the house tour

It started raining on Saturday afternoon. And it hasn't stopped. At all. So it's been raining solid for nearly two days. It's not a downpour, but it's been a steady drizzle. The biggest thing the rain affects is that I can't do laundry (which is, of course, heartbreaking), and a close second is that Ivory sleeps more because there's no roosters crowing in her window. So as you can tell, the rain is really a huge trial for us.

So in all my free time when I was going to do all the laundry from the last two weeks, I decided I would clean up the house enough to show you pictures of it! Everything is finally either put away or put in the office, which is basically our catch-all room right now. I've tried to really make an effort to create a place for everything so that it does get put away, even though we currently have no cupboards, cabinets, closets, bathroom vanities, or permanent shelving. I always wondered why I have so many baskets, bins, etc... now I know.

This is the view as you walk in the front door. To the right is the kitchen; the door you see is the pantry and laundry room. My desk is against the back wall, and the kitchen table is in the foreground. The first door in the hallway on the left is Ivory's room; further back is our room and the office. Right behind the water jug in the center of the picture is what will eventually be a half-bath, but right now is just full of Grant's tools and construction materials. To the left in this picture is the living room (you can see the couch)

The kitchen

Another view of the kitchen. Lots of temporary shelving, built with puntales and scrap wood. (I knew the skills we acquired playing house as kids would eventually come in handy... if you look very closely the bottom right shelves are built out of bricks with a plank of wood laid across the top. :) Excuse me while I go find some rocks that look like bread and meat...) Eventually Grant plans to build kitchen cabinets and open shelving above. And eventually we plan to pour our own concrete countertops, which should be much more economical than getting something laminate. We're not sure yet what we're going to do about the sink. Maybe we'll just keep using that tub... :)

A few features of the kitchen are this cool towel bar that Grant made me out of rebar that he found laying around outside and...

Using crates to help me organize kitchen stuff, and...

This very handy two-tiered drying rack that we found on special buy at Home Depot. Not sure what I would do without it, since I unfortunately do not have Leah's dish-stacking skills. 

This is the living room. Ivory didn't want to smile for the camera. :)

The view out my kitchen window to the street. 

Standing in the hallway, looking back toward the front door. Never mind the wood along the far wall. 

Going down the hallway

Ivory's room - I've tried to make it a cheery place, as much as concrete floors and walls can be cheery. The quilt that Mom/Grandma W. made (hanging on the right) kind of helped with the color scheme. 

I needed a place to hang Ivory's dresses, so I decided to make wire hangers like Mom used to make for our American Girl doll dresses and just hang them on these hooks above her changing table. Her shoes go on top of the shelf and the rest of her clothes fit in the baskets, so I did manage to find a place for all her clothes to be put away without a closet.  

Another view of her room.

Down the hall, on the far right, is our "office". It's currently serving as a storage room, but we do have plans for a desk for Grant in there. I think he's going to look for something in Zamora later this week. The list of building projects is just a bit too long, and he needs a desk soon. :)

In the back of the office is our back door. 

Our backyard

The other half of the backyard. That is the church, and to the right is Marshall and Jan's yard. 

Across the hallway from the office is our bedroom. It pretty much looks exactly the same as it looked in Speer. 

This is our closet. Grant hung PVC pipe until we can get something more permanent put in there. To the right of the closet is the master bathroom. 

Another unit made out of puntales and scrap wood makes up the vanity. See what I mean about the bins? We ordered the countertop custom made, and it will be the permanent countertop with a regular vanity, which Grant will also build. 

With the shower in the picture. 

Bathtub/Shower

So that's our house! Getting our stuff in there really made it feel like home. It is totally functional and I'm loving having my own kitchen with all my stuff in it. In fact, since it's still raining, I think I'm going to go make pizza sauce!

Have a great week!