Open House: "The Chicken House"

Don't worry.  I'm not taking you on a tour of where the chickens live!  Every home we live in seems to get a little nickname from the kids.  Our home in Bountiful was "The Brown Wall House", because a year before we moved, we got really brave and painted one accent wall the color brown.  "The White House" is obvious, and now we are in "The Chicken House".  Appropriately named because of our fine-feathered friends who share our yard and give us eggs. 

So, are you ready for a tour?  

After driving up a bit of a driveway,  you walk up a little path and knock on the door.  We don't have a doorbell. It's kind of nice, because when the kids get locked out of the house "accidentally", they usually knock a few times and then resort to ringing the doorbell a million times in a row, wake the napping toddler,  until I have to drop what I'm doing to come let them in.  

The house is a classic split-level home.  There are those metal folding closets in all the rooms upstairs.  That linoleum floor is the one that Josh gets to replace in his spare time. ;) All of the rest of the floors upstairs are bamboo, and downstairs is tile. I honestly miss having carpet.  It's surprises me how much I miss it, since it's such a hassle to keep clean with kids!  Carpet you can sit on and lounge upon and play on, it doesn't collect dust (that you can see).  I find myself wearing shoes all the time, because walking on hard floors hurts my feet and back!  We had to hunt around Craigslist and yard sales for decent area rugs to add some cozy padding to the floors.  You'll see the array of mismatched rugs we have throughout the house!

The living room area is around one side of the staircase, and kitchen and bedrooms on the other.  The living room is where we spend most of our time.  It feels a lot smaller than that big open floorplan of our White House, plus the kids just keep getting BIGGER!  :)  We play games, read books, lounge, watch TV, drag out the toys to play on the soft carpet.  The other half of the room is the computer station.

 

We have a large mirror that need to go riiiight...there.  

The owner seemed to really like unusual ceiling fans.  

 

 

 

 The dining area is at the top of the stairs, and that wall of cabinets includes a little pantry, where we keep most of our dry foods.  The drawers hold our table linens, plasticware, foil, wraps, and the upper-cupboard holds all of our kid craft supplies.  That countertop is where we open mail, hang our keys, etc. 

 The ceilings upstairs all slant upwards to the center of the house, making the upstairs sort of a huge triangular pyramid!  The large front windows add a lot of light,

Another different light fixture.

 The kitchen cabinets are all these translucent fronts and have a weird way of opening.  You grab the handle and pull outward, and the cabinet front folds and reveals the shelves.  It's a good thing we're tall.  It would really be tough for a short person to operate! 

The countertops are all this butcher block material.  I'm not sure exactly how to clean it thoroughly and properly.  It seems like it would hide a lot of bacteria, but I don't know.  I LOVE the dishwasher!  It's whisper-quiet, unlike our old ROARING monster.  

 A gas stove.  It seems to cook more evenly, but the oven takes FOREVER to heat up, and really heats up the kitchen in the summer!  WHEW!  The units are a pain to clean compared to a flat cooktop, but it's been fun to have experienced all three types of stoves!

Gettting used to a different space is the big challenge of any move.  Our last house had a cabinet for EVERY thing, and this one is a bit cramped, and things are OPEN and OUT, which makes me feel like things are always disorganized and a mess.   That area next to the oven has blender, mixer, oil, vinegar and potatoes.  Yeesh.  But, we are making it work! 

 This monster is the fridge and freezer!  I know!  It's huge, and we have a lot of space that we've never had before.  I particularly like having a big freezer to store food, so we can buy in bulk and not worry about not having space for it. 

Down the hall is a bathroom and two bedrooms. 

This is Diddles' room.  The closets are really small.  Josh's stuff filled the entire Master Bedroom closet, so I share this one with Diddles.  We don't have any sort of toy "room", so the kids have to keep their toys in their rooms.  The opposite wall from this one has a dresser and those mesh metal shelves to hold her toys.

Master Bedroom:  They painted all of the ceilings and walls white, with exception of a couple bedroom walls.  True, it makes it feel really big, but it also makes it feel a little cold, in my opinion, and the bare floors don't help.  I'm not much of a decorator, so it's been hard to pinpoint exactly what it's lacking, and what to  do to help warm things up a bit w/o spending any money!

Downstairs, there are three bedrooms and a bathroom.  This doorway leads out to the garage. 

The laundry/furnace/water heater "area" is pretty small, but that washer and drier are HUGE!  They work really well though, and they have those big drawers underneath that hold all your detergents and stuff. 

The kids bathroom has a heated floor you can turn on.  It's funny it has that feature, but it doesn't have a toilet paper holder.  Strange. 

Yaks' room.  Josh built him that big shelf so he can put all of his treasures out of Diddles' reach.  It's pretty awesome.  Yaks also has a bonus feature of an under-the-stairs clubhouse!  He likes to spend time in there making Lego creations or decorating it with his drawings. 

Pretty fun, eh?

The other end of the hallway has Boo's room and our Guest room. 

 

Boo has her own ideas of how it should be decorated, and has enjoyed organizing her treasures just-so.  She's also got an odd little closet/cupboard under the stairs with some cool shelves for her toys.

Finally the guest room.  Originally in the remodel the owners envisioned this room possibly being a type of Den, putting a couch and a TV, toys, etc.  I personally think it's too narrow for that, but it's made a nice little extra room for all of the "homeless" items in the house:  the ironing board, the extra TV, bookshelf, office stuff, pictures and photo albums, etc.  It's got these pretty double-doors with a faux stained-glass finish. 

Behind the door is a closet and these small shelves, so we put all of our board games there. 

 So, if you should ever be out our way, please come visit!  This will be your room.  Clean sheets and everything! 

Thanks for coming!  I hope you enjoyed the tour!