House Tour: Six Months In

So, we've been in our lovely little rental house for six months now and couldn't be happier. Since we finally have art on the walls, I figured it was high time for a virtual tour! To help you make sense of things, here's a completely not-to-scale floor plan:

And to give you an idea of where we started, this is how things looked our first week here. 

Living Room

We just bought an oval coffee table on Craig's List. So happy to no longer have sharp corners for wobbly toddlers to run into! It's the exact same color as the wood floor though. We'd love to get a nice big area rug in here one day, which should help break that up. We dream of getting a big painting for over the sofa - something like this would be lovely. Other than that, we need to figure out window treatments, repaint the chipping yellow end tables, get a bench for the coat/shoe area, maybe acquire some more pillows, continue to scour thrift stores for more globes, etc. One day, I'll get around to changing out the mantel decorations seasonally. First thing on the list, putting away the exersaucer that's no longer in use.

Kitchen













 The kitchen also needs window treatments, a rug in front of the entrance to the backyard, a crucifix next to the sink, herbs growing in the big green window over the sink, this year's picture for the wall above the dining table. Most importantly, we need to replace our chipped, leaning table and falling apart chairs.

Family Altar







This is in the hallway between the kitchen and the playroom, across from the panty and hall bath. We'd like to get a different hutch/buffet/cabinet thing one day, something a little taller, with more storage. We keep our movies and board games in here, because, well, small house. We'd also like more art here. Pictures of our extended families would be appropriate, since we gather here to pray for them. I think it'd be amazing to find hand-lettered versions of the morning offering and the angelus. Something in the style of Lindsay Letters or Brim Papery?
 
Hall Bath









Aka, my shrine to Katie Daisy. Nothing to be done in here, at least at the moment. Maybe add a cross/crucifix?

Play Room

 

Well, we're planning to make the girls a play kitchen for Christmas, which will go on the mostly empty wall above. I'd like to save up for the corresponding world map to our US and Europe ones. Paint the wood frame around the bulletin board a fun color. Add a crucifix  to the little wall right next to the door, which leads to the garage. Window treatments. Maybe make a teepee to replace the circus tent for Claire's third birthday? First priority, anchor the toy storage cubby to the wall.

Hallway



This hallway leads from the living room to the bedrooms and main bath. The door at the end of the hall is the linen closet. It's too narrow for any art arrangements, so nothing to do here.

Master Bedroom








We'd love to put a leaning mirror against this wall.







Those are the paintings we gifted each other for our anniversary! The five year gift is wood and I have grand dreams of a headboard.The photo strip is from the night we were engaged. We finally got it custom framed.





Our craft/office supply cabinet is in great need of reorganization. Our mouse pad is falling apart and we are currently using a book to elevate our monitor to the proper height. The frames on our nightstands hold pictures of Claire at five months old. Maybe a little updating is in order? Just like everywhere else, we need window treatments. We'd like to replace the fan for one with an overhead light. But, first, anchoring the nightstands to the wall.

Nursery

 

We plan to get a little chair for the blank wall above. A glider or rocker wouldn't fit, but something like this would and they seem to pop up on Craig's List all the time. I kind of want to look for the white version of the dresser on Craig's List and do a swap, because all the rest of the furniture is white and it bugs me. But that seems a little ridiculous. Again, we need window treatments and a crucifix. There's an overhead light in here, but no fan. So maybe we'd consider swapping that out if we were already doing the other bedrooms. 

Guest Room

Also the room Maggie sleeps in a good chunk of the time. Again, we need window treatments and a crucifix in here. We'd like to swap out the fan for one with an overhead light, just like the master. Headboards would be a wonderful addition down the line. I'd like to add fun knobs to the dresser drawers at some point, but the higher priority is anchoring it to the wall.

Main Bath











Aka the shrine to my other stationary love, Rifle Paper Co. Adam finds it hilarious that we have so many motivational posters in our bathrooms. Nothing to do here besides touch up paint, which is on the list for the entire house.

Back Yard











Obviously we still need to do something about the pit of weeds our backyard descends into (although these pictures were taken in July, so it's not quite as bad now that things have started to die). Our yard is also only fenced in on three sides and we'd love to somehow convince the landlords to complete it. Or go in with us on the cost or give us a break in rent increases or something? A fenced-in backyard is my wildest dream. If we could manage that, I think we'd get a swing set, but if not we'll probably just keep heading to our neighborhood park.

I also made a house tour video, if you feel like listening to me ramble for five minutes: