Front Door:
from the outside--grapevines with little grapes on those trellises. I am thinking about painting the doors dark green instead of red... Nancy what do you think?
view from inside of the front door.
very strange front door knob. New hardware??
Sunny side yard--this will have to be the garden spot right outside of the dining room windows. Hopefully one day the huge (as it turns out commercial) heating/air unit there on the left will be replaced by something smaller.
Water feature needs some cleaning. I forsee grandchildren one day enjoying their own personal pool...
zero lot line--this is the side of the garage and peeking out from the shrubs you can see the neighbor's fence & bamboo.
The big wall of mirrors were a surprise to me. At the least I think we might put all bookcases in front of them--since we will need bookcases.
Powder room--plenty of wall space for Laila to come recreate a beach!!
Stairs--these are called "floating" stairs. Interesting custom glass--I like it. I don't like the pointy things though. I was brainstorming but can't think of any way to match the wood color if we replace them. (Funny thing is that I don't mind them in the top picture, from a distance, I just don't like them up close and personal.)
Space above stair landing to hang my quilt again!
Living room---will probably hold the green party couch. The question is will it fit the piano too?
Dining room: The first place that you see that the previous owners have painted some of the oak trim white and yet left other parts wood colored. Should we paint the oak trey ceiling??
The other interesting thing about the dining room is that it is open to the underneath of the stairs. I think we will put a light up in there somehow and some big pillows for a reading nook. Again, a place that the grandkids will enjoy one day. ;)
Family room: Trim painted white in here too, we will have to get Mindy to teach us how to love & use wood fires. Right now we are debating about the built in cabinetry for a tv. If we decide not to have a tv in this room, we will take that out and make a computer desk area instead. Finding places for the computers is an issue. There is the office upstairs but we won't put the computers in there because they need to be in a public place. One possibility Russ has suggested is in the dining room right behind the stairs...
Kitchen: cabinets upon closer inspection are original 31 year old oak. Back to exterior hinges, darn it! But the countertops are beautiful black & gray and the appliances look great too. Except for the leaking dishwasher.
I'm very excited about the big windows in front of the sink--hopefully I can get lots of vitamin D there every day to keep from getting the winter blues.
Pantry is deep...I wonder what is the best way to be able to actually use the space??
Hallway--looking from the opening between the kitchen and family room down towards the master bedroom on the right and the laundry room & door to the garage on the left.
Master bath--I love the blue tiles around the tub (which is decently sized but not really long enough) but not so much on the bathroom counter. I wonder what I can do to love them more on the counter?
And the faucets I'm sure were the height of chic fashion in 1981 but I think they're horrid now. Russ says he thinks they're cool Too bad they're ALL the 3 piece more expensive kind...
Master bedroom & closet--again, some painted white and some left wood. That kind of bugs me but I don't know if I can really do anything about it.
Laundry room--funny story. Remember how Josh told me that he likes the new paint color in BHR so much better than my happy yellow? Well I walked in here with him and said "that wall color will have to be changed" and he immediately said "I LOVE that color, you have to leave it!" I think I will also "granitize" the counter sort of like Ally did hers.
A linen closet--yay! After 10 years without one this is exciting to have 2! They will both probably hold games too.
Upstairs landing--could end up holding the piano if we can't find anywhere else, hopefully instead we will put more book cases up there.
"Office" now renamed sewing room!!--Needs new light (and more light) desperately. Fortunately I know how to change the existing light & I've asked Russ to teach me to put in a new light. This will also be helpful for the kids rooms with no ceiling lights--we will put fans/lights in both of them. (Apologies to Nancy who prefers rooms without ceiling lights!)
The water heater also lives in this room for some odd reason. Maybe one day when we need a new one we'll see about moving it to the garage...
Boy's room--
And closet--with very narrow shelf spaces--not sure what you would put there!
Girl's room with small walk in closet.
Kids jack & jill bathroom. The first order of business will be to put in a 2nd sink and to build a wall with a pocket door between the vanity & the toilet so that more than 1 kid can use the bathroom at a time. Living in the apartment with 4 kids and one bathroom has taught us that again.
I wish we could also partition off the shower but there isn't enough room. Fortunately they usually aren't trying to shower all at the same time...
Back yard--decent for the area. (My how our perspective has changed!) The kids are excited that there is room for the trampoline and are already planning that we will get a hot tub??? (They must know about some money that we don't know about...)
Storage space in attic accessed from garage. A nice amount of floored storage. :)
Wood for fires yet to come. Mindy, help!!!
So there you have it--a short tour. I'm still not sure what I think. A little panicky when I think this could be the house we live in forever. Maybe I should stop thinking about it like that. There are parts I really like and parts I don't like so well. I think it bothers me that we could really get more house for the same money in another ward. I need to remind myself that we're going to enjoy the walking paths, pool, and tennis courts in this neighborhood, and that it will be good for Josh to stay here in this ward.
