Home Tour...Back Entry, Laundry Room, Pantry

I wanted to show you my home...I hate that we live so far from family and friends, so if you aren't able to come visit, I will show you our new home!

We were so excited to be able to design and have a home built that was perfect for us! So many people talk about how they hated building, and how it is so stressful, and they will never do it again. This was NOT our experience!! I loved it so much! It was so fun. I loved every part. It was so exciting to meet with the draftsman, tell him what we wanted, then see him bring that to life! It was so fun walking through it when it was just studs and picture what it would finally look like. And it was so fun picking out all the details for it...the colors and the sinks and cabinet hardware and lights...I loved it!

Of course, there are always things you can find that you wish you would've done differently. But my changes are minor....things like more lighting on the outside, a pocket door for my closet, more lockers at the back door. But overall, I LOVE IT!!!! If money were no object, I would have loved 5 bedrooms so Noah and Eli didn't have to share. I would have loved a huge porch. A big bonus room. A 6th bedroom for guests. But, of course, money IS an object and I think we did very well using what we had to spend to make our home absolutely perfect for our family!!

There are still things we need to do. Curtains. Hang stuff on walls. Landscape. Pour a sidewalk to our front door. But they will come. So just know we are a work in progress.

One thing I will let you in on before we get started...my house is colorful! I love color! At our last church, we lived in the church pastorium, and everything was beige and neutral. I determined that when I had my own house, I was going to fill it with color. And I made good on that!

Anyway, come on in....we will be coming in through the garage door into our back entry. Ya know, back door guests are best! :)

Here is your view when you walk in my back door. Straight ahead, the master bedroom. To the right, the kitchen. And to the left, the laundry.

When you close the back door, on the wall to the right, is this little message board. I am proudly displaying 2 coloring book pages and Sam's report card (all A's!). I have been changing out the verse monthly. The January verse was Jeremiah 29:11...For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.

And to the left, we have our "mud room" area. One on side of the wall we have some pictures.

 2 paintings I did...

And a grouping of pictures of the kiddos. For this, I bought $3 wooden frames from Wal Mart and painted them to match the canvases I had done.

And on the other wall, we have lockers.

We knew with 4 kids and all their "stuff" this was a big need for us!

Ideally, this would have 6 lockers, so that Eddie and I could have one, too. But we share with the kids! :) Each child has their own space...

I plan on adding more hooks to the sides. They have lots of things to hang up. In Sam's, he has 2 lunchboxes (which 95% of the time he eats in the lunchroom, but here are 2 just in case he gets REALLY hungry one day!) and his Awana bag. He also hangs his backpack in here and a coat if he needs one. In Meri Hobbs', she has a lunchbox, her dance bag, and her Awana bag. She also hangs her backpack and coat. So, you can tell why I need more hooks!

Eli has his diaper bag and a lunchbox (which he used when he went to Mother's Day Out, but he doesn't use it anymore). And Noah has his diaper bag in his.

Below the locker part we have cubbies for shoes. These stay full!! I have a "clean out" every now and then to try to get everyone's shoes back in their closets!

Above the lockers we have cabinets for whatever we need to stash. It usually (well, occasionally) holds my purse. Right now it has an outfit Noah has outgrown that I need to pass down to another Noah in our church.

Past the lockers is the laundry room.

I need curtains in here. I think I have some from my old house that will work. I need to get in the attic and check that out!

We have a counter with a sink and some cabinets. I painted myself a reminder to hang above that sink.

 Do everything without grumbling or complaining, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault. Philippians 2:14-15

We also have our computer stuff on that counter...modem, router and printer. It doesn't look the best there, but we didn't have a whole lot of choices. I stuck all the wires in a basket in the corner. Any other suggestions? That's kind of an eyesore, but I wasn't really sure what to do there.

 Past the counters are our appliances...freezer, washer and dryer.

On the other wall, my husband's gun safe.

I also need to figure out a place to store off-season wreaths. So they're here for now...
On the wall opposite the counter is another group of paintings I did to display pictures of the kids.

As we leave the laundry room....

here is a little piece of furniture of love. This is on the wall between my back entry area and my kitchen.

I am going to make a menu board to put above there, I just haven't done it yet.

And the last thing in this area is the wall leading to the master bedroom.  On this wall is our pantry. (I am mortified by how messy it is, so please overlook that!)

To the left, we use those shelves as an actual pantry. (Well, besides the bottom shelf...I keep my bill paying stuff and stationary stuff down there). The back wall is cookbooks, things we like to keep out of reach of little hands...movies, Wii games, Playstation games, and serving pieces. We keep our medicine in the shelves on the right. And the floor houses an array of things. I see cake plates, binders with house info (paint colors, etc), wrapping paper and gift bags, vacuum cleaner, Bona mop, steam mop, and who knows what all else?!

And finally, on the wall between the pantry and the bedroom is a gallery wall. I took frames I already had and painted them black, so this was a cheap project!

Whew! Sorry that was so many pictures! Next up, I'll show you my favorite room in the house...the kitchen!!