Come on Over - Part I

Come on over bay-buh!...No? No Xtina fans? Well then boo to you too...

Let's take a virtual tour of our new abode, shall we? Play Christina while taking the tour and you'll get bonus points.

In this house, I wanted to make sure I did better at documenting the changes we made, projects completed, and just the overall transformation of our house into a home. When packing up the apartment I realized how much it changed even just in a year and I I have a passion for decorating and making our house into a home so I really appreciate when I see a photo of a room on week one and then the changes a room has taken in weeks, months, (and if we military folks could be so lucky) years. So this go-'round I busted out the camera on move-in day, although I probably should have done it prior to putting anything in the house because as you will see in a moment all these photos are crazytown! With boxes everywhere and Jersey being a photo bomb. So without further ado, let's get on with it. Yes?

First off, we are in a rental. Second, it's a sweet little townhouse. Lastly, it's a bit over 1900 square feet, has five bedrooms, three full baths, and one hilly driveway. While it's obviously a modest home, it's ginormous in comparison to our tiny 1300ish square foot apartment in Destin we just moved from. And yet our rent is almost $500 a month cheaper here in the new place. But I guess that's what you happens when you live in a tourist area - they bend you over and...well, even I won't go there.

So let's get to it...

When you enter the front door you are greeted by stairs to the bedrooms.

To your left is the living room.

The living room is small and it shares a space with the dining area but it's still more open than our apartment's living/dining area was so we can't shouldn't complain.

Past the dining area is the kitchen. Why they made a little cutout in the wall is beyond me, they should've just knocked the whole wall down to make everything feel more open and seamless. At the very least the door to the kitchen could be doubled, the rectangle opening closed, and more cabinets/counters put on what would be left of the wall on the kitchen side. Just saying.

Speaking of the kitchen let's take a looksie. The black appliances are an eyesore but they're new so there's the positive in that. The cabinets make me want to barf - if this were my home and I were going to live here for more than a year I'd start in here first. I'd change the cabinets, add more counter space, and get rid of those black appliances, seriously.

If you come back out of the kitchen there is a plethora of doors in a little square-ish area, I call it the square hall. The door straight ahead is a bathroom.

The open door in that plethora-o-doors photo is Ariana's bedroom

This home is on the market, so I'm assuming that when they staged it they put up those sexy curtains you see in the first photo of Ari's room. I want so bad to burn said curtains in a ceremonious fire, but I have to hang them back up when I move out so they are sitting in a closet untouchable.

Below is the view looking out of the squarish hall.

Again, hands off the stunning brass chandi over the dining table, you'll have to fight me for that puppy. Seriously though, I would have replaced that the day I moved in if this were my home, but alas I'm only renting so I'll be cringing at the fixture each time I walk by.

So that's the first floor of our new house. I planned to show the whole house in this post but it's already a bit of a lengthy post considering I'm simply giving you a photo tour of our home. Plus, it's late and I need some shut-eye. So I'll give you the rest of the tour tomorrow morning. And then tomorrow evening check back in with us because Ari and I have a quick somethin' somethin' for ya!

Until then,

Lor