Our Pretty House - a Tour

Over the weekend, we had a photographer come take family pictures in our home. She came at 11, which means that I was frantically cleaning from 8am to 10:45am and by 10:50, our house looked the best that it's ever looked! I was excited, so in the ten minutes that we waited for her to come, I ran around and took pictures of each room in the house.
I'm excited to give you guys a house tour (Uh, yes. It includes THIRTY pictures. Hope that's cool.)
As this is our first house, we've been working really hard to make it feel like us. We've painted the walls, restained the floors, hung up a lot of pictures and slowly been accumulating furniture that we love.
Some areas of the house, like the basement, are not even close to being finished. (Notice, I didn't include any pictures of the bathroom or laundry room downstairs. That's because it's basically stained sheetrock and open ceilings still!)
But other areas of the house, like my bedroom and the upstairs living room, feel really good. I love them and feel so at home and happy there. I'm not constantly wincing or saying "We need a new lap there and should really replace the desk, soon."
Also, I included a few pictures of our house from Instagram (#littlepitcherhomestead) because there are a few good shots that you didn't get to see in this tour, like the outside view, or our pretty new desk, or those lovely black and white pictures of my grandmothers above the kitchen table.



Here we go! This is the view when you walk in the front door. Straight ahead is the hallway to the bedrooms, and to the left is the kitchen.

Here is our kitchen. I actually really dislike most of the kitchen. It's so dark and brown, which - as you can probably tell from the rest of the house- is not really our style. We are hoping to put hardwood floors in here soon, and lighten up the cabinets. But in the meantime, I just make myself feel better with pretty pictures and a big sunshiney window.

Our cute next door neighbor is a little old German man, and he actually built our cabinets for us when the last owners remodeled the kitchen in the sixties.

 It helps me feel better about life to have a few herbs in the sink, and these cute salt and pepper shakers- which belonged to my great-grandma! (You may notice, I have a lot of her things. :) I love having little, useful things around the house that remind me of my heritage.)

Aaaand, here's the boys' room. They all sleep together, and hopefully we'll get them another loft bed soon, so Micah can stop sleeping on a baby mattress on the floor. But, yes. It's his favorite bed and he begs to sleep there. Weirdo!

See that pretty dollhouse that my Grandpa Roger built for August this Christmas? We love it!

 Lookit that bookshelf. I BUILT IT. I'm still very proud.

And some art by me (wall-hanging) and some art by Grey (Valentine's Day Fox.)

Then the bathroom. (This is all very exciting, right?)

This amazing print (below) was created for me by my dear bosom friend, Lana, and hangs in our hallway. She read through the Little House books to gather all these Ma Ingall's quotes. I bet you can guess my favorite.
Little pitchers have big ears!

But I try to use them all regularly. Like, "Hunger is the best sauce," and "All together with a will," and "Least said, soonest mended."
I think it would annoy my children if they didn't assume that all Moms speak like that.



And here's my pretty room, with my pretty quilt on the bed (my proudest accomplishment besides my children), and my pretty cradle in the corner (another of my Grandpa Roger's creations.)

Oh, and he made that airplane, too. Aaaand, the cradle is full of quilts made by me and my grandma's.

 A close up of our pictures, because I love them. Especially the kid-art.

And now the basement, which is basically used as a tv/play room.

 That carpet is soft and squishy like a fuzzy trampoline.

 Oh, and there are all our books! Were you wondering where they got off to?

I like to call this room (below) "The Library," because it's fun to pretend that we have a library.
It looks like we have school here, but its an illusion. We usually do school in the living room or in my bed! (Beds are the best place to snuggle, and I consider snuggling and reading to be an important part of school.)

Then around the corner, is this little secret room. It's full of toys! And everything that I hate. Like the keyboard, and toy food, and little tiny puffballs. Who invented playrooms? They were so smart!

The last room in the house is the guest/ sewing room. I agree. It needs a bookshelf. And some lamps. And more pictures!
But at least it has this amazing quilt in it:

 The quilt on the bed was made by my Grandma Marcie for my wedding, and the crocheted one was made by my grandma Mary. I love all my crafty and talented family members. They make my home so lovely.
And on the other side of the room, is my sewing table.

 Including this pretty little dresser, which belonged to my great-grandma- and this stuffed loon (which was also hers.) Loons are the Minnesota state bird, and  I love them. It seems like such a Minnesotan thing to have, especially since people almost always ask "Why do you have a ... weird stuffed duck?"
Ha! It's a loon! You non-Minnesotans are so silly.

 And that's my house! I'd say more stuff, but my kids apparently "need me."
 Next time you come over, pretend my house is always this clean! And if you never come over, my house IS always this clean! BELIEVE ME. And it smells like baking bread, and it is very quiet, except for when we are singing beautifully like the Von Trapps.
This is all real.


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