Home Sweet Home

**To view larger photos click on the photo.

It's official! As of April 29 we became homeowners! =) The house is in Flagstaff at the base of Mount Elden. It's a 2 story house, 2622 sq feet, 4 bedrooms, and 2 1/2 baths. There's a deck in the backyard and it has an open floor plan (the kitchen opens up into the dining and family room). The entry way has an atrium with 2 sky lights. We met our neighbors to the east of our house. They are super nice! =) Here are some photos of our lovely home...

Front of the House
Love the turret! The driveway is very steep, which is the greatest drawback of the house. But maybe in the very very very very distant and far way future we can change that. It's going to take some major construction. Until then we'll deal. Good thing the landscape is gravel. We can park there in the winter because we won't make it down to the garage once it starts to snow. It's so pretty!


Living Room/Entry Way
On the left side of this photo is the living room. The front door is to the right of the stairs. When you open the front door it actually hides the stairs, which I like. The living room is a long rectangular room that we're going to make the music room/bar/art gallery. It's where we'll put the piano and the drums and the original art pieces done by close friends. We'd eventually like to put a bar there too. On the far right side of the photo where the rock and trellis is where the atrium is located (see more below).

Atrium
We're planning on renovating this by December 2009. That's our goal. The trellis with the rock over it used to be a pond (the previous, previous owners). We want to resurrect the pond (or a fountain) and remove most of the boulders. We want the area to be soothing (pond) and vibrant (colorful). Above the brick ledge on the right side of the right photo we might put some hanging flower baskets or do window treatments on the windows in the left photo. I don't like that when you're standing outside of the house you can look through that window and see all the way into the family room. We might even try to grow some fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, and strawberries.

This is the inspiration board for the atrium. For more pictures or a better view of the fountains click here.

Living Room/Dining Room
We love the open floor plan! =) Love the french doors. The one on the right doesn't work but we'll fix that. So excited to use the wood burning stove! We just need to get a fire proof rug to put in front of it because when they had it installed they didn't put the brick in front of it far enough to catch the embers. Where you see the shining light in the lower right part of the photo that's where another skylight is. Love sky lights!!!


Kitchen
Yay! All the appliances were included - microwave, fridge, dishwasher. The microwave needs to be replaced though. You have to press the buttons really hard and it doesn't always register. The kitchen has a fluorescent light fixture and a recessed light over the kitchen sink. The florescent light fixture is in a recessed box thing and has a fan. We want to get rid of the fan and put a chandelier. With the box cut out in the ceiling we want to do something unique and artistic...not sure yet. I would like to maybe paint a medallion around the chandelier. Over the kitchen sink there's a window box overlooking the deck and backyard. Can't wait to grow some herbs! You can't see the door way...but there's one on the left side of the photo next to the white pantry cabinet. Through that doorway is the laundry room.


Laundry Room
The laundry room is huge!!! Ample of room to hang delicate clothing, have a dog crate or two, sort and fold laundry, and storage!!! Love love love it!!! This room leads into the garage. The garage has a side door that leads into the backyard. We were going to put in doggy doors leading from the laundry room to the garage to the side yard. Yay!

Den/Landing to Upstairs Master Suite
This is located right off the stairs in front of the upstairs master suite. The view from the ledge is the atrium. We have no idea what we're going to do with this space. Maybe create a little reading nook with a cute little sitting area, bookshelf, lamp and maybe a piece of art on the wall.


Bathroom
Enough said. hehe...we want to renovate the upstairs master bathroom. The 2 lower level bathrooms we may eventually do a few renovations. The first priority is definitely the upstairs master, followed by the hallway bathroom and then the lower level master bathroom. I'd love to use glass tiles to in the shower and have a double vanity and the upstairs master. There's no tub in the upstairs master and I'd love to get one of those jacuzzi tubs and a temperature controlled shower head. We're also planning on adding a walk-in closet to the upstairs master! Can't wait! There are 3 gorgeous windows in the upstairs bedroom that we are thinking of adding stained glass humming birds to frame them. We'd like to also add some crown molding to some of the rooms and maybe even some wainscoting to the walls.


Backyard & Deck
Yay!!! The deck is huge! There's enough room to put a little patio set. We'd like to get an outdoor sectional and a table. It'll be a great place to BBQ! We also need to get a grill. =) Off of the deck there's a little square area of brick that the previous owners put their jacuzzi. We'd like to eventually put a jacuzzi there as well. We want to add some flowers to the backyard. Don't really have concrete plans for the backyard yet. =)

Well, that's our home! We're so excited!!! =) Our moving plans are as follows:
May 23: Pick-up moving truck
May 24: Drive from Mountain View to Mesa
May 25: Pack up the moving truck with stuff from our parent's homes
May 26: Meet the mover's at the storage unit and drive up to Flagstaff. Later that night will be the premier viewing of our wedding video! It just arrived at Mom and Dad Boone's house.
May 27 - ?: Unpacking

Yay!!! We're so excited! I started our dream home renovation folder! =) I'm getting loads of inspiration from Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Crate and Barrel, Home Depot, Lowe's, and online blogs/websites. =)