Well at this point it’s been like a year since we bought it, but as you know, I stepped away from blogging for awhile except for a couple of small posts to update on projects I’d gotten a ton of questions about while I was gone. I kept meaning to come back and do a whole big post about the new house, but…you know…2020 has been a tough one.
So the new house…it’s a 1950’s brick ranch, very different aesthetically than the 1895 victorian farmhouse (the Laurel House and original muse for this blog) we lived in before. I guess…some would say it’s a bit less charming. Not having the 12 foot ceilings or big thick moldings and all of that. But it’s funny..it has a charm all its own. And it already feels more like home than the Laurel House ever did (sorry LH).
One of the biggest draws for us was the property- five acres, super peaceful and private, and even came with a huge chicken coop and 14 chickens! During quarantine, having all of this space to be outside has been such a blessing.
So a bit more about the house. It’s much bigger than the Laurel House, around 2700 square feet. What’s funny is that one of the reasons we bought Laurel was because we wanted to downsize from our previous house…which was 2700 square feet. I think I’ll do a separate post about my final thoughts about downsizing, but one of the reasons this space works for us now is the layout. It’s perfect for us. It’s one level, with a separate private office for me (which I use every.single.day) and a huge bonus room for Michael’s man cave, which we really use more as a family room. You may recall we had a separate garage in the Laurel house that we turned into Michael’s man cave, but it’s been a million times better to have that space actually in the house. We use it every day now.
The one room that isn’t perfect is the kitchen. The location is great- very central- but it’s very small, and it’s dark. Not much counter space either. A super positive is the pantry. It’s heaven- heaven!– to have an actual, large pantry! Sometimes I go in there just to look at all of the shelves.
So here’s the kitchen!
The kitchen is the room we’ve done the most work on- it looks completely different than it did when we bought it! I’ll show you guys one day.
Here’s the dining room and a little sitting room off the kitchen:
As you see, I didn’t really clean or style these rooms at all! And we use the dining room for a million different things so there’s always stuff on the table. There’s art sitting on the floor because I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet.
And here’s the living room:
And the back hallway, with a view into my office:
It’s a bit of a mess (lots of backstory with this office and the terrible shape of the walls) but I’ll do a full tour someday.
And here’s the back hall, which is one space that is done!
Here’s the owner’s suite, which we’ve done nothing to since we moved in (check out my plans for this room in the One Room Challenge!):
and the adjoining bath:
And the boy’s bathroom:
The boys are getting more private about their spaces now, so I’m not going to share pictures of their rooms- but they were the first spaces we updated when we moved in.
We have lots of updates planned- we’ll get to them eventually!
Thanks for following along!
