Hello and Happy Holidays my dear sweet Blogland Friends!!
I worked on this post this morning but then was gone on holiday adventures with my Annie today including going to see The Nutcracker. But I'm finally back and as promised, I thought today I would take you on a tour of my home. I've had several other blogging buddies do tours in their homes and I've always thought it'd be fun to share mine. So I finally got myself to buckle down - take the photos - upload and organize them and so here they are in all their decorated for Christmas glory! I didn't do anything related to outside - kind of forgot about that part. I guess we'll save that for another day. But for today....grab a nice cozy cup of cocoa, mug of tea, or even hot toddy (I'm not judging) and snuggle in as it's lots of photos folks! Are you all set? Well then come on in and welcome to our cozy northwoods home!
BACK DOOR HALLWAY AND KITCHEN
I will just preface this tour by saying that 1/2 of our house is older. It was originally built in the 1930's. It had a few different kind of levels to it. Through the years it was renovated and added on to and they put little levels on the newer side too - to match with the original. So all together it's pretty seamless and you wouldn't guess it wasn't all at the same time. So if you notice we step up into one room and step down into another you know why.
This is our main door that gets used. We have a more formal front door, but this is the door with all of the traffic. I called it the back door - but it's really a "side" door on our house. When you step in you're in a back hallway foyer. If you go to the left you go past a coat closet and laundry area and into our kitchen. If you got to the right you could head out a door straight into our attached garages, or go down a hallway and downstairs to our media room (like a finished basement area). We have an extra fridge out here for the extra freezer space and this also holds a lot of beverages and extra overflow from the kitchen fridge. What can I say? I cook and entertain quite a bit and the teenagers come up from the media room and help themselves. ;)
Before going down to the media room next to the fridge is this built in area as you come in from the garages.
Heading to the left you walk past a coat closet onthe left and the door on the right holds our washer and dryer area.
Stepping up through the door on the left you walk into our kitchen. (see what I mean about levels?)
An arrangement I put together for Christmas time. ;)
Here's the kitchen. Up by the window on the left you can see the door you come through to walk into our kitchen.
Wintery decorations to the left of the sinks. I love things on timers and things that light up all winter!
To the right of the sinks - some seasonal goodness and my trusty mixer!
Stove top area and it's right next to our favorite in winter...
...we set up our cocoa bar!!
View from the center island
The microwave and oven are on the left next to pantry cabinets and our fridge (yep it blends in).
And I'm standing in my dining room as I take these shots. Let's head there next.
DINING ROOM
View walking of dining room from the kitchen.
Standing in dining room looking into living room. Our table isn't usually this big but we had game night the other night so we added the extra leaves.
Another arrangement I threw together and put in my vintage red wing pottery set. I love these taper candles I found that glow without a real flame. Just safer with lots of kiddos flying around my house all the time (we're kind of the hang out house).
Annie's favorite - the advent cabin!
My built in hutch that houses my good china and other dishes like that - and perfect display space for all the "knick knacks" I love (& sometims drive Hubby nuts - Lol!).
At night my nativity glows in here.
As does some of my vintage Lefton Christmas goodies.
From the dining room you can head right and step down into our tv room, or walk to the left and be in the living room. Let's head left into the living room next.
LIVING ROOM AND FRONT HALLWAY (KIDS ROOMS)
View of living room from dining room/kitchen area.
Windows have the view out to our deck and bay.
Our snow had already melted by then. We have more today though and it's still snowing!
In living room looking back at dining room. Below are views of the mantle day and night:
On the coffee table candles glow.
Our tree lit up at night.
The hearth with Christmas tree reflected in fireplace - love that. ;)
On the piano.
over by our piano is a stairway going down to the "kiddos' section.
For privacy I'm not taking photos of them but down these stairs is the kids' full bathroom, their bedrooms, and a linen closet.
This is view from standing by piano and the kiddos' room are on the right but straight ahead is our more formal front door and foyer.
To the left of the front door is a large walk-in storage closet on the left, 1/2 bathroom in the door on the right and straight ahead is our office/my craft space. It shares with our furnace and water heater so that's why Hubby and I put up curtain panels to hide all that. ;) Now starting back from the dining room and going to the right we head to the other "wing" of the house.
TV ROOM AND MASTER BEDROOM & BATH
Just to help you reference - back from the dining room if we go to the right we head to the tv room.
We have french pocket doors here which is nice if someone wants to watch something quietly, but usually we have them open.
View from dining room and you step down into the tv room (more levels!)
Sitting on the couch - more windows with views of the bay and woods.
Loving my Hobby Lobby angels in here this year!
And at night lit up with cedar boughs.
A little corner table in the tv room with my succulents and essential oil diffuser. Now if you step down into our tv room and take a doorway immediately to the right, and step down again, you're in our master bedroom.
MASTER BEDROOM AND BATH
View from tv room before we step down into our master. Door on the right is my walk in closet.
I love our big sleigh bed. And it's appropriate for the season right?
Walking into our master bath you can see the stained glass window that I found many years ago and talked my Hubby into installing above our tub.
The door by the toilet area is my Hubby's walk in closet.
I even had to add some holiday touches in here of course! Now final stop is our downstairs - which is like kind of a half basement, and it's our media room.
MEDIA ROOM AND BACK HALLWAY
Now heading back to the back door where you first came in you can go to the right and through this hallway to the stairs that lead down to the media room.
I have some family photos in this hallway and an antique barister bookcase with some antiques in it. The door next to it goes into our master bathroom. So you see we've come full circle.
Heading down to our media room.
Mr. Snowman on the landing.
Once you get down the stairs and look to the right you can see our treadmill and that door goes to a big storage closet - and going up those stairs on the right is a door out to my Hubby's garage.
Now over by the treadmill here's the view of our media area and family tree. This is where our kiddos like hanging out with friends and watching movies and playing games. (Hubby and I do too sometimes). ;)
I love this angel on my media console because she's twinkly and changes colors.
