The Inside

Picture Overload to Follow

Finally the inside pictures Joyce!! I didn't completely forget! I did sort of forget, and then whenever I did remember it was nighttime or something like that and I didn't want to take picture then as my camera isn't the most cooperative or doing the best with the flash. But with few good sunny days and my terrible memory I just never seemed to get them during the day ... so I finally gave up and used the flash - so they may not be the clearest or truest to their colour, but by time you've scrolled thru you'll pretty much know every angle of our house! :)

The Entrance Hallway - you would be standing by the door (okay behind if the door was open) from this angle. On your right are two doors, the first is Rob's office and the second our bedroom. At the end a bathroom and if you head to the left you'll end up in the kitchen.





















These shelves will probably look familiar to those who visit us at our old house. With an extra wide hallway we decided to put some storage shelves for the kids hats, mitts, boots, helmets, skates, etc as well as various other things on the other side. Rob did trim down the shelves so they are not as deep and don't take up too much hall space.

Knowing how quickly things tend to become a disaster in my house and how any spare space is usually full of junk waiting to be sorted or to find it's specific spot I knew I had to have something on top of the shelves in order to keep myself from dumping stuff on them ... especially considering they are right where we come in.

When I was younger I collected porcelian dolls ... this was back in the day where you couldn't get them at second hand stores and they cost a pretty penny to buy even the simple ones. The girls each wanted to collect something and so they started collecting dolls also. Marietta is a bit more into the doll collecting (Rebecca collects spoons) but between the two of them they have managed to collect in a couple years time as many dolls as I did over many years. They have a couple new ones they got as gifts but most they found at garage sales or Value Village, and many of there dolls are much nicer then the ones I have. It seems a shame to have all these dolls and not have them displayed so here was the perfect large space to put them. It's working great ... there's no space for junk and it stays clean up there.

The dolls on the left side (first picture) are the girls dolls and the ones on the right (second picture) are my dolls. There are more dolls behind but I have yet to find some small boxes to use as stands so that they are move visible.

With the leftover pieces Rob trimmed from the hall shelves he build his office shelves. Rob is very excited about his new office and is loving the fact that it's on the main floor and has a window.
















Here is what you would see if you turned left at the end of the entrance hallway into the kitchen and dining room. (For all those who know Rob's resolve to leave the dishwasher behind please note the dishwasher on the left hand side :)
















From the other side ... door on the right side is the one you would have come in from the entrance hallway






























Looking into the Dining Room from the Living Room
















The Living Room ... looking into it from the Dining Room


































The couch is kinda the divider for the kid's entertainment area where their keyboard is as well as their computer (they inherieted when we moved).
















This is the view if standing by the computer. On the right you can see the stairways heading upstairs as well as Marietta by the entrance doorway (the door I was standing by to take the hall picture)

The upstairs hallway was also a bit of a wider hallway, which came to our advantage as there is no real seperate play area in this house for the kids toys. So Matthew has some toys downstairs in the Dining Room (altho they usually gravitate to the Living Room) and then the rest of the toys are upstairs. The girls really don't play with the toys a whole lot, sometime I feel like just getting rid of the kitchen and it's accesories, but as soon as they have friends over they are busy playing house and restuarant, so it does still get used.

Where Rebecca is sitting is a well used area ... more like the girls play area. This is the their craft table. To Rebecca's left is a closet and it is has all their (and mine) craft, card making, scrapbook stuff on the shelves there. The girls are often found in this corner busy working on something ... I hope to become a bit more faithful at sitting down and working along with them ... I'm not really into scrapbooking or card making, but it's a fun thing to do together with them.

Looking down the hall from the craft area. At the end of the hall is the kids bathroom. It has been quite nice to have two bathrooms ... altho the tub issue does hamper it a bit. But it's nice thatt the girls have a spot now for all their hair stuff and the counter is big enough that they can both work there at the same time without fighting ... nevermind how much bigger the bathroom is compared to the main bathroom at the old house (you could turn around in it, that's about it).










Matthew's Room. I know, doesn't really look like a bedroom, much less a little guys room. We moved the lazy boy up to the bedroom as it's great for snuggling and reading stories etc. The table beside it is a hand-me down table from Rob's family which is a good solid table but not large enough for when we have company. Since the stairway to the basement is so narrow it's doubtful we could fit it down there for the time being and not wanting to get rid of it it has round it's spot in this corner. The kids like it because they throw a sheet over it and it's their fort. The girls will read stories to Matthew in the fort ... it's cute.







Here's a better view of the bedroom aspect of his room ... more like your typical little kids room.
















And last, but not least ... the Girls Room.
















Bunkbeds and slanted ceilings can be somewhat of a pain. Seperate beds in this room also wouldn't work the greatest because of the location of the windows (that funny little window along the floor) and the heat register. After several rearrangements this was the final arrangement that everyone was most happy with. This allowed us to also fit a bookshelf and Thumper (Marietta's rabbit) into the room. I keep telling Marietta that if she wants seperate beds Thumper will have to go and then we should have enough room ... she doesn't want seperate beds as badly as I hoped ... but if anyone wants a rabbit, Thumper is available :)

So there you have it ... our new small but cozy house. There is often debate about whether this house is bigger then our old house. Most people who come over believe this one is bigger. I personally believe the old was was bigger. But bigger doesn't help any if it isn't layed out nicely ... this house is layed out nicely so that we can make proper use of the spaces and not be tripping over each other. It really doesn't matter if this house is bigger or smaller ... regardless neither houses had extra space but this one is much more homey and cozy ... we're enjoying it!!