Tour of the New Digs!

FINALLY! A place of our own! Oh, I can't even tell you how good that feels to say!

Everything happened so fast with this. We have kind of decided that is how everything works with us. I mean, we met each other and then we were engaged within 6 days & married 2 months later, for the love of pete! No worries! Almost 14 years and we like each other more now than ever! Hopefully this whole house thing will end up the same! :)

Ry came home one day and asked me what my goals were. We decided within 15 min that we were not interested in moving the kids again, until they were out of school. That meant, time to buy a home. We prayed about it and proceeded. We called our friend Teri, the best Real Estate Agent, and got pre-approved. Our goal was to take our time with this. We were going to look at every house we could find. The problem....Ryan's priorities weren't really even registering as priorities for me. For him, it was all about the amount of land and privacy. My priorities weren't even on the radar for him. I was all about neighborhood and keeping my kids in their current schools...and I wanted to like it, of course. It was going to take a miracle for us to agree on something. I worried that this could get a little stressful. We don't fight, like AT ALL, and I was worried we might get a little tense with each other over this one.

Crazy thing was as soon as we got our pre-approval our friend Teri sent us 2 houses to look at. One of them had a mother-in-law apartment and no pictures. I wasn't interested. Ryan looked into it a bit. When we found out it had .42 acres and it was in the part of PG we wanted to be, AND in our price range....well, we decided maybe we should drive by. We walked through it within a couple of hours after the first drive by.

The second we walked in I think we both knew this was it. Was it what we had pictured? NOT EVEN CLOSE! But it was our home. We could feel it! We made an offer. Full offer. Shortly after we found out that there weren't pictures up because the house was just going on the market that day. Then we found out that 3 other people put in full and near full offers close to when we did. I was worried about it. Then I just felt a whole lot of peace. We knew that the lady could come back and ask for highest offer. If she did, we wouldn't get the house. We knew it would go for MUCH more than she was asking. However, we knew this was supposed to be our house. It would work out. AND IT DID!

It was built in 1973 and there has been a ton of updating. We can't wait to add our own touch to it, but for now we are loving it. Wanna see........

The house sits on a strange angle kind of in the middle of the property. However, this is what gives it some serious privacy! No one can see in any of the windows in our house! LOVE THAT!

This is the entry looking left. Everything is WAY wide open and all hardwood. We are LOVING that!

Looking Right. We happened to be missing a whole lot of furniture...thanks to the whole sell everything we own and move into an RV adventure we had! :) That's alright, it will be fun to start over a bit. For now, we are using the no entertainment center as an excuse to the kids for why they can't hook up the Wii or watch TV. It has worked for a month so far! I'm LOVIN that! :)

See those french doors? That is where I was just standing to take the last pictures. Because of the way the house sits it is hard to tell which if that is the front door, or if it is the one I am standing by. As soon as I find out, I will figure out a way to make it known!

That big empty space is now filled up by our dining room table. I refinished it. It is BEAUTIFUL! It looks good there. I like it!

The kitchen is sort of a funny thing to me. Probably because I LOVE big grand kitchens and this one seems more like an after thought. The really great thing about this is that it is so wide open to everything. The stove top is in the center of the bar. When I am cooking up a storm I totally feel like I am a part of everything else in the house, because of the lay out. I really like that. Maybe one day we will change some things up, but for now, everything is brand new. We will let it stay for a while.

Do you notice the washer in the kitchen? Who does that?! As soon as I can figure out a way around that, I am taking care of it! We are used to it now, but seriously.....

View from kitchen to living room.

Just an idea of how open all of this is.

Just to the side of the washer there is a door that leads to the laundry/pantry. There is plenty of room for a washer, but it gets a bit too chilly out here. We will have to figure something out. We don't want frozen pipes!

Such a great storage pantry! Now I can get cookin on my food storage! FINALLY!

This is the office-ish. Ry would like some chairs and a rug to go with his retro fireplace. Awesome. I took this picture from the stove top. I love that it is so open! And check out the trees out that window! There aren't even coverings on that window...doesn't need to be, and we are in a neighborhood! That is a favorite part!

See that little room over there? Well, that is supposed to be the office. However, because we are renting our downstairs apartment out for a while it gets to be Jake's room. He is pretty pumped about that.

I think he feels like royalty with 2 doors going in to his room. Little stinker!

This barren room needs some love. Have no fear! I have ideas! Now I just need funding for all of my ideas! :)

I do love these shelves!

Oh and Ricky! We love Ricky! Seriously a great pet! I'm not kidding! This is the skinny version of Ricky! Today he is lounging on his warm rock, his belly full of 23 guppies. Oh man! Better guppies that pinkies. What are pinkies? Hairless dead baby mice. Yep...I told you guppies are better! MOVING ON....

Gotta love the dark brown doors. They need a little updating!

That is looking awfully yellow!

Down these stairs you hang a left and head down the hallway into our garage. If you hang a left and then another quick left you would enter the downstairs apartment. It is a 2 bedroom and we have big plans for that part of the house, including the kitchen staying as my storage and canning kitchen! OH MY! That is exciting! For now, we enjoy our renters! They are newlyweds and super fun!

One of the things I have always wanted was for my house to be my kids hang out house. I want them to be able to have a place to bring their friends and have fun. We plan to turn one of the rooms downstairs into Jake's room and the other will be a theatre. The living room will probably be a game room or something like that. Just kind of a teenage hang out.

Now, are you ready for this?!

Ok, the fuzziness hurts my eyes, but you HAVE to see this! Any of you born around the 70s just had a serious flashback to childhood! This item, along with.......

This.....

This.....

The yellow toilet with the wood seat......

and the yellow tub, all make up......

One seriously retro bathroom aka first stop on the remodel train! YIKES!

Now to our room. I need some furniture! UGH! It's a cozy little joint and we like it! Especially 2 separate closets! THAT rocks!

This is our crazy retro shower! Is that awesome or is that awesome?! Ok, it is a bit small. Let's just say cozy, shall we? After the first shower with 6 bottles of stuff on the floor, I headed right out for shower caddy's. MUCH better!

I don't know how we will ever come back from that tile!

And the green toilet....well, it's growing on me! I think if I could get rid of that little table and get a cupboard thing going on in here I would like it all much more!

Her Royal Highness's room! Small, but PERFECT for her! LOVE IT!

And the hallway back to the office. Did you notice that the Motherboard is back?! I LOVE IT! The kids have been amazing with their jobs and that just makes life so much better for all of us!

I love this chart! I have another little train one floating around in my head, but no one to make it for. Sad.

And Jake's. He helped me design this one! Pretty good I say!

This is my favorite feature inside of this house! I just love how open it is!

Let's head outside, shall we?

Oh LOOK! I have a clothes line! I love that! It is SO my Great Grandma!

Behind that line we have a pear, apricot & there are 2 apple trees! I am so giddy over the canning I am going to be doing next year! I LOVE to can!

See that crazy big pine tree?

It is what sold the kids on this house. I can walk under it and stand up on the inside next to the trunk. It's like a whole new world in there. When we first went out there we found out that there are a couple of woodpeckers and a family of quail that live in this tree! It is Mallory's favorite place to play!

And that is the outside of the ole place. I love the deck!

Notice the lawn? Well, the lady that lived here before us didn't water the lawn for 4 years. It is green, which is great, but it needs some love. The whole yard does. There will be a lot of fun projects here for us next spring, for sure!

Here is out GINORMOUS garden! I am way excited about this!

Looking toward the front from the back corner.

That corner is the future home of a pool. I am not kidding people! MARK MY WORDS! I will have a pool! I N E E D one! Really!

The original house only had this much to it. The Living room was built on later.

I mean, I love the mature trees around here! Totally makes the house, to me!

Ok, check our mailbox! WHAT THE HECK?! Ryan said this is not to go anywhere. Um, yyeeaahh! We shall see about that!

The lady that lived here before planted things like sage brush.....I mean, sage brush?! Well, we need some color around here! This hill....I have my work cut out for me!

Her Majesty loves this house! She has 2 friends from school right across the street and she gets to ride the bus to school! Life just doesn't get any better than that, right?!

I had to snap a couple of shots of the views at this house. We were all out on the porch the other day and I just couldn't get over how great this is! The "G" Mountain!

More mountains.....

And then some more! I have to say that Red tree totally makes fall worth it! I guess I will trade the warm for something as beautiful as that!

And THIS is the shot from our kitchen window. I mean, I just can't get over the fact that I get to look at the mountains I grew up at the base of, everyday! They are so beautiful to me! I have missed them!

So, that is the new digs! We are absolutely loving having our own place! There is a lot to be done, first is probably a recording studio in part of the garage. Ryan would have that done yesterday, if he could. It will be done soon! I can't wait for that! Totally sound proof! I can't wait to get down there and sing my lungs out, just for fun, but mostly, I CANNOT wait to hear all the amazing songs Ryan has been playing on CD! WOO HOO! :) Gotta love a hubby with mad guitar skills! :)

Alright, I'm outta here! Busy busy week ahead! Fireside tonight in Lehi and then I leave to Arizona to do another one this weekend! I will be back late Monday! Tah Tah!