Our house

A bright light in the midst of so much heaviness and sadness has been our new home.

I wrote about how our home came to be months ago, and it has become such a place of peace and refuge and comfort for me and our kids.

Whenever anyone asks how our move to Utah has gone and what we enjoy about living here our house is usually at the top of the list.

I spent a lot of time while Jacob was sick reading decorating blogs. They were my go to when I needed an escape from the harshness of life and it was fun to finally put many of the things I'd been reading about into practice.

So without further ado, here are some pictures of the place.

The front entry. 

 

I sure love this wallpaper and new light fixture.

 My bedroom. 

It is comforting to have the same setup Jacob and I shared in our Phoenix home. My SIL gave us the blanket with Jake's face, and it is strangely reassuring to have his larger than life face in the room.

My bathroom. 

Our house is almost 50 years old and from the era where master bathrooms didn't exist, so it's across the hall from my room but I don't mind that a bit.

 Tommy's bedroom. 

Thomas has a great sized room and loves having his own place to play. He's graduated to a toddler bed, but his room was messy today and I wasn't in the mood to clean so here are some older pictures.

The kitchen. 

This is a the heart of our home and is such a great thoroughfare for our meals, homework, and comings and goings. It is a great hosting kitchen and I have loved all of the cupboard space. I went from five drawers to sixteen and have enjoyed the upgrade.  

The previous owners did a major remodel on the home about a decade ago, so it is nice to live in a remodeled old home where someone else made all of the choices. 

Another SIL thought of this great backpack/chore chart station on this empty wall by the stairs. It has been a great command central and makes good use of the space.

Apart from the picture below that is poorly lit, the most amazing feature of this house is how LIGHT it is. There are windows EVERYWHERE and light just streams in from every angle, even on completely cloudy days. I need light in my life and have loved how bright our home is.

 

I love this built in desk and having the computer and a small TV in the kitchen.

 Our mudroom/laundry/half bath area.

 I love this part of the house and appreciate the space to put all of our shoes/coats/gear as well as having a whole ROOM for doing our laundry.

My SIL came up with this great idea to have laundry bins for clean clothes for each kid and I was able to find bins that fit the space exactly. 

Downstairs.

This house has some fun built in areas and this bookcase at the bottom of the staircase is one example. It is kid central, with their books on the shelves, a full range of office supplies for playing school in the clear bins, games in the cupboards on the left and toys in the cupboard on the right. 

The guest room.

It was once an unfinished storage room and is the perfect place for my sewing supplies, my music class keyboards and the Murphy bed for guests. 

I'd always wanted a Murphy bed in Phoenix and love having a queen bed always available for guests (hint, hint, visitors WELCOME), but not taking up space day to day.

 The family room. 

The front half of our downstairs is not underground, allowing for so much light to enter what would otherwise be a dark basement. This room has all of the furniture from our previous house with the addition of two chairs, the reclaimed wood table and some new decor.  

The girls bathroom. 

I did have a bathtub installed in this bathroom and changed out the flooring. It is nice to have the double sinks and storage for the hours of time that the girls will spend here in the coming years.

Ellie's room

When we saw the house Jake and I told the girls that two of them would have to share a room while the other one had her own room- but that we would rotate the arrangement every 2-3 years. So after they talked it out they decided that Ellie would start out in her own room so here she is. 

 

This is the furniture that we had in our Phoenix house, while all three girls shared the same room and slept on this double/twin bunk bed and shared one closet. It has been glorious to have the space for them to have their own beds and their own closets with room to spare.

 

Lauren and Ada's room

They wanted to paint the walls a pale pink and my aunt Lee came and did a great job painting, including a chevron stripe that Lauren desperately wanted. I loved picking out their furniture and bedding and appreciated the help of Jake's cousin Ali for pallet suggestions.

The living room. 

Or as I call it the best room in the house.

I was so fortunate to have the help of our friend Kirk in coming up with a design for this room. It is long and narrow, but has an AMAZING view out of the wall of windows. Kirk came up with an ingenious way to accomplish my seating goals while retaining the amazing view by having an 8x8 foot mirror installed on the wall. I wanted a table in the room for us to work on and he made it fit perfectly.

We have two seating areas in the room to accommodate a crowd. I got this 16 foot sectional and tufted footstool benches and we all love to read and relax on this bad boy.

This smaller seating area by the fireplace is a good setting for taking a phone call or talking with friends and I have a live edge wood coffee table in progress that will complete the space. 

I love having our family picture on display along with the beautiful Lladro Christus statue my family gave me for Christmas. It is a constant reminder to me that because of the Savior our family can be together again. 

 

 Tucked behind the green chairs is a fun reading nook and bench. 

I bought some snazzy fabric to recover the cousin and bolsters, and the kids and I enjoy having Family Home Evening back here on Monday nights. 

I have to also give credit to my sweet friends Allie and Kelly who flew up in September to help me unpack and decorate and whose touches are all over the the house. They were brilliant at hanging wall art, doing bookcase display, and coming up with beautiful organizing solutions.

This is a little view from the front window in the day. At night the city lights glow softly and it makes for a pretty picture too. It is peaceful to watch the storm clouds roll in, the snow fall, and the sun set and I have been grateful many times to be able to sit in my house and see such beautiful things right outside our windows.