACE, including 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a basement and a GARAGE! No more cluttered closets and packed-to-the-ceiling storage area. Ethan and Claire even have their own bedrooms. We do have some updating to do, though. Our neighborhood is about 50 years old and has a great mix of families of all ages. We love the tree-lined streets and the park just down the road.
Views from the front yard. The green, rectangular-shaped yard with no weeds or fire ants.
View when you first step inside. Turn left to the dining room, straight to the kitchen or upstairs, right to the living room. The kids love running around the main level in figure eights.
Living room
See my new La-Z-boy? Where have you been all my nursing life?!
Also, I'm glad that our entertainment armoire doesn't look so massive in this house.
If you peek behind the couch, you'll see toys and picture frames we haven't found places for yet.
And here is our lovely kitchen! The yellow countertops and sink are in immaculate condition. The kids like them. They really clash with the newer gray paint and gray-toned linoleum. They totally match the old-school cabinet hardware. The cabinets are actually really well-made. The appliances are new but pretty basic. The door at the back leads to the garage.
The sliding glass door leads to the deck and backyard!
One of my favorite features of the house!!
Check out this cabinet (do not adjust your monitor, the glass is indeed yellow). David says our old-school doorbell has to go, but I think it's cool. At least it doesn't do the Call to Prayer like the one we had in Oman. The door on the far left leads down to the basement.
Formal dining room
Currently used as a "safe zone" for Audrey where older siblings are generally not allowed.
Another awesome feature of the house: a 1/2 bath by the kitchen where kids can wash their hands.
The upstairs has 4 bedrooms and 1 3/4 baths. When we unloaded our truck, I directed our moving help to the "red room," the "blue and pink room," and the "wood floor" rooms.
The red room (master bedroom).
No matter how feel about shiny gold-and-white wallpaper or the color burgundy, the carpet in this room is the softest my bare toes have ever tread upon. If we survive the Minnesota winter, we'll likely remove the wallpaper and uncover the hardwood floor next spring.
Check out that fancy wallpaper! It was so reflective I had to adjust the brightness of the photo. Sort of matches my vintage-style shirt.
Reality shot of my bedroom / Audrey's room / laundry folding room.
(In a 2-story house with bedrooms upstairs, you can hide a lot of mess!)
Master bath.
It's funny, neither of us could remember anything about this bathroom from our showing in March. We were pleasantly surprised to find it in good condition on move-in day (except for the shower door that David bangs his head on regularly).
Claire's room (also Audrey's room, once she's old enough to defend herself).
This room is adorable in a very 90's sort of way. The kids love it!
Notice the PERFECT MATCH between Claire's bedding and the paint, wallpaper, and carpet? That's because Claire is using the same bed set that I loved when my dad bought it for me somewhere around 1990.
Ethan's Room.
I love Ethan's room. The hardwood floor is pretty and the room gets a lot of light. We bought a new queen bed so that guests can stay here.
I was so happy with the quilt I found.
The drawers and shelves came from craigslist and works perfectly in this room.
Dump truck from my therapy room in Seattle. Lamp $5 garage sale. Frames from BYU days, with Ethan's drawings of bugs inside. Dresser from craigslist. So fun how all this came together.
Upstairs full bath.
Due to the brown tiles, this bathroom probably looked better without our blue rugs inside. However, this is still a super-cool room due to the laundry chute housed within the cabinets! Can you even imagine how fun this is to Ethan and Claire?
Duck towels that we registered for 10 years ago!!!
This bathroom has another awesome feature - the Dixie cup holder. Who knew that you could still buy refills for these at Target? The seashells are from the beach in Oman.
I forgot to take a picture of bedroom #4 which is set up as our office. It's not very exciting-- table, filing cabinet, bookshelf, and a lot of paper clutter. The neglected room of the house. In Georgia, our office was jam packed and in constant use. Now we can store things in the basement, and David keeps his officy things at work. I do my blogging from the laptop in the kitchen, close to the icecream and stash of trail mix.
And now for the final room of our house... the basement. You know, you sort of feel like a grown up when you get married. Then you have kids. Then you buy a house. But buying a house with a creepy basement? Yeah, now you KNOW you're not a kid anymore.
The unfinished half.
It brings back memories of sleeping in my great-grandmother's basement in SLC. I remember being creeped out by an inflated Smoky the Bear and a poster that said "Only YOU can prevent forest fires."
No, seriously, I love this basement! It's a disaster in this photo because David has camping gear hanging up to dry. What you can't see are the neat rows of easily-accessible Rubbermaid boxes, holding holiday decorations, high school journals, children's clothing, kid gear, and all the other stuff that used to be jam packed in our small storage area and attic in Georgia. Now if I want a costume or a sleeping bag or my Kindergarten report card I walk right up and get what I need!
The finished half.
Until recently, this was my least-favorite room of the house.
The shaggy carpet is actually quite new, but it was too dark to know what may or may not be lurking in it. Ethan's cousins were afraid to come down here because of all the box elder bugs hanging around.
It was even worse before we removed these spider webbed curtains:
And the lovely outlet covers!!!
But with the help of a vacuum, bug spray, brick cleaner and three layers of primer and paint...
Isn't it a cute little play room?
David's sister made cute curtains from some fabric David found.
We filled the room with all our toys and garage sale finds.
We are so grateful for our new home!
