Central Florida House Tour - The Living Room

While some of the rooms in a house are deemed most important (and rightfully so; bathrooms and kitchens are the most essential), I needed to get my living room set up quick because most of the large furniture needed to go in there. I didn't want to leave all the furniture in the garage with moving boxes and home decor and everything else. It would make finding anything near to impossible! So we got to setting up the living room mainly to get everything out of the way. What it ended up doing was making this empty shell of a house feel like home.

One of my favorite aspects of this living room is the tall ceilings and very tall sliding glass doors into the backyard. I was standing on my tip-toes and reaching up, and I was still almost a foot away from the top of the doors. I've never had sliding glass doors this tall - they let in a ton of light, especially in the mornings. You can see the patio beyond, and the area where the previous owner's dogs dug up all the grass. That's an area I'll have to work on soon, but for now, let's keep focusing on the living room.

The first day we moved in, all we had was the television set and the futon. All the other furniture was in the second Pod. I'm glad though, because this gave me time to evaluate how I wanted the room set up. On the original house plans, this room is called a great room, not a living room. It's open to the kitchen which is open to the dining area. The room is 17 1/2' x 14', so it's pretty large. However, the layout is a bit...challenging. On the one wall we have the sliding glass doors in the middle of the wall. They're as wide as they are tall - 96" both ways - so I couldn't put any furniture against that wall. The wall opposite isn't a wall at all; there's a breakfast bar that opens up into the kitchen, so furniture can't go against that either. The wall where the previous owners had their television is also the wall where the entry door to the master bedroom is. 

This meant that the only full wall in the living room was the wall opposite the TV wall. This is where the previous owners had their sectional, but it wasn't where I wanted to put mine. For one, it felt like the seating was far from the television set. It left so much empty space in the middle of the room that it felt awkward, and definitely not cozy which is what I like. Second, the wall where they had their TV wasn't going to work for me. I have my fireplace/tv stand with side-by-side bookshelves, and although they would technically fit on the wall, it was an exact fit which would make it look crowded - another look I don't want in my house. Besides, they'd made holes in the wall for the television set. They'd hung the TV on the wall and put in holes to run the cord behind the wall, thus keeping it hidden from view. That's great - if you want to hang your tv. I didn't. It's a look I personally don't care for and I never have liked. So, if I put my tv there I'd have to find a way to cover the hole, either by patching it or putting an outlet cover over it. Or, I could ditch that set up altogether and do something different. I went for the last option.

By putting the fireplace and bookshelves on the largest wall, I was able to space them out so they wouldn't be on top of each other, which actually makes the room look bigger because it isn't crowded.

It also meant I could "float" the sectional in the middle of the room. I was concerned whether this would work or not, since my sectional is pretty big. Once I laid down the area rug, though, I was sure it would fit fine. Here I put the sectional together without the armless chair, but I quickly realized I could add it to the sectional without any issues. Even so, I figured I could fit the sectional but probably not the chair and ottoman. I was wrong.

I put it just at the entry into the living room facing the sectional. I'd wanted it to face the tv, but I like it this way because it's more conducive to conversation.

Little by little the room began to take shape. This is what the living room looks like today, the warm and cozy room that is elegant while still welcoming.

Walking in from the entryway, the living room opens up to an inviting sectional with pillows and blankets for that cozy feel. The sliding glass doors have two sets of curtains; sheers under two-toned curtains which I had at our first house. These let in light during the day but cover everything up at night. I have the same coffee table with my Kirkland's pitcher and Walmart carnations. The Gather sign beyond invites everyone to come in and relax.

One of my biggest concerns was whether my bookshelf would fit in this living room. It had fit just fine in our first house, but that living room was bigger. It didn't fit in the living room in the townhouse, but that was okay because I put it in the den. I didn't want to have to sell this piece; it's a favorite of mine. Not to worry, though. It fits perfectly behind the sectional with plenty of room to walk, and the best part is that it covers up the holes for the tv cord so I didn't have to do anything to them. If I change my mind one day and decide I want to hang up my tv, I can do it on this wall. Though I don't see that happening any time soon.

I really, really like how this wall turned out. Not only because the fireplace, tv, and bookshelves fit so nicely, but because the high ceilings allowed me to layer decor above it. In the townhouse, I had the wall scroll over the television and it looked really nice. Whenever I was pulling out my decor, I found the sign that I'd bought from Hobby Lobby that says "Bless this home with love & laughter". In the townhouse I'd put this in the kitchen, but here I don't have any soffits to put it on like I did in the townhouse. As I looked around I wondered how it would look above the scroll. The answer? Perfect! The color of the letters matches the paint color, and the wood is almost identical to the wood color of the fireplace and bookshelves. It was like it was meant to be there! The wall with the clock took some time, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to put anything there, but once I put it up I knew it was just what that wall needed.

I'm so glad I decided to put this room together early. I didn't decorate it right away; I took care of setting up the bathrooms and kitchen first. But once the furniture was in, the echoing subsided and the warmth of our familiar furniture gave me the motivation to get everything done. This is probably my favorite room in the house - at least for now. Stay tuned, there's more to come. 

Central Florida House Tour - The Master Bedroom

I've decided to do a house tour similar to the one I did whenever we moved into our townhouse. I enjoyed doing a step-by-step transformation, though I have to confess I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. It couldn't be helped; there was so much to do and my focus was on getting the house cleaned and habitable. And I had a whole lot of cleaning to do. The more I looked, the more I was convinced the cleaning crew did little more than spray room freshener to make the house smell nice.

 This is just some of the pet hair from cleaning the baseboards and around the corners. I had my work cut out for me.

This was how the bedroom looked after the first night. I had only packed the essentials on the first pod so we'd have a place to sleep, and since the one nightstand hadn't fit on the first pod it ended up with the bed and bedding. This was my bedroom for the first three days, then slowly furniture and decor made its way in. This is the bedroom now:

I decorated somewhat similarly to how I had it in the townhouse, with the same bedding and the same artwork above the bed. I didn't put the area rug completely underneath the bed because it would make the room seem empty. Even though it's the same furniture, it feels different in this room with the gray tiles and walls.

Next to the bed is my vanity. It fits beautifully between the two windows.

On the next wall, next to the door into the bedroom, I've set up my office. I have my desk and file cabinet here, with some artwork my daughter gave me. I have some ideas for how I might rearrange the room, but for now this is working well.

The last wall has a weird shape that is perfect for my chest of drawers. It fits right in between the master closet on the left and the master bathroom on the right. It's like it was made for my furniture.

The master bathroom will be next - stay tuned!

Moving In

After moving into our townhouse, I could only think of how happy I was once all the unpacking was done. I could focus on making our new little house into a home and not on all the boxes, bags, and plastic containers.

Yet, here we were once again.

First off, let me take you on a quick empty house tour, and a look at what our first day living here in our new home was like.

I love the front door to our new house. I love the arched transom window and the side window that let in lots of light. 

Straight ahead of the front door is a small hallway. To the right are the secondary bedrooms.

The living room is spacious. It's about 17' x 14', larger than the living room in the townhouse or even the family room in our old house. I'll admit I'm not a fan of all the gray in this room. The walls are gray, the tiles look like cement, but those things can be changed in time. I plan to live with it for awhile, but in the future I want to paint the walls a creamy warm white that matches my warm toned furniture better. The tiles are not my favorite but they are sort of a greige, so I think if I warm up the paint on the walls the flooring will warm up as well.

The dining area is right off the kitchen and to the left of the front door. It's not a dining room; the original plans call it a breakfast nook. It's pretty big though, more than enough space for what we need, and we certainly don't need a formal dining room. The large arched window lets in tons of light.

I should've taken a picture of the kitchen before we unloaded the car - oops! It doesn't seem like much here, but trust me, it's a very nice kitchen. It's large and comfortable to work in, and it even fits the kitchen island my daughter and son-in-law gifted me at Christmas which made me oh so happy!

The master bedroom is massive. At 18' x 12 1/2', it's the largest master bedroom I've ever had. It's surprising to me, because this house has less square footage than either our old house or the townhouse, but it's laid out so well that the house feels much bigger than it actually is. 

Quick pic of the master bedroom. It smelled nice and fresh. I was soon going to find out it wasn't. 

The master closet is bigger than the one I had at our first house, but smaller than the one at the townhouse. Either way, it's more than enough for my needs.

My son's bedroom. It's not very big, about the size of the bedroom he had at our old house. The ceiling fan will be replaced soon. He's not too fond of the blue blades and pink flowery pulls.

He's not upset about the bedroom being smaller, because the third bedroom is his office/music room. The fact that he has a whole "wing" of the house to himself makes up for the smaller rooms. That, and the bathroom.

Not that he needs them, but he has double sinks in his bathroom.

The tub and toilet are separate from the sink area, making this bathroom almost as big as the master bathroom. It's twice the size of the bathrooms in both our old houses.

The first day we arrived at the house at around 2:00 pm. The Pod hadn't arrived yet, and whenever I called the company they said the container was scheduled to arrive between 6:00 and 10:00 that night. We had no furniture, just the items that we'd brought in the car. So what did we do till the Pod arrived? 

First things first, we went in to use the bathrooms. After a long trip it's the first thing anyone wants to do. I went into the master bathroom, toilet paper in hand, thinking the bathrooms had been cleaned professionally so they should be spotless. Whenever I lifted the toilet cover, I found that someone had used the bathroom and hadn't flushed. Now, I suspect it was one of the children. The sellers have three young children, and well, kids are kids. They do things like that. What was upsetting to me is that these sellers paid over $150 to have this house cleaned, and it obviously was not.

The tile grout throughout the house was grimy and pretty disgusting. The previous owners had two large dogs and a cat that came in and out of the house constantly, and the floors showed it. The house smelled of kitty litter. It was bad. So they paid to have the floors professionally cleaned, as well as the cleaning crew that came in to clean the house. Well, the tile grout was scrubbed till it now looks like new. However, it was clear that they used machines to clean the floors, and these got the baseboards and corners filled with grimy dirt that neither the floor cleaners nor the cleaning crew did anything about. All around the house the baseboards were filthy, muddy and had pet hair caked on to them. It was vile.

After lunch my son and I headed to Lowe's. There were two things I wanted to buy immediately: new toilet seats and some sort of cleaner. The toilet seats were double what I would have paid if I'd ordered them from Amazon, but I didn't want to wait till Monday to get my order. There was no way I was going to use those old, nasty looking toilet seats. I bought a bottle of Method all purpose cleaner to start the real cleaning process. My son decided he was exhausted and needed a nap. There were some blankets and his pillow, so he made himself a make-shift bed on the floor. I, on the other hand, got down on my hands and knees, and for the next several hours I scrubbed baseboards. There was nothing else to do in the house; no furniture to sit down on, no internet connections, nothing to distract me from looking at the dirt. It kept me busy till the Pod arrived.

And thankfully it arrived around 7:30 pm. Unfortunately, the driver had a hard time getting it unloaded, so that while it was still light outside whenever he got there, it was dark by the time he left. Here it was, 8:30 at night, and we were unloading beds, mattresses, and bedding so we could get our beds set up. It took another couple of hours before we were done and ready to hit the sack. We couldn't even shower; I hadn't cleaned the bathrooms because all my bathroom cleaners were in the Pod. I didn't care. I was too tired to care. All I wanted was to get a good night's sleep, because the next day was going to be a busy one.

But that's a post for another day. See y'all soon!