Our House

I'm posting way too many pictures, I'm sure.  But most of our family will never be able to visit us in our Amarillo home, so I took a lot of pictures from multiple perspectives to try to give a feel for the size/ shape of the rooms.

Okay, here is our house from across the street.  I was trying to show how naked our neighborhood is in terms of landscaping.  That's the worst part about living in a new neighborhood.  No trees.  You can't see a garage because the neighborhood is built with alleyways between two streets.  One accesses the driveway through the alley, so our backdoor neighbor's rear house faces our rear house with drive ways across the alley from each other.  Also in the alley are multiple dumpsters-- 1 dumpster per 2 houses.  It's a little bit creepy-ish, I think.  But it is a safe feeling neighborhood.  And I guess the alleyway thing is the norm for Amarillo because I see lots of neighborhoods built that way.

Closer up:

So the front door opens up into the living room.  It is a big open room.  And since we don't own much furniture, it is REALLY open which is perfect for our boys.  They have a lot of space to run and play.  Luke's stereo is usually on one of those little black square tables.  The boys put on music and run in circles or dance in the space.  It's pretty cute.

As you could see above, the living room goes right into the kitchen.  Our kitchen is a hallway kitchen that leads to the laundry room and garage.  That's our pretty new fridge.

Washer and dryer

Our house is 500 square feet bigger than our apartment, but it actually has less storage space, especially in the kitchen.  This is primarily due to the fact that there isn't a pantry.  So we put shelves in the laundry room to act as our pantry, and that fixed the problem.

Dining area and door to backyard

View from the kitchen

This hallway off the living room leads to the boys' room, Jared's office, and the 2nd bath.

The boys' room

I actually cleaned the entire house to get ready for these pictures.  While I was vacuuming the living room the boys trashed their room.  I didn't want to clean it again, so I just took the pictures as is.

The boys' bathroom

It did have a shower curtain, but it kept falling down.  These tiles won't support suction.  It is ANNOYING.  Especially because there is no built in soap dish/ shampoo shelving, so the shower caddy in our bathroom keeps sliding down and spilling the contents.  GRRR

This is the view from inside the boys' room.  The door on the right is the bathroom, and the door straight ahead is the office.

Jared's "Office"

This is the 2nd little hallway off the other wall in the living room.  The door facing the camera is a coat closet, and the door to Micah's back leads to our room.

Our room

That's an air mattress at the foot of our bed because Luke was waking up during the night and climbing in bed with us.  We understand if he gets scared, but we don't want to sleep with the crazy sleeper.  So that is Luke's scared bed.

The door ajar leads is the bathroom door.  It is always open because it just won't shut.  There is a list of things that the builder is supposed to be coming to fix.

Our bathroom

And our super big closet

Backyard--

This is hands down the best part about being in a house, and it is actually the reason why we chose a house over an apartment.  We spend 1+ hours in the yard everyday.  The boys jump themselves silly, and we also do sidewalk chalk, play bubbles, play soccer, hunt for bugs, etc.  And the best thing is that the boys can play out there while I'm finishing up the dishes or whatever.  I love that it is so easy to be outside. 

Last, our garage

And that is our house.  We love it!  It's perfect for us.  And we have compiled a list about why we love being in a house.

1.  BACKYARD

2.  We don't have to worry if our boys are loud

3.  I can do exercise videos after 6 pm because I don't have a neighbor coming home who will be driven crazy by the stomp, stomp, stomping.  That means that at least a few times a week I actually do exercise.

4.  Garage-- almost as great as a backyard, but not quite

5.  More space

6.  It just feels sooooo much more like a home

7.  We don't have drug dealers living across the street (so far as we can tell)

8.  No speed bumps (although in Luke's mind that is a bad thing)

9.  We feel more adult-like

10.  Just look at it.