Home Tour Tuesday – Entry, Foyer, & Front Sitting Room

Hello and happy Tuesday!  I’m so excited to finally share with you guys our humble abode!  It’s something that I thought I would be sharing a lot earlier on, but in all honesty, it’s hard work preparing and photographing a house.   I’ve been working on it little by little during the last few months, and even though half of the rooms still haven’t been photographed, I thought I’d go ahead and dive right into the tour… maybe that will motivate me to finish the rest of the house.  :o) 

Brian and I started our marriage in a sweet, but tiny 1,200 square foot house in an older area of town.  The house was built in the 1950’s so the laundry room was outside off of the carport, the few closets it had were itty bitty, and there was only one (tiny) bathroom.  

That house holds such sweet memories because it was the house that Brian lived in the entire time that we dated, it was the house where I planned most of our wedding, it was the house that we first lived in together after we got married, it was the house that we always came home to from our abundant travels, and it was the house where we threw some kick-ass parties.  :o)  Even though all of our furniture was mismatched and my clothes were hanging on a rack in the middle of the office/guest bedroom/junk room, I will always treasure the time that we had there.   

Because it was so small, we knew that we had to move before even thinking about expanding our family, so back in 2009 after a year and a half of marriage, we decided to build.  We found a sweet little neighborhood on the north side of town in which we decided to put down our roots.  The building process was a blast, and in October 2009, we signed all of the paperwork and they turned over the keys.  It was all ours.  Such a thrill! 

We’ve worked hard over the last six years to decorate it and get it just the way we want it, so I hope you enjoy!  And don’t worry, it rarely looks like this… I assure you that it’s only this clean for the pictures for this tour!  If you were to stop by any given day, there would be shoes by the door, dishes in the sink, and toys everywhere.  I promise. 

Entry 

I’ve lived in a two-story house almost my entire life, so I knew when we built that I wanted another one.  They are just so sweet!  And just in case you start to wonder, these pictures were taken back at the end of the summer when the grass was still green and my ferns were still alive.  Hehe. 

Foyer 

One of my favorite parts about the house (even though it’s wasted space on the second floor) is the two-story foyer when you enter the front door.  It gives such a feeling of openness and I love how it allows for a little peek of the second floor.

Front Sitting Room 

When you walk in, the first thing that you see to your left is the front sitting room.  This room was empty for several years because we had no idea what to do with it.  We I tossed around the idea of a bar area early on since we entertained a lot, but we ultimately decided to turn it in to a sitting room for extra seating when we have a lot of people in the house.

We are not very formal people, so we knew that we didn’t want the room to have a stuffy and breakable atmosphere, so instead, we opted for bright colors and casual décor for a sort of funky and comfortable vibe.  It’s nice to know that the kids can play in there and I don’t have to worry about them breaking some expensive vase… although, they did once break the beer cap frame that I made…  #ClassyIKnow  #WeLikeBeer

As I may have mentioned before, my Daddy is an artist, and that abstract piece in the middle as well as the caricature of Dave Matthews (my fave!) are original pieces that he painted.  And see that painting on the left?  That was me trying my hand at acrylics!  Although I’m nowhere near my Daddy’s league, I was quite pleased with how it turned out.  :o)

That cabinet houses all of our adult games – Scrabble, Taboo (the best!), Pictionary, poker, etc. – because we used to have friends over for game nights constantly before we had kids.  We haven’t had one in quite some time, but we are surely about due for one! 

The picture frames on top of the cabinet are just a few of my random favorites of our family, and the rest are pictures of us meeting random famous and semi-famous people – Jarvis Jones (linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers and former linebacker for the University of Georgia), Paul Thorn (one of my favorite musicians), Nick Hexum (lead singer from 311), The Naked Cowboy (Lol), and my personal favorite, Boyd Tinsley (the violinist for Dave Matthews Band), plus a few others. 

The framed poster behind all of the pictures is the poster from the Dave Matthews Band show that we attended in Pelham, AL back in 2013 when I got to meet Boyd, their violinist.  He autographed it for me, so it is something that I will treasure forever.

Another thing that I love about this room is the giant collage frame that I purchased to showcase all of our favorite pictures from past travels.  Brian and I love to travel.  Love it.  Some of the places you’ll see in this frame?  New York City, Las Vegas, Maui, The Bahamas, Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles, The Grand Canyon, Snowshoe, WV, and many more.  I love having all of these pictures in once place and reminiscing about all of the good times that we’ve had travelling!

Well, that about wraps up this room.  Stay tuned because next Tuesday I’ll be sharing our formal dining room. 

I hope you all have a great evening!