The Grand Tour

Oh, are you here for the house tour?

This is the front. It's yellow and grey. See the driving strips in the garage... tricky to back out on.

Next door? Well next door is where the sidewalk ends. But if you'd like to make mud pies, I think you'll find this lot to your liking.

Up the front walk we go. Why yes, yes the yellow is really cheery on a grey day like today. What's that? Yep, the front porch is concrete. And don't you like the way the steps came out? To the right and left of the steps I planted a ton of bulbs on Tuesday, so there will (hopefully) be something blooming here from spring through the summer. My favorite will probably be the irises from the lake.

Double locks.

Let me get those for us.

Yes, I know, I'm apparently moonlighting as a janitor. I have a lot of keys- what of it!?

Please come in! Go ahead and take off your muddy boots on the tile.

The contractor says to only wear socks on the wood floors through this weekend. The third coat of stain went down on Thursday night...

Yep, this entryway looks right out onto the back porch and the detached garage door.

And if you'll just close the front door behind you (you're letting the cold air in!), you'll see the downstairs powder room, and the bottom of the stairs. Didn't Dusty do a nice job on the tile?

Now that you're in your stocking feet, come in, come in!

Do you like the dining room fixture? The shades can be changed out! Fun, huh? Maybe red for Christmas?

Gosh, it's dim in here. Let me figure out which of these switches turns that on... That's better!

I know, isn't the kitchen AWESOME! It came out so well. I'm so relieved, happy, and excited to spend the next three months nesting and baking cookies and crock pot soups! Do you like the beadboard on the island and the backsplash?

Did you notice that the cabinets on the bottom have a center mullion detail that the ones on the top do? Small detail. And isn't the diswasher cool!

The island in the kitchen came out even better than I could have imagined it. The butcher block countertop is awesome, and I love the little cubby for cookbooks. I think I'm going to get a decorative basket for the top shelf, and make it the junk drawer.

The view of the dining room and living room from behind the island is pretty awesome too.

What's that, you want to see upstairs? Well lets go!

Yeah, the stairwell has like four different windows in it. The high ones will be tough to clean...

The stair rails might be a problem when we're the boys are moving furniature in on Saturday...

The one downside of this layout is that there is no linen closet in the house. I think we'll eventually get an antique cabinet to put on the wall to the left to use for storing sheets, towels, etc.

The east front bedroom. Now DJ and I are in a debate. I want this room to be the guest room, he thinks it should be the office.

I know! Such great natural light in the house!

Yep, if we put the bed against the east wall, I think it'll work. What did you say? You agree with me? I'll tell DJ!

Yep, it's a Jack and Jill bathroom. Connected to both bedrooms. Pretty handy, huh? It's like an independant guest suite up here! Bedroom, bathroom and office/ sitting room!

We ended up using a different granite in each room. I love the way this came out. Looks like we're missing a light bulb....

Did you see the pocket door? So guests can be here taking a shower, while another could still be using the sink area. They're separated by the pocket door to the right. I absolutely love how much natural light there is in this house. Have I mentioned that yet?

Lets keep going so you can see the west front bedroom.

Yeah, if you look back throgh there is a lot of doors!

I love this room. So much that I want it to be the office so that I can enjoy it more! I think the two windows, one facing south, the other west, remind me of the windows in the room at my Grandma Jan's that we always stay in. I miss staying with Janie.

So yep, the door out this room comes back in right at the top of the stairs.

That was a loop. Did you get that?

Swing left, and we'll see the rest of the house.

Remember that we sold the washer and dryer with the condo. Here's the new front loaders we bought! I might have my dad build a stand below them while he's here this weekend. My parents had those stands that you can buy with the washer and dryer; they were so tippy it sounded like an airplane taking off in the laundry room!

Yep, they're front loaders. See when I open the doors.... uh oh. Damn. I think they're in backwards from what I want. The doors in the middle would be a pain in the hiney when shoveling laundry back and forth...

Whoa! What happened?  The formatting just got all wonky in here... let's just charge ahead, ok?

Anyway, into the master bedroom we go...

Yep, canned lighting in here. We'll have them come in and put in dimmer switches...

So the only rooms in the house that don't have windows are the downstairs powder room and the master bedroom closet.

The closet has double shelves at the top on the left, as well as two rows of rods for clothes. The area for dresses is at the back of the closet.

And then I got them to work in these shelves for sweaters. We live in Montana, which means we have a TON of sweaters.

The bathroom came out really well too. Like the kitchen, DJ and I totally redesigned the layouts in here too.

Oh! They didn't quite get all of the stuff out of here... Heh, let me clear that off so you can see the countertops. As you can see, like the guest bathroom, someone could totally be showering, while another is getting ready in the sink area.

The toilet and shower area is pretty sweet.

We had kicked around the idea of doing a big tiled shower here, and then decided to go with the standard tub/ shower. We'd rather spend the money on a great kitchen!

Of course, DJ's favorite part is that he can sit on the toilet and still see the Bridgers as he takes care of business.

What's that, you need to get going? Well come downstairs really quickly, I'll show you the garage and back yard.

Out the back door we go. This deck is wood, and no, they haven't stained it yet...

It faces north and east, so there will be hosta and clematis planted here, in addition to the tulips, irises and daffodils I planted on Tuesday. It's kind of a mud pit right now. They haven't put on the gutters yet...

Down the deck we go.

THrough theis gap is the back deck and our small-ish back yard. The window over the kitchen sink looks out here.

The back fence is shared with Heritage Christian School. Hey kids! We're living in sin over here before marriage!

It's a little muddy to the west...

Do did you notice that little spot in the northwest corner of our yard that doesn't have sod down? Just beyond that little yellow flag to the left of your vision. Yep, those ARE drip lines. That's where next year's farm will go. What, no, I'm not crazy. Yes, I did have the landscapers put in drip lines for a vegetable garden... We're growing stuff to make our own salsa next year!

Let's runback into the garage.

Yep, its a bit oversized for two cars. I love it! No more scraping snow!

Oh, I should grab the garage door opener while I'm out here. Uh oh... there's only one... Um, don't tell DJ, but I'm just going to put it in my car so it doesn't get lost....

Yeah! the east elevation is pretty cool, isn't it!

I'm so glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by!