My house--I mean, my, uh, mansion.

Welcome to my home. What can I say? Brad and I just can't stay away from the 1920's era.

It looks small from the front, but this house is huge, as you are about to see. This is a view of the side and you can see my sunroom and patio over there.

Other side

Back yard. There are 2 apple trees (not pictured) and on the right you can just see the edge of our 2-car garage.

Living room seen from my front stairs.

From the front door. Excuse the box. We are still unpacking.

Front stairs. And to the left is the doorway into my office/library. And the door you see there is to a closet.

Library/Office which I have claimed as my own space. Still haven't fully organized it. Mom's space is always the last space to get done, am I right? But just looking at it makes me happy. And those shelves are calling for my book collection which is in NC still.

Dining room

Kitchen. Really, it's the only space that matters to a mom. And this kitchen is divine!

Another view. I left a fridge behind just like this one in NC. I am SO glad to have it back. No, the walls are not purple. I have no idea why it looks like it in this picture.

Down the hall which leads to the half bath and the laundry room.

The previous owners really knew how to design a kitchen. There is so much SPACE! I'm sure you thought I staged the kitchen to not have anything on the counters, but the truth is I didn't. I literally have nothing out because there is a place for everything. And all the cabinets and drawers have this slow-close mechanism that keeps them from being slammed. I am so spoiled over here.

Laundry/Sewing room. That desk is built-in and has one of those holes for a drop-in sewing machine. For now it's the guinea pig's home. But the neat part of this room is that little door there behind the ironing board. It's a secret passageway out to the den which the kids just love.

I love the kitchen so much I thought you needed another shot. :-) Glass front doors, dishwasher back finally, HUGE apron sink? Yes, please! And note the counters are butcher-block. My NC kitchen had faux butcher-block. This is so my taste.

Den/green room/movie-theater carpet room/EMPTY room. I literally don't have enough furniture to fill this house. I moved to ND into a single-wide trailer so many many things were left behind. Anyway, I really love the empty space. It's so great with kids and with generally feeling free in your own house.

Sun room which is right off the den. Another empty room that really needs a hot tub or something. But that will have to wait.

Back stairs. The door on the right is a closet which is where the secret passageway from the laundry room ends up. And further to the right and not pictured are the stairs to the basement.

The finished part of the basement. Cute little saloon, eh? Currently this is the play room and I dare not show you a current picture. I'll just say that my house stays exceptionally clean now that all the toys are DOWNstairs instead of upstairs or on the same level as the living area. I LOVE that.

The den and master(on the 2nd floor) were added around 2000 and they added on to the basement also. You can see the newer basement through there.

This is the newer basement. And this was our electrical inspector. Picture was taken before we closed and this room still looks like this. I have way too much storage space in this house. Our plan is to put in an apartment in this part of the basement since it already has an exterior entrance.

Older part of the basement. Through the door is my food storage room. My food storage, which hasn't been added to for a couple years, is looking pretty meager. The room is big though with lots of shelves. I'm looking forward to seeing it filled.

And turn to the right and you can find where I'm actually storing things. Lots of shelves. Lots of space. Too few things. Actually, scratch that. I like having too few things and too much space.

Up two flights of stairs we find the master. Brad and I finally got a king-size. He complains it's so big that it's like we don't even sleep in the same room anymore. Ha! Well, I love it. I hate when people are touching me when I'm sleeping. I am NOT a cuddler. There's a deadbolted gun room through that door on the left but since we don't own any guns, I just keep Brad's massive t-shirt collection in there. ;-)

Our bathroom straight ahead and the walk-in to the left. Oh walk-in closet, I've missed you too!

Brad's office. Yes, he does have that many computers. This is a really large room and behind me is going to be a twin-sized bed once I get another mattress.

The pink bathroom that Beya fell in love with. Sorry it's so dark. It's the kids' bathroom though and I love not sharing a bathroom with those small people. Boys are so gross.

Guest bedroom. An honest-to-goodness one. We're like real grown-ups or something now.

Kids' room. They all dig the cloud ceiling and the room has two very large walk-ins on either side. I was able to fit a dresser and a chest INSIDE each closet for their clothes. The girls have one side and the boys the other. We considered having boys and girls in separate rooms but honestly every time we've tried to separate them, they end up in the same room anyway so we're going with it this time.

That concludes our tour. This is back down the front stairs and halfway down there's this adorable built-in chest/bench where we keep blankets for the couch. Old homes... *sigh* I just love them.

And that's our house! People are always amazed that the mortgage on this house is far far less than rent in this area. I'm still in a bit of disbelief myself that I actually LIVE here. It's the kind of house that I can see myself living in forever. I certainly won't put a timeline on it though since our lives seem to fluctuate so regularly, but it's nice to know that Heavenly Father has allowed us a space to live comfortably, for a while at least.  Now it's time to get back to book editing!