home is where the heart is: Our New Home Photo Tour

I have sat down and worked on this post several times over the past 5 months. It has been on every to-do list I have written (which, if you know me, is a lot of to-do lists!) It really just takes a day off of work and no school-related things to even think about to get it done. At any rate, our new home tour is finally done!

Okay, this is a LOT of pictures coming at you! I did my best to show the house as if you were walking through it and to give reference between pictures so you can piece it together. I hope you enjoy!

This picture speaks for itself :)

Entryway as you come in the front door.

This was not part of the original floor plan but rather just a large family room when you walked in. We added 3 walls to make an office and entry way both with closets. I have a vision for this entryway someday and the bench/organizer we are going to build!

Entryway from the other side.

What you see when you look straight as you come int the front door.

You can see the opening to the office on the right.

Someday we may put sliding barn doors or French doors in the opening.

First look at the office.

The other side of the office. The added closet could make this a bedroom someday if needed.

Our desks fit perfectly! It was meant to be. :)

We have plans to build a built-in corner-desk-for-two at some point.

A good sized office. We have said a couple times recently HOW
glad we are that we added this to the floor plan.

Next as you walk down the hall, there is a bathroom and closet to the right.

Plain bathroom, nothing too special...yet :)

I love having this closet for all my glass serve-ware, candles, and cleaning supplies.

Another perfect fit! This wall was meant for my Entryway Table.

This is the first thing you see when you walk in from the garage,

so we keep our purse/backpack on the bottom shelf.

This is the view as you come in from the garage. Not bad huh?

Standing in the kitchen, looking back towards the front door.

The first part of kitchen you can see is what I call Command Central.

I envision this being where we keep family binders, phone chargers, mail, etc.

To the left of that is the fridge. We got the kind that has a seal over it...so no fingerprints!

You can also see the door to my pantry.

Inside my pantry! One of my favorite things about this house.

It's kinda bare now (as far as pantries go) but I have many Pinterest ideas for this one day too.

Moving right along to where the baking happens. Mmm, I love those colors.

Above and below, the cupboards are filled with items related to baking.

This little counter area is called my baking station.

I love my gas stove and convection oven!

Lots of cupboard space. The one to the left of the oven

goes all the way back to the wall on the left.

My stainless steel sink (so much nicer and deeper than the one at our rental!)

We keep the dishes and glasses in the cupboard on the right--very convenient for emptying the dishwasher.

We added the peninsula/raised bar. I canNOT imagine my kitchen without it. Look at all that extra counter space, not to mention 4 drawers and another deep cupboard!

The raised bar. I need to find bar stools soon. Oh and I love my pendant lights!

After the kitchen comes the dining room. We opted out of a house with a separate dining room.

We are not fancy and formal like that.

And then there's the family room.

Minimal decorations on my piano "mantel" and also the perfect place for the mini grandfather clock that my brother-in-law made for us. We plan to add some little corner shelves below it to make that wasted space behind the door to the basement less wasted.

Other side of the family room.

Through that door (two pictures up) you can get to the basement.

We are SO glad we added a basement.

It is unfinished but we look forward to the project of finishing it in the next couple years.

This little utility room is for the water heater and will also serve as our network room eventually. Hubby did all the network and cable wiring in the house himself and it all terminates here in this room (where the black and white cords are spilling out of the whole in the plastic). He has plans to finish that all up and add a server. Being an IT guy and all, he enjoyed having control of that aspect of our house.

The pool table that made it successfully down the stairs thanks to 7 strong guys.

We plan to turn this into our REC/media room someday with a projector, big TV, and nice comfy sectional couch.

Another view

From the other side

There is a big storage room under the stairs as well, which I believe is practically full (we have a lot of stuff :s)

Coming back up from the basement, this is the view of the main living area from the other side.

Looking out the slider at our patio.

Back yard to the left. Notice our beloved AC unit :) and try to ignore my pitiful dying flowers.

No neighbors behind us yet. Trying to decide if we want to put the fence up ourselves or wait a little and see if someone moves in who wants to put the fence up.

We plan to build a little waterfall and pond in the back corner someday.

I love how this gets shade in the afternoon and evening!

It's so perfect for grilling, eating, and relaxing in the heat of the day.

As you come up the stairs to the second floor. The Master is the door on the right and the door on the left is Bedroom #1.

This is Bedroom #1. I love the built-in window-seat chest and the bookshelves. This room will eventually be the nursery when that time of life comes for us.

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom--we changed the original floor plan from a soaker tub, shower and 1 sink to a tub/shower combo, 2 sinks AND a linen closet! Yes, I'm biased but I think this is a way better layout and the builder should consider changing the floor plan :)

Extra-high counter tops which is SO nice for us tall people.

Lots of natural light comes in.

First (and still the only) thing to be put on any of the bare white walls. A gift from my brother two years ago just waiting for a permanent living place so it could go up. It is my life verse.

Here's the added linen closet I was telling you about. No Pinterest-worthy organization or anything but love the extra space.

Master walk-in closet! LOVE this so much.

Eventually I think I want to re-model it with 2 rods (one above the other) on one wall and some built-in shelves, drawers, shoe rack, etc.

Leaving the master, at the top of the landing looking the other way. The big open space is the loft which goes off to the right as well. Bedroom #2 is that door on the right. The closest door on the left is the laundry room, the 2nd door on the left is a bathroom. Facing door is a closet and the hidden door across from the bathroom is Bedroom #3 which is our guest room.

The loft! The couch is no longer here as my college brother took it for his place. I love this space so much and have great visions for it being an awesome play area etc. for our kids one day.

Bedroom #2 is filled with all my childhood furniture, books, and toys that my parents had been keeping while I was in college. This will all come in very handy if we have a girl.

Bedroom #3, aka the Guest Room. Seeing as we have had 4 different guests already, I should probably really think about getting some curtains on the windows...oops!

Guest room still.

The closet--for now it is storage for games, extra linens, and household items.

I love having the laundry room upstairs SO much.

It's a good-sized room and I also have dreams to Pinterest-ize this one day.

(yes I just made Pinterest into a verb)

Upstairs bathroom. (P.S. it is not easy to take pictures of bathrooms to A. get it all in one shot because how many pictures of bathrooms do we really want? and B. to not get yourself in the mirror.

And for the final "room"--my husband's favorite--the garage.

We have a 2-car main stall and then added a 3rd tandem stall.

The back part of the 3rd stall is hubby's shop. With our 3rd vehicle currently in the front part and bikes in the back, we are realizing we need to get a shed for a lot of the stuff so that there is actually room to work and create fun projects. The door on the back wall goes to the backyard.