After living in our small, but cozy mobile home for three years, we decided it was time to get a home that better fit our needs. We also enjoy the small town living culture, and wanted to find such a place. After looking at a half dozen homes or so in our soon-to-be new home town, we found our dream house! Not too big, not too small, and full of character and charm.
Moving day went very well. Here is the inside of the u-haul we rented. Believe it or not, we filled this thing from floor to ceiling, and still had some more stuff to haul! Luckily Dad was willing to bring the rest in his truck.
After the hour drive, we were home! Come on over, we'll give you the tour... Here's the front of the house. It was build sometime in the late 1800's to early 1900's.
It may not look like much at first, but a side view lets you see how big it really is.
Let's finish walking around the outside. Here is a close-up of the enclosed porch off the kitchen.
Our backyard is the average size city lot, about 60 feet wide by 120 feet deep. It is still bigger than our old yard and has plenty of shade and little gardens. We are looking forward to fixing it up to our liking. Here is the garage... now, to you it may not seem like much, but this is the first time Lee and I have EVER had a garage, so it is quite the novelty for us.
Notice the beautiful brickwork around the foundation of the house. You don't see stuff like that on new builds!
Well, let's walk back up our dirt driveway to the front again. We love the front porch. This swing is a favorite.
I'll open the door for you. In we go!
Here we are in the hallway and entryway. The stairs to go up are on the left, the living room's on the right, and forward down the hall is the toy room. There is a large walk-in closet under the stairs for coats and shoes and what-not.
I think it's really neat because it has really old wallpaper on some of the closet walls.
The floors in this house are incredible! The main level is all hardwood. The entry, hallway, and living room floors are especially awesome. Have a look down as we venture into the living room.
Here's the living room.
On sunny days this big window spashes little rainbows all over the room.
We splurged and got ourselves our first real matching furniture. As you can see, when the t.v. is on, the kids brains' are gone...
A neat feature we didn't even know about when we bought the house is the living room has hidden sliding doors. They still are in great shape and working order. Here's the doorway...
And here's the door closed.
Let's journey into the office. It's in back of the living room. We do all our schooling here.
This room is great! I love the old air vents.
We got each boy his own desk, which is quite a bit better than cramping everyone around the kitchen table. Here's Caleb at his desk.
Then let's complete the circle and head into the toy room.
In back of the toy room is the kitchen. It is sort of different because the clothes washer and dryer are also in there, but it is very large and has tons of cupboard space, so we really don't mind at all. And for the first time ever, we have a dishwasher!
There is the porch off the kitchen that you saw from the outside to the right. Over here is the door to the basement. (the kids are thrilled to have a real basement to run to if the tornado alarms sounds.)
The stairs are very steep and there is no railing, so watch your step!
There is a partial basement with the furnace, water softener, and water heater, and on either side there is a large crawl space. Lee and I had a blast exploring the cobweb filled dirt floored crawl spaces the other day. I found some old Grain Belt glass beer bottles and a magazine from 1947 called "the Farmer's Wife". The old cistern they used to collect water in is still there, although the kitchen was built over it.
Well, let's get the spiders out of our hair and go back up to see the second story. After going through the kitchen and toy room, here we are looking down the hall. The front door is right in front of us.
The kids are done watching t.v. and they are excited to show you their rooms!
Let's go on up.
The room right at the top of the stairs is the bathroom, complete with blue bathtub. It is nice and large.
From the right of the stairs is a square hall which is like a room on it's own. We have all the kids books and games and puzzles there. The access to the attic is also there.
The next clockwise from the bathroom is our bedroom. Nice and big, with a huge closet.
Then we have the boys' room. It is just as big as ours. All the rooms up here, minus the bathroom, have painted plywood floors. I'm sure you noticed our room was purple. The boys room is red! When the sun hits the floor, the whole room has a red glow to it. Really is a cool effect. Anyway, here's the boys' room:
The girls room is "L" shaped, so it is bigger than it looks from here. Nora loves having her own room!
Well, here we are back at the stairs.
I hope you enjoyed your grand tour! Feel free to drop by again anytime.
