First things first

Only a hand full of family members and my bestie read this blog so most of you know our house situation. But here’s a recap.

When Nick and I got married we both owned a home. Nick made his into a rental property and we lived in mine.

Very quickly our house was becoming too small. Mostly we have a lot of crap, but when Leia was born it was clear we needed a larger home. Nick and I both agreed that we despise moving and our next home would have to be our forever home.

We sold both of the houses and were lucky enough to move in with Nick’s mom (thanks Linda) rent free so we could save some money. Our search for a home for our family was very frustrating. I wanted to rip out kitchens, tear down walls, or when we did find something we liked we were out bid. It was also clear building our Dream House was not going to happen.

Banks are not even loaning money to custom home builders right now.

So the next option was to build a new home.

 

That was about six months ago. The house went up pretty quickly…

 

My kitchen! You have no idea how happy these white cabinets make me! The builder does not offer white but my husband is AWESOME!!! and talked them into it!! AND it didn’t cost us any thing extra! BEST. HUSBAND. EVER!!!

It is almost done! We close next week!!

There will be TONS of projects happening! It may be a brand new home but we still need to put our personal touches on it!

Our Dream House!!

This weekend Nick and I took a "trip" to downtown Mesa to walk the 11th Anual Mesa Historical Home Tour. On a walking home tour, owners of historical homes open their doors for people to visit. In some houses there were volunteers that answered questions and gave historical information regarding the home. It was so interesting to make a trip into the past!

On our tour we came across the most beautiful, perfect house! I was in love before we even walked in the front door.HELLO LOVA!!!
How cute is the front of this house?! There is a sitting area on the left of the front door & table
and chairs for dinning.

But lets walk through the front door shall we?! Welcome HOME!

Here is the living and dinning room when you walk in the front door. The dinning room is on the left and the living room right is in front of you.

An angle of the living room from the dining room. Through the doorway across the room leads to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Unfortunately I only have this picture of the bathroom. I thought I took more pictures of the bathroom and bedrooms but I guess I didn't.

Let's go see the heart of any home. The kitchen...

Ok, so this is not my most favorite kitchen in the whole world; but it's cute and works with this house. The green cabinets are a huge NO for me. But I do love the white cabinets, the farm sink, the HUGE window that lets it TONS of light, the door that leads to the porch and BBQ area (Nick's FAVORITE thing by the way!), the island, and the butcher block countertop on the island!

This however, IS my favorite/dream kitchen!

(Dream Kitchen)

(Dream Kitchen 2)

The white cabinets, the bar, the dark wood floors and dark countertops, the open/glass cabinet doors to display all the pretties. I would totally do this backsplash too!

(arabesque backsplash)

Here's a close up. Just enough frilly, girly, ruffliness without going over board!

(arabesque tile)

Let's move on to the laundry room, shall we? Again with the butcher block! Swoon! HATE the red washer & dryer, but whatev! And I think I might prefer them side-by-side. Call me old fashioned. You would lose the lower cabinets but gain uppers. A fair trade off I think.

Shall we head upstairs? On the tour they had the upstairs and root cellar blocked off. So, the only information I have is from these pictures.

Landing - they use it for a office and media center. Love the built-in bookshelves. And of course all the family photos! Old and new!

Master Bedroom- This is the only picture I can find. I have no idea if there is a bathroom up here or what the other side of the room looks like or if there is even a closet. Use your imagination I guess.

**Recently I found out that there is a guest/craft room on the second floor as well. Who knew!**

Let's go outside in the back.

You can access this from the kitchen. There again are two sitting areas. A couch and chair lounging area and then another dinning area!

LOVE the architectural salvage doors that she added to the arch! Genius!

The eating area. Also LOVE that window hanging in the arch! So stinkin' cute! And the candle chandelier, too cute! I'm usually not a fan of animal prints but those chair cushions are fun.

And finally... the chicken coop! The homeowner's build it (and some of the tables) from the old fence wood. The idea of having a chicken or two sounds kind of fun! And fresh eggs are yummy!

But I seriously doubt Nick will EVER let me get chickens, so we could make this a play house for the kids.

***All pictures are from the homeowner (unless otherwise noted). You can visit her blog at www.tuesdayswithdorie.blogspot.com ***