Home Sweet Home

My last post was about the major stresses of house hunting. Well, that's all over, we found a place, the very first place we inquired about in fact. There were some people ahead of us in responding to the ad but eventually all of them either fell through or didn't like the house, so we got it. And we love it.

This house, in Mt. Morris, New York, is the right in the middle of where our jobs are, and the rent is the right price. Plus the house is almost perfect, if it had a porch it would be my dream house. It's "out in the country" according to the New Yorkers, it's not even close to rural by my standards, but I guess I'm just not used to being in the 3rd most populous state (7th in population density, BTW) yet.

This house was built in the 1800s and was a schoolhouse at one point, so it's full of character. It sits on three acres, full of birds and critters and deer, so the dogs love it. It's so quaint, it even has a swing on one of the trees in the front yard.

Living in Vernal and being married to someone who has a career in newspapers has taught me that I should never  buy a house again. (Not that I wanted to the first place, but thats not the point.) But we are still looking to be in this house longer than we were in our previous places.

I am rather looking forward to decorating this place, more than I have any of the other places we've lived. I'm considering that a good sign. So let me take you on a virtual tour of this house and tell you about my crazy decorating ideas. We'll start upstairs.

The bathroom thankfully already has green walls (actually greener than they look in these photos, I was using Les's camera very late at night on no sleep) because I will be sticking with my froggy theme. I've always liked frogs for the bathroom, it just seems to fit. And I've already got the stuff for it. More than I need in fact since we have no need for a shower curtain here. In other news I LOVE the shower here, I can stretch my arms all the way out. At our last place you had to step out of the shower as you opened the door or you didn't fit inside anymore. There is also enough hot water for me to wash everything, hair included, it's been a long time since I've had that.

Of all my decorating ideas I am most excited about the office. We got a really cool, very old, desk free from Les's office when they reorganized. It's really awesome old wood and it looks great with the bright blue walls. We're decorating this room with horribly gaudy, completely over the top gold frames with funny/nerdy sayings and pictures in them. Think nerdy t-shirts and bumper stickers. We're having the most fun with this one 'cause we're both big giant nerds.

We picked the biggest, and fortunately, most normal colored room for our bedroom. We're decorating this room with our own photos. And we're going to find a phrase to base them around and put it on that slanted part of the ceiling.

And then there's the guest room. At least for now it's a guest room, we may change that later. It was obviously a little girl's room at one point. And yes, it really is that purple. We have a couple of decorating ideas for this room, but it depends on what we decide to do with it. If we continue with our previous trend with guest rooms, it will be hideous art from the '70s centered around these two pieces of green and gold string art we picked up at a yard sale in Vernal. It should match the purple fantastically.

This is the first place we've ever lived with stairs. The animals are having fun with them and we've decided to decorate the stairway with our family photos. A big part of both of our lives is writing, and we really want to incorporate words into each room. We have a few ideas for the bedrooms, but nothing solid yet. But for the stairway we're going with a very famous quote my a great man, Homer Simpson, "Remember as far as anyone knows, we're a nice normal family." It will go on the slanted part of the ceiling, right in front of you as you descend the stairs.

Then there is the downstairs. It's split pretty evenly, half kitchen, half living room. We've decided to decorate the living room with photos we've taken based around the phrase "Not all who wander are lost." We have traveled around enough and taken enough photos along the way, it should be fun. I think the hardest part is going to be deciding on which photos to use. I'm hoping to get that phrase up on the wall somewhere too. The first photo is taken from the perspective of the front door (that we don't really use because of the wind). The second is from the perspective of the corner in the first shot, the folding doors are the pantry in the kitchen. The stairs are on the left.

Last but not least, the kitchen. The photo is taken taken from the pantry. The temporary house we just moved out of was only slightly larger than this kitchen. Those folding doors hold the washer and dryer with a lovely little shelf for soap and what not.

I've decided to decorate this room with a coffee theme. I considered sticking with my farm animals kitchen theme, but it wasn't really going anywhere. I also considered wine, the colors appealed to me, but while Les has become quite the connoisseur, I don't drink wine. And we both love coffee.

Then there are the extras, aside from the swing, the house came with a shed. I didn't decorate it. It makes me look way more patriotic that I really am. I do like the old street signs and the giant Pepsi cap on the side though. We also have the cutest doghouse ever, a picnic table, a firepit and several little gardens (that will probably die because I don't do bugs or dirt and Les kills every plant he's ever come in contact with, Chia pet included).