Saturday we hosted our open house! So many people said they wanted to see our house when it was done that we decided just to host a day to invite everyone over.
We've been in since the end of November and I celebrated our first Christmas here before I finished unpacking. OK, so I admit, I probably should have worked on unpacking a little more back then.... it's made the time since Christmas go very slow as there was still lots of settling in to be done and I've only become more & more pregnant! Anyway, we've finally arrived here & I want to welcome everyone in - whether you dropped by the house or just drop in for the cyber tour.
Our house is styled after a barn - one of my Grandaddy's barns, to be exact. Of course, it didn't turn out looking exactly like the barn, but similar and I love it! Our siding and roof are corrugated metal, just like you'd see on an old barn in this area.
Our living room is the first room you'll enter when you come inside. It's open into the dining area and kitchen. Lots of natural light comes in. (This was after the open house, evidenced by Dad asleep on the couch!)
The hearth is kind of between the living area & dining area and is made from bricks that we collected from the house my great-grandparents lived in for a while when my dad was young. The house has since fallen down. Some other of the bricks came from another old house on Grandpa's property. The mantle is made from a mesquite tree that was here on the property, cut down by dad and GrandpaH helped dad finish it into the mantle. The clock was my Grandmother's and the jug comes from Dad's family! : )
Our large dining set belonged to Dad's grandmother.
When I planned out my kitchen, several ladies raised concern about me opting for windows rather than upper cabinets. Instead of upper cabinets or a walk-in pantry, I came up with the pantry wall. Nobody worries about my lack of upper cabinets any more.
We have a long hall that often gets referred to as "the runway" when the kids are racing back & forth! I didn't take a picture of the hall, because it's rather uneventful without the race. I have a cute video that demonstrates the runway in action on this post if you'd like to take a look.
The first door you'll come to as you go down the hall is the kids bathroom. It's decorated with sea life, inspired by David's interest in sharks & crabs. The painting that hangs over the potty is a watercolor done by David last year. (I drew the shark in white crayon, then he painted over it.)
You'll also see a unique door into the laundry room. This screen door came off the house my great-grandparents lived in for a while when my dad was young. Having this door here also allows some light to come into the hallway and helps keep the cats contained when we want them to stay in the laundry room.
The next stop down the hall is our master bedroom. It's dark to allow for daytime sleeping if our fireman (Dad) had a rough night. I haven't really decorated in here yet because I'm planning on putting my Grandmother's buffet in here & am not sure how it will be arranged. Rebekah will sleep in here with us for a while. I have a bassinet that rolls right up to the edge of the bed. This makes nighttime nursing a lot easier than me having to get up & go to another room to feed her.
Through our bedroom is the master bath. Much brighter than our bedroom! It's our "island getaway." I did the hand texture & painting in here. Our shower is one of my favorite parts of the house and the clawfoot tub came out of Dad's great-grandmother's house. It had been sitting outside for years, but refinished beautifully.
Next to our room is the guest room, where you're welcome to stay if you're ever in the area! That quilt was made by dad's great-grandmother for our wedding, the afghan was made by my grandmother, the painting over the bed was done by my mom when she was in college and the other painting was done by me in college.
Just inside the guest room, is my crafting corner. It's currently set up for sewing. I was working on some diaper covers when my machine continued to mess up. It's gonna have to go in for a check-up, I think.
Across the hall is Elizabeth's room, aka the ladybug room, aka the girls' room. When Rebekah leaves our room, the girls will share the ladybug room.
Next is David's room. It's a combination of fire trucks, Cars, sharks, and Wall-E!
I think that covers the inside. You may have noticed that we have a small front porch, but the back is our "entertaining porch." As the evenings are starting to warm up, we've enjoyed sitting out here watching the daylight fade.
We needed a retaining wall at the back of the house and choose to use cattle troughs (some new, some are old) as a retaining wall that we could plant in. If you hear me mentioning some plant I'm growing in one of the troughs, this is what I'm talking about. There's also a mess of toys in the back yard, and a slide off the back porch. And it's a very FAST slide!
From the back porch, we have a great view of the pond... and a fence to keep the kids from wandering down there. Yes, there are fish in the pond, but we haven't been fishing yet.
Some grass seed was planted in the back yard where construction disturbed the native grass. Then the doves, sparrows, cardinals & who knows what else came & cleaned out the place! Now sunflowers are coming up. Maybe some of the grass will still come up back. We'd like to add a swing set or something out here for the kids and we usually get a little pool in the summer, but I don't know if we have a place flat enough for one here.
We really enjoyed being able to incorporate pieces of family history into our house, because that's where we came from. I wish I could show you the family photo wall in the hallway, but I just couldn't get a very good photo of it.
For those interested in the building process, visit my Flickr photos. Be warned, there are a TON of house photos in the set, showing from before ground breaking to current, and I have re-ordered them so that they start with the oldest first and show the progress.
Our house construction photos on Flickr
The open house set on Flickr
We were also given a baby shower during the open house...
Dad was very proud of Elizabeth last night. She was up past her bedtime when Dad fired up his xBox. When she saw the game menu, this conversation took place:
