House Tour -- Part 3....

Remember THIS post and THIS post -- way back in January?

Yep, they were the first two installments of the tour of our house.

I obviously haven't done the greatest job in the world of keeping of with that tour. But, I have a good excuse. Other good things to post about have kept on coming up.

Well, to be honest, I haven't had anything earth-shattering to post about this week. So, here is Part 3 of our house tour....and I'm not doing this because I think our home is anything than less exciting to post about.

So, here's a photo of the front of our house from this past December -- on a snowy day. We have a two-car attached garage. It's on the left side of the house. The garage doors are just hard to see in this photo.



When you walk in our front door, this is what you see....



It's a narrow entrace. I like it except when we've tried to move large pieces of furniture into the house. We've had to get creative.

Anyways, after entering, if you look to the right, you see our long hallway.



We have four bedrooms -- all down this hallway. The first door on the left is my office (or potentially another child's bedroom someday). Luke's bedroom is the first door on your right. Looking straight ahead (at the yellow and white towels hanging up) is my bathroom. Yes, Marc and I have separate bathrooms (we're different like that).

Pretty typical 1970s ranch-style house so far, isn't it? (Our house was built in 1972).

Moving on....

If you look slightly to your left, you'll notice the view into our kitchen (again, this is right after entering our house).



We'll do the kitchen tour (and how much updating it could use) in another post.

If you look straight to your left (after entering the house), you'll notice our nice and cozy (but small) living room.



This room serves several purposes: the piano room, the "entrance" room to our house for guests (where we store people's coats when they come over), the room for Luke to look outside in, and most importantly, my Quiet Time with God Room.

This is my MOST favorite chair in the house. We bought it after we'd been married a couple of years. I hope we have it until we have to move to the nursing home. And, maybe it could possibly go to the nursing home with us. Maybe nursing home rooms will get bigger?????



It's where I read my Bible everyday. It's where I read other times throughout the day. I LOVE it when the house is quiet when Luke's napping in the afternoons. It's oh so cozy :)

We do have a piano. It used to belong to my parents. Then, my mom went and bought a grand piano for their living room. She sold this one to us -- at a great deal.

Yes, I do play the piano, but I don't really feel I play well anymore. I took lessons for many years. After graduating from college, I took a job that required travel. Also, I lived in apartments until I got married. So, between the lack of time and not having a piano in apartments, I didn't play much. My skills went downhill quickly. Someday, I'd like to play again everyday. I think it would come back to me.

In the meantime, I do play some, and I do enjoy it.

This is the part of this post of "keepin' it real." If you look closely (and you really don't have to look that close), you'll notice the thick layer of dust on this piano. That would be because truthfully, I CANNOT STAND to dust. So, it literally is one of the last chores I do. I'm embarrassed about it, but I don't do much about it. I mean, come on, I didn't even dust for this photo for the world to see.

Also, in general, I'm fairly organized. But, for some reason, things I don't know what to do with tend to get stacked on the piano. I think it's because this section of the room doesn't get used much. Therefore, the stacked "stuff" is "out of sight, out of mind," right?

So, to know that I am human and certainly not perfect, just take a look at this piano.



Did you notice that big book shelf in the first photo of this room?

We had that custom-made not too long after we were married. We have quite a few books (and we've downsized our enormous book collection A LOT since we've been married). We wanted somewhere to keep the books. We also wanted to display photos. We also wanted a place to keep board games, card games, etc.

That's how we ended up with this bookshelf. So, if we ever move, this bookshelf WILL go with us. It's not a "fixture" of this house.

In this corner of this room (between the bookshelf and the piano), we have these candles.



Let me try to explain these candles in the least confusing way possible....

We didn't do a traditional unity candle at our wedding.

Instead, we did something that Marc named "Giving of the Light."

We used these candles. Now, here's where you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

At our wedding, behind these candles, we had a single tall candle standing behind these candles.

The single tall candle represented God. Then, the center candle represented our marriage.

The two candles on opposite sides of the center candle (representing our marriage) represented our two families.

Then, the outer two candles represented our friends.

So, during our wedding, when what would have been the "unity candle" time, we had these candles instead.

The pastor lit the single tall candle -- representing God over us (that's why it was taller).

Marc and I lit the center candle -- representing our marriage.

Each of our parents lit the next two candles representing our families -- as supporting us in our marriage.

Both Marc and I chose a close friend (not already in the wedding) to come up and light the outer two candles -- representing our friends who were supporting us in our marriage.

Are you confused yet?

I hope not -- I did the very best to explain the importance of those candles in our home. The taller "God" candle is actually at my parents' house. Since my parents purchased those candles, my mom chose to keep that single candle as a decoration in their house.

Lastly, and this IS NOT the best photo -- here is the front of this living room. We have three fairly large windows looking out into our front yard.

Luke LOVES to look outside. We think it's cute when he does.

So, here's a photo from last week of Luke looking outside. Keep in mind I don't have a fantastic camera to work with every different changing light source.



Now, I must go...maybe I'll go and dust my piano. Then again, maybe not :)