Minnesota Home Tour

Just about every house we've lived in so far, I've documented with a house tour. And in case you're curious, here is the lineup:

• Ft Lee (I guess I had just started blogging at this point and didn't think to document our itsy bitsy teeny weeny apartment. We lived here for five months while Steve was in BOLC.)

• Clarksville house (somehow this wasn't documented either??? Wtf?? We only lived here for a minute, five months to be exact, but it was a cute house that I know I took pictures of.)

Apparently this is pretty much it- ha!

• Ft Campbell house (We lived here for two years.)
• Korea apartment (We lived here for two years as well.)
• Pennsylvania house (somehow I did not blog this???? Will get on that ASAP- it was a pretty major reno project and we lived there for about six months, I believe, although we lived in PA for eight months.)

• NYC apartment (We lived here for almost nine months.)

That brings this tally of dwellings up to eight. We haven't even been married eight years yet and we started off in a trailer in Auburn.

humble beginnings, huh? I still assert this was A Very Nice Trailer.

Anyways, now we live in an actual shoebox (I lol'ed that I used that term for our apartment in Korea because it was actually much much larger than this house and I thought it was small), but a single family home. It's a little under 800 square feet and no, we are not really into the tiny house movement, but it was cheap (read: no mortgage) and for sale by people we trusted and most importantly, WARM. So let's get on with it, shall we? I don't have pictures of the outside right now because the temps are still in the negatives and we have no grass! So it is a frozen mudland out there right now and not much to look at. I will try to update it if once spring arrives.


When you walk in the front door, you are in the living room! Welcome! Take your shoes off, don't make things weird.

I used to think people on House Hunters that wanted mudrooms were nuts. Soooo not necessary, just some Pinteresty component to having a house. But here, a mudroom would be heavenly. This poor runner gets vacuumed multiple times a day (and not just because I'm neurotic) because the boots bring in the mud, which dries into dirt, which Will wants to crawl through and fling throughout the rest of the room, and so I would guesstimate I vacuum probably three times a day (and that is a low average...).

We have multiple hooks for coats and boot trays for wet/muddy boots and a big metal basket for scarves, hats, and gloves. As you can see, Will is in his natural habitat here, digging through shoes, searching for dirt.

Obviously we are set up for St Patrick's Day with a little bit of spring/Easter reading thrown in to keep everyone's spirits up. It's coming one day- I promise! Will's got a little diaper station set up under the tv and the cloth diapers stay in the blue bag- not the most eye-pleasing arrangement, but it's what I had on hand and it fit in the space we had, so it will do!

The stool is for foot propping. I'd be down for a coffee table if we had the space but the stool works well enough.

Making our way into the kitchen now...

Our big dining table that I'm obsessed with is in our garage and I'm trying to not think about anything that may or may not be happening to it out there in terms of moisture and whatnot. The stand-in is this trusty Ikea table that we have managed to squeeze many people around in a pinch. It also looks as if it's been our main dining table for the past 40 years with the amount of wear three kids have put on it.

Home phone nook- I love it! We rarely get calls but I figure it's nice for us to always know where a phone is in case of a 911 emergency and the school always calls the house phone instead of my cell, so the ring is actually kind of scary because I just know someone barfed and needs me to come pick them up. When the kids are older (but not old enough for cell phones), it will be nice for them to be able to talk to their friends on the phone instead of going through me and my cell, texting so-and-so's mom.

Trash, storage, recycling, music- all the important things are kept in this super convenient location. We don't use the back door since it's been frozen shut since we moved in (I'm only sort of kidding- I've managed to hulk it open a few times to yell at the kids in the backyard), but come summertime, the recycling box will have to be relocated.

Before we moved in, this kitchen was very VERY brown. I think a white subway tile backsplash would really make it look sweet, but we are hoping to move into a bigger house sooner than later, and am not sure we'd get our money back out of that hassle, so we are holding off (for now).

Will's Dollar Tree balloon from Valentine's Day is still going strong and he is obsessed with it, so it stays. (Everything else was popped at the end of February. Those Mylar balloons last FOREVER.) Appliance storage is tricky, but the most used get to stay out- coffee maker/espresso machine for obvious reasons, blender/toaster/mixer on the fridge since they aren't always used daily. The rest of the smaller appliances are in a cabinet just off the kitchen. I have really whittled down the amount of kitchen items I have- no one trick ponies here. Ain't nobody got the space for that! (And I know it's ugly, but the vacuum stays out. Right there. In all its glory. Re: vacuuming at least three times a day. I don't even unplug it at this point.)

Off the kitchen are the cabinets where we keep some appliances, some pantry items, and some art supplies that can't ever seem to find their way into the basement art corner... As you can see, this hallway is devoid of all natural light and resembles a cave. A laundry cave.

Surely you remember the laundry room?

These diapers are ready to see some sunshine. They need a natural sunshine bleaching in the worst way....

Backing up a bit is the bathroom right across from the master bedroom. Some might call this the master bath. We also call it the only bath. We have had MUCH smaller bathrooms in the past, so while it's tight if we are all in here (and yes, it is way too often that we are all crammed in here at once), we are well aware that it could be so much smaller!

Towel storage! I have trimmed the amount of towels we have by probably 75%. I'm not sure why I was hoarding white bath towels like we were ready to host 100 of our closest friends and family. We will likely never live somewhere with an extra bedroom, much less have the hot water heater capacity to allow them all to shower in our house. So out they go! Toilet is behind the door, and not in a cutesy "water closet" way but just behind the door. Not much to see. Regular commode. Baby wipes on the back and a trash can on top because Will likes to dumpster dive in his young age and we try to discourage that.

Up the stairs, we have the loft-converted-bedroom. I will not even bore you with the details of how long it took to get this door in place, but it is officially A Sensitive Subject and the walls here are anything but level. All three kids share this room.

Before you say it- I KNOW-  THAT'S A LOT OF KNOTTY PINE. I had the same reaction when I first saw it too. It is a very rural Minnesota sort of aesthetic and my gut STILL screams at me to paint the wall parts white, but I figure if we are just going to move soon, and sell this place to a - you guessed it - rural Minnesotan, odds are that they would like this look. So I'm letting the kids deal with this cabin feel. Heh. There are small closets on both sides of the room that run the length of the room (tiny door hiding behind Molly's hanbok outfit) and they are finished spaces, although we don't keep anything in there.

Will gets middle of the room and that is why we have roller shades, otherwise I might never sleep or shut their door for fear of what might happen with blinds.

And finally, Sam's corner. My mom sent them both calendars and they are extremely obsessed about flipping them over at the end of the month. Also, this room is kinda chilly, so they have flannel sheets, then a thick yellow blanket, then a quilt, then a heavy comforter. They typically wear footie pajamas and Will gets double layered in footie pj's and two blankets. They will not know what to do with their limb freedom come summertime when they can actually move after they're tucked in.

Most of the books I can't stand reading are shoved in the upstairs bookcases. Not even gonna lie.

Attempting to make an escape!

So to summarize the kids' room, they have no business sharing one, and also KNOTTY PINE.

Down the stairs and directly across from the bathroom, we conveniently have hooks for towels! Steve and I added some hooks in our room for our towels.

Which brings us to.... the master bedroom. Aka the only legit bedroom. But master bedroom sounds fancier so we'll go with that. You might have noticed that the kids' room didn't have a dresser in it- we keep everyone's clothes in our room and it really makes life a lot simpler in terms of getting everyone dressed in the morning and folding and putting away laundry.

That poor shelf needs something else but my mind kinda stalled and I haven't gotten any further with it.

And this is... the only closet in the house. Luckily the kids don't have hanging clothes outside of church clothes, and Steve and I have gone nowhere fancy in well over a year, so this works out ok. We use the dresser shoved in the closet for our clothes (and a drawer for an extra set of sheets for everyone in case of accidents). And I wasn't kidding when I said I laid in bed and stared at Molly's sundresses, dreaming of a warmer day when she can wear them. I literally sleep two feet from them.

Luckily for us, the master bedroom also doubles as steam mop storage. The tall dresser belongs to the kids and they each get a drawer, along with one drawer Sam and Molly share for pants and the top drawers hold some random clothes I found for Baby #4 and hair accessories for Molly.

And there you have it, folks. The master bedroom.

I didn't photograph the basement (because it's a basement), but we did create a little art corner for Molly.

I shared about it on instagram but I don't think I blogged about it. We had everything minus the one spotlight, so the total cost of this space was about $9. The roll of paper is suspended against one of our closet doors (removed so we could shove our dresser in there) and she has painted lots of rainbows on it since this picture was taken.

We also moved the trampoline down there after our first notable injury. The rest of the basement is totes of baby clothes, Christmas decorations, and boxes of things we did not have room for upstairs. Every once in a while I will catch a purge bug and go down there and rifle through boxes and make a big donation pile. That always feels nice. We also have an attached one car garage that houses no car. Instead, it's keeping our deep freezer, bikes, strollers, fishing supplies, camping gear, and dining room table warm and dry. Well, at least dry. Steve reinsulated the entire thing so it should be warmer too. But it's a garage so it always feels chilly to me.

That's it, folks! Seriously! Probably the shortest house tour I've ever done on this blog. It's also been the smallest house. Since we are all cooped up in here when there are negative temps, I tend to be a Debbie Downer about the size, but in all honesty, I am so thankful that we have a nice, warm, safe house that belongs to us. We aren't living on top of anyone and no one lives on top of us. Our neighbors are all very kind and friendly. A small house is less (and easier) to clean. There are many positives. I would gladly embrace an extra thousand square feet or so though, if offered to me.