Da house

OK, I think I share too much. 

But in my defense, this is all I wanted to see when my friends moved away last year. I wanted to see their new houses and be able to picture where they were living. And not one of them posted even just a pic of the front of their house! I felt detached. 

So Rach and I promised each other we would do posts of our homes so we know exactly where the other is living!

{Hopefully this will help all burglars know exactly where they are going when they break into my house now! :)}

(One thing I've found missing from our house that is on the front of most everyone else's.... decorative lizards. Bronze ones, silver ones, brightly shining green ones. It's a shame we are without. I told Trav I won't be happy 'til we get one... or three.)

It's a fairly simple floor plan, but one thing that bugs me when I see pics of homes, is I don't understand the layout. I just see pics of individual rooms and don't get how they connect. Soooo, once again I took way too many in hopes of that not happening.

Here is the view of the front door and entry way.

I love the big coat closet on the left.

 Turning toward the left side of the house.....

.... entry way to the boys' rooms and bathroom.

 View standing at the front door. You can see into Collin's room on the left.

 Collin's room...

 The bathroom between the boys' rooms.

 Love the big closet in both bathrooms.

 Weston's room at the front of the house....

 Back to the living room...

 I love the big windows that show the whole backyard. Great for keeping an eye on the boys.

Don't be jealous!!

 Straight across from where I would be standing is the door to the master bedroom, bath and closet.

 View into the laundry room with garage door...

 View looking out from closet...

Door on left takes you into the kitchen, door on right goes to bathroom.

 The master bath is kind of ridiculous. 

There is so much room, it starts to feel like wasted space. I do love the closet. I wish there was a door on the toilet that is behind the shower. The shower has two shower heads which, lets be honest, is kind of cool, but it means the shower itself could stand to be a smidge bigger.

 Now for the mish mash room. Again, it's so big that it's kind of annoying. I'd much rather have had a four bedroom house instead of such a large master bed and bath. Therefore, our room wears many hats... the sewing room, exercise space, office and master bedroom. 

We have such awesome bedroom furniture. I was using a cardboard box as a night stand, until I remembered the plastic drawers. Pretty sure it's what I used as a night stand in the dorms too. Classy.

 The backyard. 

Love.

 The back wall is a little shorter than the side walls. For the view???

 This is the view from over the right wall. 

Both pictures show pretty well what Farmington looks like. Lots of desert, shrubs... oh yeah, and oil rigs. There is one pumping 5 houses away from us. BIG oil and mining town.

All in all, I really like our house. 

The kitchen has tons of cupboard space and drawers. There is a big pantry and then extra pantry space in a closet in the laundry room. All the rooms have big closets. We live on a really quiet, nice street. We are two streets away from the church building and the Montessori preschool that Collin will go to in the fall. There is a park within walking distance. Taking the backroads, you can get to Sam's club in about 4 min. And from there you have all of Main St. with Wal-Mart, Target, the mall, bank, etc. really close. Trav's office takes less than 10 min. to get to.  

The things I was REALLY excited about...

* A washer and dryer on the main floor!!! No more 4 flights of stairs carrying loads of laundry back and forth. (We'll see if my luscious behind pays the price.)

*A flat topped stove!!! Just a wipe on ONE surface and it's clean. No more 4 wire burners, burner covers and then the whole surface underneath that has to be cleaned every time you cook. I could about die from the beauty of it.

*A fenced in backyard. Have a mentioned this before? :) Changed my life.

* An ATTACHED garage. What were those east coasters thinking putting them behind the house?

*No more squeaky floors!!! I know this sounds weird, but you have no idea how annoying it is to squeak every time you take a step in your house. Plus the doors squeaked. I was always spraying WD40. And forget about quietly sneaking away from a sleeping baby. 

*A disposal! I was so excited about this, but since we lived 4 years without one, I have to remind myself to use it. More often than not, I still throw food in the garbage.

Things that were weird to get used to...

*Only one floor. I like it, but even though it's almost comparable in size to our last house at 2,440 sq. ft., it feels smaller.

*High ceilings! I didn't realize how enclosed our last house felt compared to this one. It kind of made our old one feel like a doll house.

*No more screen doors. Love this. It was so annoying having to open two doors every time you went in or out of your house. It's still a weird feeling to open the door and realize you're done... no screen to push, but sooo nice when your arms are full of groceries.

*Sleeping on the opposite side of the house from my kids. I don't really like this, but since we learned we can still hear them if they cry out, it's not too big a deal. 


*Going from owning a home to renting one. I found myself hesitant to even hang a picture and put a hole in the wall? Were we allotted only a certain number of holes? :) 
It is nice that if something breaks, you just call the management company. 
However I feel myself not wanting to put a lot of effort towards decorating... like buying curtains or drapes. I think the living room and bedrooms would look waaaay nicer with curtains, but I don't want to spend money on nice curtains that might not work in our next house.

Things I don't like...

*Swamp coolers!! What the bad words! We are in NEW MEXICO people! How does this place not have central air? Even our house in NY did. And with a swamp cooler, you have to leave a window or door cracked open. Since most of our windows don't have screens, we always have our back sliding door cracked open. Hello crickets and bugs. 

BIG step back. 

*Community mailboxes. Allllll the way down the street. In the opposite direction we usually drive. So weird. I understand them for apartments or condos, but this is a normal neighborhood! When did mailmen get so lazy?

*The rent! I won't say how much, but it is RIDICULOUS. And apparently that's just how it goes in Farmington. The price to rent out here is weirdly high. I know, you're going, "In Farmington? Who wants to live there?" 

Exactly. 

It must have something to do with the oil and mining. All I know is, its stinks.

I could probably think of more for each category, but that covers the big stuff. 

OK, Rach... your turn! :)