Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Home Tour: Kitchen and Sun Room

 From the laundry room, you head straight into the kitchen...





We have done sooo much work in this kitchen!  When we moved in, it had upper cabinets all along the walls, and we immediately took the doors off to make open shelving.  A couple of years ago, we tore out all the upper cabinets, added beadboard to the walls, painted all the walls, put in a butcher block counter, and added the open shelves.  I painted the lower cabinets earlier this year when we were in complete lockdown.



I also painted the chalkboard wall when we did the other kitchen work, and I love it!  I put our monthly calendar there, and the kids draw on it too.  :) Our table used to be in the room beyond the kitchen, and the kitchen was just open, but we switched things around a year ago, which gave us an extra room.  Having the table in the kitchen can occasionally make it feel a bit crowded when several people are cooking or doing dishes, but usually it is fine and we use the sitting/sun room so much that it is worth it!



Taking out the upper cabinets did reduce our storage space, but it made the kitchen feel so much more spacious and open, so I'm glad we did it.  And since we don't have a lot of stuff, it works.   The cabinets in the above picture hold our dishes, pots and pans, baking dishes, appliances like crockpot, blender, wheat grinder, plus a lot of our food.  I would love to get the knives off the counter, but I simply don't have extra drawer space for them.



This little hallway leads to the bathroom and a bedroom.  The basket on the floor holds some overflow fruit.  I have thought about trying to build a narrow cupboard there to use for a pantry, but we're just going with what we've got for now!



One side of our table has a great bench we built a couple of years ago, and I'd love to do another for the other side.  It pushes all the way under the table, which helps keep it out of the way.



This side of the kitchen just got it's butcher block counter last year, and it's so nice to have matching counters again! :) The basket by the sink holds our toothbrushes...with only one bathroom, we brush teeth in the kitchen to help with the bedtime rush on the bathroom!  We also keep water and water cups out on this counter since we use them all day long.  I got the water dispenser on the end of the counter years ago so our little kids could get water themselves.  I also wrote the kids' names on our stainless steel cups so that they know which cup is theirs and can use it all day rather than always getting a new cup.  That has been a big help!  I had thought about purchasing colored bands for the cups, but then thought of this free option, and it's worked great!



The view from the other side...the doorway past the stove leads into the living room.



This is technically the dining room, but as I mentioned, we changed it into a sitting room a year ago.  We call it the sunroom because the sun comes directly into this room and it's the brightest and sunniest in the house.  We have a loveseat and chair, plus the bookshelf and end table in here.



The bookshelf holds a lot of our kid's books. The bottom shelf holds our school books, plus Moriah's board books, and the top shelf houses the kids' library books.  The drawer holds our card games.



The little gray end table contains our morning time books and read-alouds, and the bottom drawer holds some other school supplies.  The top drawer is where the kids put drawings and small projects that they're still working on.  When it gets full I clean it out and we start over. :)



I love this corner built in!  Someday I want to finish the top cupboard so it can be used better.  Right now I just have my china teacups piled in there.  The bottom cupboard holds our art supplies.



We have pretty basic art supplies...mostly the kids just like to draw, so we have pencils, pens, colored pencils, and a few markers. Toby is a big craft guy, so we also have a glue gun, and he has his own little supply of other supplies.  I have a few stamps, fabric markers and paint and things that we use occasionally.  We also keep perler beads, watercolors, and some coloring and sticker books on the bottom shelf. 



This room is in constant use! The kids love to read and do schoolwork in here, and they also sit on the floor to play Legos or draw.  


And just to keep it real, a couple pictures of these rooms in use: 







A rainy afternoon at our house! :)

Friday, November 13, 2020

Home Tour....The Entryway/Laundry Room

 Many years ago, shortly after we moved into our house, I did a home tour, but as our family grew and changed, so has our house, and I thought it was time for an update.  Almost every room in our house has changed this past year!  Long gone are the days when we had three kids three and under that all napped at the same time, so I don't really ever have the whole house cleaned up at once.  This time around, I'll just take pictures of one or two rooms at a time.  :)


Up first is our entryway, which is also our laundry room.  We actually use our side door as our main door, simply because it makes more sense for us.

Welcome to our home!



This is what you see when you first come in the door.  And as a disclaimer...it's not usually this clean! ;) This room is one of the hardest to keep clean because it becomes the dumping ground...shoes and coats that don't get put away, things brought in from the car, library books waiting to go back, etc., this room has it all!  We make sure the shoes and coats are picked up every evening, and I usually give it a more thorough cleaning every week or so...


The laundry room is off to the left.  The hot water heater and chest freezer are here as well.  Look at all those flat surfaces just begging for clutter!  Ha! ;) 


Our large family can make it look like we are not minimalist...for example, that grey laundry hamper holds our rain boots.  The kids all have one pair, but times that by 7, and it's a lot of boots!  This is the best solution I've found for keeping them corralled.  Our vacuum lives in here, as well as some bulk kitchen storage.


The white bucket holds our dirty towels, which are often damp, and the brown basket is our clothes hamper.  I usually wash a load of each every day, and that keeps me on top of it.  The bags hanging on the wall hold our clothespins, baby carrier, winter gear (scarves and gloves), and plastic bag recycling, which I empty at a grocery store once a month.  The wooden shelf on the back wall is the home for my bulk kitchen storage (beans, rice, wheat, and oats, as well as canned and pantry goods, like pasta, cereal, crackers, onions and potatoes, etc.  I also keep my stock pot and glass jars there.  I don't have a pantry in the kitchen, so this kind of serves that purpose.



The other side of the room (to the right of the door) is our coat and shoe storage.  We have two hook racks, one on top for adult coats, diaper bag, etc., and one lower one for kid coats.  Everyone has a cubby for shoes, and the basket on the floor holds the kids' socks.


Through the french door is the kitchen, which will be next! :)

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

A Day Trip

Last week we took a day trip to the San Juan Islands.  We hadn't been in several years, and this time we were able to go to Orcas Island, which most of us hadn't been to before.


We drove to the top of Mt. Constitution, and walked up the tower there.   It was a beautiful day, but freezing cold; it even snowed a bit while we were there! 





We got out to explore a few spots, but everyone was always eager to get back in the car since it was so cold!  But it was so fun to get out and do something new!

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Moriah 6-12 Months

 More pictures from Moriah's babyhood! :)


6 1/2 Months

7  1/2 Months

8 Months

8 1/2 Months


10 Months

10 1/2 Months

11 Months

One year! 



Saturday, October 31, 2020

Moriah's First Six Months

 A few of my favorite pictures from Moriah's six months...

One week old
Two weeks old 
Three weeks old

1 1/2 Months

Two Months


Halloween...3 months old
Four months

Four months 

4 1/2 Months
Five Months

Five Months

Six Months


Friday, October 30, 2020

Summer 2019

 Going back in time a bit...again, just to preserve the pictures! ;)

Our summer was pretty laid back because of a new baby, but we still had fun! 


We enjoyed a day trip to a nearby state park.

Celebrated lots of birthdays...

Ezra's 8th birthday

Linus' 3rd birthday

Moriah's actual "birth" day

 and Toby's 6th birthday!
 
We enjoyed outings with friends.

We sold our big green van, and were sad to lose some awesome bumper stickers, including our Yellowstone ones!  We were super excited to get our new van, though, and looked forward to the adventures that it would accompany us on! 

We got to go camping (and swimming) with Seth's parents.

We visited Mt. St. Helens.

And finished off the summer with a trip to the Oregon Coast with my family.