New House Tour, Part 3

The hallway off the music room leading to the "bedroom wing".  (I love this little arched doorway - it adds such personality to the house!)

Bedroom #1 - The Boys' Room

(Lots of room to grow!)

Bedroom #2 - The "Master Bedroom" 

(It's identical in size and shape to the boys' room; the only differences are the placement of the closets and windows.  We love having so much space!)

How's that for a lovely view?!

At the end of the hallway is our one full bathroom.

In the future, we hope to remodel this bathroom, but for now, it functions just fine for our needs.

This was bedroom #3 (i.e. the guest room), before we transformed it.

(photo credit: Korey Holliday)

Here's what it looks like now from the same general angle.

Quite a different look, isn't it?

We were thrilled to rip up the carpet and find these beautiful floors underneath, the same as in the rest of the house!

The guest bedroom boasts the only walk-in closet in the house and also has an attached half bath.  Nathan is thinking about installing a bathtub and/or shower to make it into a full bathroom by utilizing some of the closet space...but we shall see what happens.

I would really like to re-do the decor in this bathroom, too, but until the bathtub installation happens, it will stay yellow and black.

This is a small hallway in between the main hallway of bedrooms and the half bath.  It offers storage space and more bookshelves.

And that completes the tour of the interior...for now!

We also have an unfinished basement we would like to put an additional bedroom and bathroom in way down the road.

There's lots to dream about with this house and enough projects to keep us busy for years to come!  

Most importantly, we are deeply grateful to the Lord for His provision of this house and property so well suited to our growing family.  We are blessed to live out in the country surrounded by rolling green hills, farms, forests, and a significant Amish community.  It's really fun to hear the clip-clop of horses and buggies traveling down the road by our house on a regular basis.  It adds so much to the serene setting of life in the country!

In closing, I'll leave you with some updated pictures of the trees outside and the gorgeous colors we've been enjoying!

Happy fall from Ohio!

P.S.  If you missed the first two installments in this blog mini-series, click here and here to see them.

New House Tour, Part 2

Welcome to the interior of our new home!

We'll start the tour as though you had just walked in through our front door...

This is now fondly known as the music room.

We ended up leaving our piano behind in Taos for various reasons, so when my father-in-law needed a place to temporarily store his baby grand, we were more than happy to provide a location! :) Eventually, when he is ready for his piano back, we will buy our own to put in that corner (though it probably won't be a baby grand!).  In the meanwhile, we are greatly enjoying the beautiful music created by this gorgeous instrument.  With the high ceilings in this room, the acoustics are amazing!

A look toward the front door.

On the other side of the fire place is our dining room.

I love the view out into he backyard from the table!  The boys and I especially enjoy watching the birds and squirrels that come to visit.

In the next room over is our living room.

Here are some "before" shots that were taken before we painted and unpacked:

(photo credit: Korey Holliday)

The dark red just had to go!

(photo credit: Korey Holliday)

And so did that wallpaper!

(photo credit: Korey Holliday)

Here are the "after" pictures:

Now the walls are a light sage green!  We love the cozy atmosphere. :)

Usually, the floor here is strewn with toys, as this is the boys' preferred place to play.

(One day soon, hopefully, something different will grace our mantel...something bigger and more suited to the space.  For now, though, that's all I have!)

All the built-in bookshelves here have come in very handy!

This hallway right off the living room leads to the garage.  It houses our washer and dryer as well as additional storage space.

And now for the kitchen:

This is the only "before" picture I have that kind of shows the mustard yellow color which used to grace the walls.

Instead, we chose to paint the walls white, and then, my friend, Rachel, added the incredibly beautiful touch of painted birds all around the top of the kitchen.

Rachel did such a great job!

Here is what the kitchen looks like now!

One day in the future, we'd like to update the cabinets to a lighter wood color/finish, but we have yet to figure out the simplest, most economic way to do so.  For now, these dark brown cabinets will just have to stay!

Stay tuned!  Up next is a tour of the bedroom "wing" of the house!

And The Tour Begins!

Several people have asked to see pictures of our new house, so here is Part 1 of the tour!  These pictures of the outside were taken one evening several weeks ago while I was out playing with the boys, so the lighting isn't the best, but they will have to do for now!  Since then, the colors of the trees have continued to change to even more brilliant shades of gold, yellow, orange, and red.  We have been enjoying a beautiful fall!

The front of our house.

Looking off to one side of the property where two of our four out buildings stand.

Another view of the side yard.

A tree in the back of the house displaying its lovely fall colors!

The shade trees in the back of the house.

Our back deck and patio area.

Looking up to the back of our property beyond the shade trees.  Gotta love a freshly mown lawn!  (Thank you, Nathan!)

My favorite view from our back meadow looking out to the other side of our property and beyond.

Looking towards the barns again.

A view of the house from the back of the property.

Our shade trees.

Our property extends to the tree line.  We hope to convert this plot of weeds into a pasture or some other useful function.

My big helper boy who loves to be outside!

A view of the side of our house.

Another beautiful tree out front starting to turn color.

The end of an Ohio sunset.