House Tour (Finally!)

Oh me, oh my...I've been promising a tour of the new house since...um...October. Then I was kidnapped...by...a wedding beast, but better late than never, right?

For any new readers, let me break this down. I met my (now) husband (we call him Cowboy around here) in December of 2010. You can read the story of our first date here. Less than six months later, he proposed. He moved away from Kansas City the following month, in June, for his third year med school rotations and I followed him here in October. Then we married and honeymooned last month (December). Now we're just trying to adjust to the swing of things in "real life" and trying to figure out how to be a wife and a husband. Needless to say, things haven't settled down in the slightest!

So, finally, I bring you a tour of our first home together! We're only renting since we're only here for 18 mos., so we can't do much to change the walls or anything. Fortunately, our landlord happens to rock and also happens to be a professional (house) painter, so this 1950s ranch is in tip-top shape!

You'll notice a lot of the same things from my apartment tour, so if you want more information on those projects, hop on over there!

I want to preface this tour with two items: 1) I'm still trying to learn this camera, so I'm only allowing myself to shoot in manual mode (hoping I will learn more/faster!). I shot most of these pictures yesterday in the late afternoon when it was cloudy, so the house was a bit dark. I had some trouble compensating for the darkness without overexposing shots backlit by windows...plus, some of them came out grainy, so if you have any tips for this newbie, PLEASE send them over! 2) While I feel we have a great foundation laid, I do feel the house is a bit bare. There's not a lot on the walls yet and there's a couple of places missing furniture (which...sometimes less is more, I know), so I've also outlined any projects I have planned for each room!

So, without further ado...

Front

(Spring, come quickly, please!)

 Main project for the front porch is outdoor pillows. Cowboy's brother MADE us an awesome porch swing as a wedding gift, so I'd like to liven things up a bit so that it's more inviting once the weather warms up!

Entry Way/Living Room

Main projects in the living room include hanging pictures/art on the walls (maybe a gallery on the wall behind the open front door?) and to give the side table/box (pictured above) a little makeover. I found it at Goodwill for 10 bucks and it's the perfect size for a side table + extra storage! It's a bit beat up with some scratches and dents, but you know I love those! It's actually a shiny silver, though the picture doesn't quite do it justice. I'm thinking a fun stencil or maybe some matte stripes to break up the shininess and give it some visual interest. What do you guys think?

 Dining Room

The dining room is the one that feels empty to me and I definitely have some projects planned for this room! First and foremost, I'm going to strip the table. Yeah, I know I'm the one who painted it black (and it looked AWESOME in my all-white apartment), but there are SO many layers of paint on that thing...I'm nearly dying to see what the wood underneath looks like! I will strip/stain the top and probably paint the legs and chairs a different color (not sure what yet). I'm also looking for a killer buffet/sideboard to fill up that left wall and display/hold all of our nice dishes. Again, nothing hanging on the walls, but I do want to wait until I have furniture figured out before I start a war with these plaster walls (yeah, this is also a reason we don't have a lot hung yet...I hate these plaster walls!).

Kitchen

This is a pretty neutral room, thanks to the landlord. Apparently everything that's brown now (all of the trim, the doors, the cabinets, etc.) was a country blue. YIKES. He also just re-tiled the countertops and installed a brand new stove/oven, so we got a pretty sweet (neutral-colored) deal.  I don't have anything specifically planned for this room as we actually have hung stuff and I've made café curtains for all of the windows (too bad my windows are overexposed and you can't even see the curtains! haha!). 

 Laundry Room

This is where my apology for grainy pictures definitely becomes necessary. I did make new curtains for the side door and hung the anchor/umbrella hooks (sidenote: aren't those awesome? It's like our version of his and hers hooks. He's in the navy and well, I think you can figure out why the umbrella represents me. :), so I don't have a whole lot planned for this little room!

Master Bedroom

Mainly, I just want to hang something above the bed. I haven't been inspired by anything specifically yet, so stay posted. :)

Hallway

Just a little fun shot of what's hanging in the hallway since anything hanging is obviously a big deal at this point! I hung a banner I made for the wedding from Cowboy's framed "poems"--one from right after our first date and his proposal poem (see more on that here). The other is a retro poster we picked up in the Smoky Mountains on our honeymoon (we stopped at that church in Smoky Mountain National Park).

 (BLUE) Bathroom

 I hope you like turquoise! YES, that is the original 1950s tile/bathroom. We even have the gold-flecked countertop! The landlord told us he thought the tile was in such good shape, that he would just paint to match! HA! Oh well, I love color, so I won't complain too much. I've already made a faux roman shade for the window using some cheap mini blinds, so now I really just want to hang something over the towel rod.

Office/Guest Bedroom

Once again, nothing hanging on the walls! (Are you sick of hearing me say that yet?) We also need a rug for this room. I wasn't so much feeling the clutter since I have to spend my entire workday/work week back there, so we actually re-arranged things last night! 

 Ah! So much better! Just need a rug to cozy up and sound-proof the room a bit.

By the way, those rolling drawers under the desk are actually just stacking metal boxes I found at The Yard a few months ago for only $2.99! We picked up some casters while we were there, screwed them into the bottom and now we have a place to hide all of the junk that will slide under the desk and look awesomely industrial. Definitely worth our $10.

So that's our home! I'm also adding this to the The Tour page, on top of the apartment tour, so you can easily access it later. 

P.S. MYU flew past 300 followers this week! Thank you all so, so much for your continued support, whether you subscribe through Google Friend Connect, e-mail or RSS reader...I know there are nearly a thousand of you total, which is crazy and exciting to me. You guys rock. :)