Home Tour Tuesday - What Our House REALLY Looks Like

These past few months I’ve been taking you on a tour of our lovely home.  The home that Brian and I built as a newly married couple.  The home that we brought our babies to when they were born.  The home that took us years to decorate to reflect our personal style.  I love this house.  And I’ve loved sharing it with you room by room during these last few months. 

However, the house that you’ve seen, those picture perfect spotless rooms, don’t adequately reflect the house that we live in on a daily basis.  Every picture in those posts was taken after each room had been methodically emptied of its clutter, tidied up, and cleaned until it sparkled.  You know, to put our best foot forward so that you could see what the house would look like in an idealistic world. 

The reality is that we don’t live in an idealistic world.  Brian and I both work full time, we have two small babies, and we do not have a housekeeper.  So today is the day to get real and to show you what our house really looks like on a daily basis.  The house of two full-time working parents with two small kids.  Everything may be beautifully decorated, but that certainly doesn’t stop the toys from spreading, the dust from collecting, and the laundry from piling up.

Last week, Brian was teasing me and asking if I was going to “stage” the clutter so it was messy, but “classy” messy.  The answer is no, friends.  This is literally what our house looked like on the random day that I decided to take the pictures.  When preparing for this portion of the tour, I literally walked in the door last Friday on my lunch break and started taking pictures on a whim.  I hadn’t even intended to take the pictures that day… my original plans for lunch had fallen through and I had 30 spare minutes, so I figured it was as good a time as any to get it done so that’s what I did!

Come on in!

On this particular day, I opened the front door and started cracking up.  Not only do you get to see our home in its typical state, you get to see some of the rooms in their worst state ever.  Lol.  The night before taking these pictures I had gone out with my girlfriends for dinner and apparently the kids made a royal mess right in the foyer while I was gone.  It’s like they knew I was going to be taking these pictures.  And fun fact, when I tried to open the door, it wouldn’t even open more than a few inches because there was a Hot Wheels car wedged under it.  #RealLife

The front sitting room now houses Jacob’s Hot Wheels Garage because we don’t have room for it anywhere else, so this room always looks like a Toys R Us exploded in it.  It’s just awful.

The formal dining room is a room that we don’t use very often and we also try to keep the kids out of there because of the breakable items on display, so it stays pretty clean.  There is, however, a thin layer of dust on the table’s surface because I haven’t dusted the house in over a month.  #Woops

The living room is where we spend most of our time and on any given day there are usually shoes and socks that the kids have removed, toys that haven’t been put away, and puzzle pieces strewn everywhere.

The kitchen is also an area that’s used a lot.  We’re usually pretty good about not having too many dirty dishes in the sink just because that’s one thing that really grosses me out, but as you can see, the island is our catch-all for junk and the magnets that should be on the refrigerator are always always on the floor.  #OliviaWuzHere

Our guest bathroom usually stays pretty clean as well, but only because there’s not much room in there for items that shouldn’t be in there.  Some things you didn’t see in the original tour…

1)    Maui’s crate – this is where she sleeps each night and where she spends most of her time during the day when we’re at work.  She has full run of the house, but she prefers to sleep in her cat bed.  And yes, you read that right.  She’s so tiny that she sleeps in a cat bed.

2)    The kids’ stepstool – gotta have some way to wash their hands!

3)    Tiny little potty – gotta have somewhere to potty when they can’t quite reach the big toilet!

Time to head upstairs! 

Oh look, another Toys R us explosion in the playroom!  

The master bedroom…

The kids' bathroom...

Olivia’s bedroom…

And only a sneak peek of Jacob’s bedroom… you didn’t think I was going to show you his big boy room when I haven’t even done the big reveal yet, did you?!

Finally, my office.  The one room that looks exactly the same as it did during the tour.  And why?  Because only I am allowed in there.  No hubs, no kids, no dogs.  Just me.  That way it’s always guaranteed to look the same.  When I clean it, it stays clean and everything stays in its place.  ;o)  And just kidding about Brian… he can go in there if he wants to, but he’s not a fan of scrapbooking or crafting or reading chick lit, so he probably has no reason to.  ;o)

So, this is it!  This is what life is usually like for us.  I do have to say that today’s tour might have been even dirtier than it usually is on a regular day.  Oops.

And if you prefer to see the house in all its clean glory, you can find my original home tour posts below.  But just remember, chances are, there are piles of toys, dirty clothes, and miscellaneous items that hadn’t quite yet made it to their homes just outside of the frames of the pictures.  ;o)  

Front Sitting Room 

Formal Dining Room 

Living Room 

Kitchen 

Guest Bath

Playroom

Master Bedroom

Jacob's Room

Olivia's Room

Kids' Bathroom
My Home Office
Outdoor Living Space

P.S. The house is still decorated for 4th of July, so clearly I don’t have my act together right now.  ;o) 

*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk, and Stang & Co. and Crown Me in Glitter for Talk About It Tuesday.