Look!

As much as I love photos and scrapbooking, I'm terrible at getting pictures posted online.  I just don't have the patience for it.  But let's start 2012 out with some pictures of our new life.  I am back - yearning to blog, excited for the new year and our new life in our new home.  We have new goals now, a new schedule and a new routine.  I'm excited about what this year will bring for us.

A lot of people have asked to see pictures of our house.  Remember - I have 3 kids one of whom feels it's his mission to undo everything I do.  So getting pictures of a clean room is a challenge.  Somehow, though, I've gathered a variety of pictures showing some of my favorite things about the house and our life here. 

One of my favorite things about my kitchen - there are a lot actually - is my pantry.  The right side, modeled here by Edwin, is food.  The left side (fixed shelves instead of the pull out) is for art supplies for my children.  The first week Eddie thought climbing in and out of the moving lower drawer was pretty awesome. 

And could he be more adorable here?  Yes, he needed a haircut.  But it only added to his charm.  :)  And while we're at it, here he is in another favorite activity that first week.  This is the view of the back of the cabinets under our countertop (and the back cabinet on the end). 

Turns out I did manage to snap a picture of our living room after I decorated for Christmas.  It gives an overview of the room that is decent.  The high ceiling makes the room look enormous here, but it's actually pretty cozy. 

The wall with the fireplace is the south wall.  The opposite living room wall is the open staircase, which you can see the start of behind Edwin here.  Mostly this is just a super cute picture of my boy so I had to include it.  :)

Standing below the staircase, this is what you see.  It's a ton of crazy angles that my husband figured out to make our house the way it is.  For the math-challenged like me, I can't imagine attempting this.  For my geometrically-minded husband, it was a success.  He did a beautiful job on trimming the stairway too.  It's not quite finished, but it still looks amazing. 

All the woodwork was stained by my mother-in-law, her sister, or me.  Eileen did the most for sure - all the baseboard, and it looks incredible.  Here is my laundry room door for a better idea of the style and the colors that flow through our house.  As you can see, the door is not trimmed yet.  That will happen eventually.  (Uppercase Living Expression courtesy Jenny DeSchepper.  Love her.  Love that stuff.  The door says THE LAUNDRY ROOM: get all the good dirt here. :)

Another favorite - we had this deep space next to the refrigerator where I wanted to keep my recipe books.  We had a cabinet put in place there so it would continue the flow of the cabinets.  I love this space!!

Right below that is my tupperware cabinet.  Organizing guru and good friend, Jan, came over to help me make it work.  Tupperware storage has always been impossible for me, but this system is actually working!!

In celebration of our new home, Sophie's birthday, and the Christmas season we opened our house up the week before Christmas and had a big party.  Here is Sophia in our kitchen.  (We have a formal dining room, but we currently have it set up as an office).  This is where we spend most of our time.  I love the big windows and all the light that comes in.  I had been worried it wouldn't be big enough for us, but it's perfect.

Every day I look around in amazement that we really live here now!  It's changed everything.  We are so thankful.  There is still plenty of work to be done on the house.  But it seems everyone I talk to feels the same way about their house.  Home building is only partially about the structure you live in.  As I was recently reminded by an inspiring woman, building a home is largely about the relationships it shelters.

The home building continues.