Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Fate House

It's not everyday that a professional photographer comes to take pictures of your house. In fact, with 3 kids, it's not everyday that my house is spotless, but with a lot of hard work and two grandmothers' help, you can see the amazing results.

Here's the front yard.


You can see the day lilies around the front tree. Those came from my mom and dad's house. I love the little round bushes right in front too. The tree is not the tree that came with the house. That tree wouldn't grow so we decided to pull it out of the ground, only it wouldn't come nicely. So Josh tied it to the truck and we yanked it out, dragged it to the backyard, and planted it there. It still doesn't seem to be any bigger, but it's alive, which is amazing.


So when you walk in through the front door, you see our dining room. The yellow paint makes me happy happy happy! The piano was Josh's from when he was a kid, the dining room table was a great Aunt's, and the hutch is the only piece of furniture that Josh and I have actually bought together. It houses all of the lovely dinnerware we received at our wedding. It also makes me happy.

Here's the large living room. Since we picked this house out from scratch and settled into the neighborhood 9 years ago as the 2nd house on the street, we got to pick out a lot of the features. One item I remember picking out is the fireplace. I love the fireplace there in the middle of 2 arched entries into the living room.   The green paint was added when Ethan was a baby. It was the last week of that summer break and I was determined to get that item checked off the list. The couch was Mom and Dad's and is very comfy. It reclines on both ends offering a very soft place to nap. The rug and the swirly candle holder on the wall were Christmas gifts from Josh to me when I was very pregnant with Ethan, our oldest. I made out well that Christmas. I think he really felt sympathetic to the pains of pregnancy (but by child number 3 I was on my own). Then there is the big monster of a desk turned entertainment center. It's a beast, but it's added presence in the room pulls it all together.




And here's the kitchen. I love how bright it is and I LOVE the view to the back yard. The theme is "American Flags & Texas" and I have a bunch of red, white, and blue decor to fit the kitchen. Since we are selling the house and I had to "de-clutter", I had to take down most of my cool stuff, but the kitchen still makes me happy. You can see my ceramic peppers hanging on the last cabinet. Josh and I got those on a trip to Del Rio when we crossed the border for a day trip. That's when we still lived in Lubbock. Speaking of, most of my decor above the windows comes from Lubbock. The tall blue bottle of wine on the top of the cabinets is this awesome white wine I found at Sam's. It's huge and it is awesome to look at. I bought it because it was blue and would fit in my kitchen. I remember thinking that the wine was pretty good too.




And here's the master bath and master bedroom. The bathroom is nothing to write home about, but there is a really funny story about that ship's wheel. I found it for $10 in Connecticut while visiting my grandmother, but then the question was how to get it home. While it was a steal for $10, it is a heavy item and there was no way I was taking it on a plane, so we put it in a box and I shipped it home for the low low price of only $30. Plus, we are prepared if we ever need to build our own ship.

In the master we have the lovely 4 - poster bed, which I adore, and on the bed is the beautiful king-size quilt Josh's cousin Leslie made for us. You cannot see them, but on the other side are strips of cloth that all our family and friends wrote messages on at our rehearsal dinner. It's probably the most thoughtful gift we've ever received.

One other thing I love about this room is the view to the backyard. We bought a lot on the treeline and there are no neighbors behind us. It is so nice to look outside and see the lush green background.

Here's the girl's rooms:


The first one is Analeigh's and it is rare to find it so clean. I made the valance out of a really cute princess fabric. I hope to someday make a matching bed skirt too. Noelle's room is on the bottom. I also made the netting that goes over her crib and the valance. The flower light is from IKEA and is really cute for a little girl's room. Then there's the awesome glider. I love that thing for the mere reason that I had to fight for it. We used to have this old green chair that Josh loved, but it had at one time taken up residence in the Chicago house in Lubbock. The Chicago house was the college house that Josh and his roommate rented in college. It was a little....dirty, let's just say, and I wanted something newer for the baby's room. Thanks sweetheart, I love my glider. :x

I don't have any pictures of Ethan's room/guest room/ study right now. I'll get those for you soon.

Now let's go to the backyard:




I am sure you can see why we love it so much! It's a little more than a half an acre and not all of it is ours. In the last picture you can see a small building that belongs to the neighbors. They are a nicer older couple and neither of us see a reason to put in a fence on that side. It makes the yard seem bigger. Josh built the deck last summer. It was a lot of work but I think he did a great job. It is nice to sit out there in the morning and watch the bunnies. The neighbors on the other side, the ones with the fence, have a massive chicken coop. I call it the "Chicken Majal". I don't know much about livestock, but I do know that chickens are short, so I am not sure why they need a 7 foot high coop. If you know, then fill me in. They don't bother anyone though and I haven't heard a rooster....yet.


These are pictures I took our peach harvest this year. In the backyard we have 2 apple trees, 1 peach tree, 1 fig tree, and 3 pecan trees. This little peach tree hasn't gotten much bigger, but the peaches sure have. We are excited to harvest them this year.

Well, that's a tour of our home. We loved living in Fate and I hope that our kids can look at this in the future and remember their first home. Thanks for stopping by! When we get to Grenada, I'll be sure the give you a tour of that home as well.

At the end of each post, I plan to give you a brief list of things I'll miss and those I won't. Just a little something to put our situation in perspective. When we get to the island, this will probably be more meaningful.

Things I'll miss: my house (duh, have you been ready this post!)
                        our fruit trees
                        only a 5 minute drive to Rockwall to pick up just about anything (there's no Walmart where we're going)

Things I won't miss: the septic tank system. I hope to never have to deal with this again, namely, the smell of other's as I run around our neighborhood. Or even better, getting sprayed by the neighbor's gray water sprinklers as the kids and I are trying to enjoy the backyard. You'll hear me scream, "quick, everyone inside, sprinklers...poo poo water....run!" Never again...I hope!