Welcome to Our Home! Part 1

We moved in to our first house at the beginning of June this year. Even though we're still renting, just the fact of living in a REAL HOUSE has been incredible! I've already written before about how blessed we feel to have a home big enough for all of us, myself, Chris, our daughter Harmony (otherwise known as the Mininsky), and my sister Emilia. Now that we're finally, truly settling in with the onset of cold weather, here is part one of our house tour, as best as I can show it with simple pictures online. If house tours bore you, feel free to come back later for more interesting posts ; ) 

My kitchen! It really doesn't get much bigger than this. I have about a yard's worth of counter space, a dishwasher under it, very few cabinets, a nice stove, a microwave above the stove, a great refrigerator, and a door leading to the basement. I brought in an extra little wire shelving unit for some more much-needed storage space. Most of my time is spent with this view, and I'm certainly not going to complain when I can look out a window into a beautiful green space with sun every day : )

Our kitchen leads into the dining room. We love hanging artwork on our walls, and every piece of art in our house is meaningful for us in some way, because of the people they remind us of and the stories behind them. This cross was created from the old floorboards of a local church where Chris was hired to sing at years ago, and they gave it to him as a thank-you. The wooden basket on the table was a gift from Chris's best friend from when he was stationed in the middle east a few years ago. We have squashes and pumpkins in it right now for autumn.

The dining room has so much light. I really can't get over how much LIGHT the entire house has. When your apartment of almost four years faces the north and has very few windows, you get used to living in a cave, so a house feels like a miracle of brightness! 

Our ten-dollar yard sale table and antique chairs from Chris's grandma have served us well, but we really need to buy more chairs at a thrift store soon so that we don't need to drag out the rocking chair every time company comes over for dinner! Two embroidered pieces of art are here, one a beautiful wedding gift reminding us of our anniversary with our names from a sweet friend, and the other a cross-stitch with a great Tolkien quote made by my sister: "Not all those who wander are lost."

I like the combined dining and living room set-up. We almost have a bookshelf in every room of the house, by the way. And we're running out of room for books. Somehow more books always sneak in. I wonder how? Guitar picture hand-drawn by my talented sister when she was twelve or something ridiculous. Everyone in my family has the visual art gene except for me.

Probably the best thing about moving into a house was that we were able to finally have a piano again! This is the piano my husband learned on when he was little. His family lovingly brought it out to St. Louis for him from Ohio over Labor Day weekend, and I'm pretty sure he's played it every day since then. It used to be his grandmother's. His father also plays piano, so it's a three-generation thing they have going on.

The chair and couch came from an estate sale that my folks found. They were previously owned by a jazz musician in St. Louis who took remarkably good care of them and (shockingly) didn't smoke. We love them! Painting of the lighthouse by Chris's grandmother, blanket crocheted by my sister-in-law, Harmony's guitar in the corner, glass vase made for us at our wedding, trombone case leaning against the bookshelf, Chris's bodhran (Irish drum) hiding behind the chair, my favorite moon clock on the wall. And our radio, because even though we have speakers that can hook up to iTunes on my computer or Pandora on the iPad or my iPod, it's best to have all your bases covered when you're a family of musicians, ya know? The one thing we don't have is an old record player. It's on our list of things to acquire some day when our child(ren) are beyond record-breaking-age.

This couch. It makes me happy. And the awesome paintings hanging above it are gorgeous too. I found them for a few dollars each at a thrift store, which is both awesome for being so affordable and sad because I would hate to see my paintings in a thrift shop for pocket change. At least we appreciate them very much! Yes, all my guitars are stacked in the corner, along with my mandolin. 

Somehow wedged between the guitars and the shoe bin, I've fit my desk in front of the window. It's perfect for daydreaming, story-composing, and letter-writing. I guess it's good for answering emails and doing bills, too. The desk is old, shaky, and beautiful. If I was a better person I'd probably fix it up or varnish it or repaint or something. 

Even though I have a vintage desk, the chair I sit at was taken straight from the dumpster. It's made of pine, dingy, and sturdy. Completely mismatches my desk. And then we have our entryway, which tends to get super cluttered because we dump everything on that tiny little table which already has my odds-and-ends on it such as papers, music, tissue box, huge jar of Skittles, and set of speakers. The artwork next to the doorway is a metalworked Celtic knot which was a wedding gift. 

So there's the first half of our home! Here is the post showing the second half.