House Tour

I hope you like messes, because my house is filled with them. Only these days it’s not plaster dust, rubble and piles of ancient square-head nails. But I promised a tour and, gosh darn it, I’m going to give you a damned tour.

Welcome! Our foyer is a bit drafty, and will stay that way until The Big C installs the custom storm door we ordered. Nothing fancy, just something to keep our money in the bank, where it belongs, instead of feeding our boiler.

This is the foyer looking out. We still need a heater cover, which The Big C will build for us someday.

Come inside the living room! The fireplace doesn’t work, but we plan to install a gas insert someday. And by “we” I most certainly do not mean “we.”

This is where our Christmas tree lived … and died, I suppose, if we’re getting technical. Right now it serves as a coat catch-all, dance floor and newspaper reading area.

Here is our TV and a woefully empty wall. True story: After months of hard-core, forever-type decisions about tile and flooring and carpet and fixtures, we are all but paralyzed when it comes to making a decision about hanging a simple picture. It’s bizarre.

I told you it was messy. This is real living, folks! Life is not a magazine! Moving on.

Here’s the dining room, one of our favorite spaces. The pass-through still needs trim and I’m permanently annoyed with the table, but we adore the light and Flor tile rug.

At one end of the dining room we have a love seat and a table that belonged to Chris’ grandmother.

At the other we have a desk of his grandmother and an Ikea chair that belonged to us when we lived in Los Angeles. Ah, heirlooms.

Also at that end we have our dog crate. In a week or two they’ll move permanently to the mud room, which is still under construction.

The pass-through to the kitchen has a small cabinet for glassware and liquor, as well as a small wine fridge.

Now we walk into the kitchen. Straight ahead is the basement door. To the left is the soon-to-be mud room.

This is our island, otherwise known as Where Bella Sliced Her Face Open, Resulting In A Trip To The ER. But that’s a story for another time.

Look! We really use our sink!

This is the view from the mud room. Speaking of which …

We are so excited for this room to be functional. Notice I did not say “finished.” That word is no longer in my vocabulary.

That’s it for the first floor. Unless you have to go to the bathroom. Oh, you do? Then follow me!

It’s small, but it works!

I’ll show you the second floor later, OK?