house o' rama (pt 2)

When figuring out what to do with space, the upstairs has been a bit of a challenge usability-wise.  It's very "custom" in that there are great built-ins (rare for a German rental) as well as an absolutely fantastic bathroom (more about that later on in the post).  However, the sloping roof makes a good amount of square footage un-usable, including our third floor bonus room, which has pretty much NO usable space for anyone over 5' tall.  Our old house had the sloping ceiling/walls also, but there were wall dormers that allowed more space to be usable.  No wall dormers with this house, so I had to be creative in the placement of things like desks, our bed and shelving.  Also, the fact that our bedroom has built-ins on the only full-sized wall made it so our bedroom furniture has been banished to the guest room in the basement.

Enough of my rambling, onto pictorial goodness!

We have a landing at the top of the stairs which I kind of designated as Mr. Bama's reading area.  It's sunny and bright, so it's perfect for just relaxing.  I really am not a fan of the overstuffed leather chair (I'd prefer something like this if leather is a must for Mr. Bama).  I love love LOVE our scratch map though.

To the right of the sitting room is the super steep staircase to the upstairs bonus room and the hallway to the bedroom.

My office is also off this hallway, but is in NO condition to be photographed.  Ugh it's a mess, I get a headache just thinking about it.
Here's the master bedroom.  See what I mean with the windows!?  There's about 2 feet behind the head of the bed that is totally unusable.  It's really awkward and yes, we have hit our heads on the ceiling once or twice.  However, it is really neat to be able to sit in bed and look through the skylight at the stars as you fall asleep every night.

Across from the bed are the built-ins. This is what I meant about the previous tenants "loving" orange and green.  Shame I'm not head over heels in love with it like they were. Correction: If the green was less teal-y and the orange a grey or natural wood then I'd be a happy camper, but that's not the case with their funky aqua green and peachy orange combo.  

None of my dresses fit in the built-ins (the tall hanging closets are divided in half and every dress I own is too long.  But not to worry - stay tuned to find out where the dresses have been stored).  This is pretty much entirely Mr. Bama's closet. And yes, his wardrobe takes up all but about 5% of the whole closet.  Lots of clothing for a man who wears a uniform to work everyday.

Now, the 360 degree of the master bath:

Far and away the BIGGEST bathroom I've ever had in my life, and marked improvement over the single sink/no storage or counter in the last house.  And yeah, that shower and the tub are pretty awesome.  PS - the floors are HEATED!

But the best part is on the 3rd floor.  Remember the bonus room I mentioned?  Well due to the sloped ceilings, only about a 4ft by 10 ft area is usable in the room, making it impractical for anything other than as this:

Yeah, it's a designated closet, home of my TD dresses (and some skirts, shirts, but mainly TD). 

Across the hall from this is another small hall closet, where my shoes and purses live. 

Sure, it's gluttonous, but I don't care.  After the past year of living super far away from base in a larger house with no yard by myself, this house has been a big blessing, and will probably be the nicest place we live over the next few years.  So we're going to enjoy it as much as we can and be thankful everyday that we were able to find this gem! This still doesn't knock the NOLA house out of first place for "best house ever" but it takes a strong second.

Bear says "Thanks for all the staircases Mom,
they keep me in shape." Same here pup, same here.

Next up? The yard (already mentioned here) and the BBQ festivities!   

house o' rama (pt 1)

In honor of our recent housewarming party I have decided to post some post-move picts.  I finally had everything hung, vacuumed, swept and straightened to a point where I was happy enough to take pictures.

So, here we go. Enter the foyer:

My poor vase didn't make it 24 hours in the foyer, as "husband who forgot there is now a table in the foyer" ran into it on his way up to bed last night, sending water, flowers and glass shards everywhere.  Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted.  

Take a left at the end of the foyer and you get to the hall:

To the left is a giant hall closet, the square on the wall is a laundry chute (!!).  

Go straight ahead and you get to the kitchen

 Didn't think I'd ever be able to match the size of the NOLA kitchen, but alas, I've been proven wrong.

do a 180 turn and then you're in the dining "room."

To the right of the dining room table is the bar.  I pretty much copied the design I had back at the old house (seen here) b/c it is so perfect for above the bar. 

Keep turn to the right and you are in the living "room."

This is probably the most incomplete area of the house, mainly b/c we NEED a 3-seater couch.  Right now we just have the love seat Mr. Bama bought before we were married (seen in the very foreground of the picture).  If we were in states we'd have this badboy sitting in our living room. However, I refuse to spend money that could go to the above couch in order to buy a cheap European sofa (they are SO uncomfortable!). So love seat and oddly unfinished living room it is for now.

Tomorrow: onto the upstairs.

The irony of the party was that none of it actually took part inside the house, hence it should have been properly called a yard-warming party by the sheer fact that so much time was spend in our yard. We're so lucky that we do have such a wonderful and large yard. And someone worked incredibly hard to make sure all of the libations and food was top notch!  Thanks Babe!

my house is officially a hot mess

Just when I was feeling accomplished by hanging pictures, finally buying a new rug, and not having a house of boxes (for the second time in 13 months, mind you), I made the fateful decision to click on a Pinterest pin with the caption "great decorating ideas." Bad. Move. Curiosity didn't just kill the cat, it ran over it and then backed up and ran it over again.

inspiration for decoration

No room in my house looks anything close to the ones in this blog (thanks expensive architecture degree).  Instead it looks like a mix of Anthro-layout wannabe/ leftovers from being a poor grad student - single person / Ikea showroom with mismatching clutter. There is no design philosophy; nada, nothing, zilch.  My grad professors would be ashamed.

I was totally ready to post a few pictures from my newly-deboxed kitchen, but now I just.dont.know.  My competitive nature feels energized and then deflated due to the fact that I can't buy all of One Kings Lane for my new temporary abode.  Stupid budget.

Do you think the rooms on the inspiration for decoration blog really are attainable by real people with dogs, kids, cats and spouses. Or is it just propaganda by the "your house will never be good enough!" design mag people?