I had meant to take more artfully designed and masterful pictures, but as it was, my camera's battery light was flashing and I had no idea really where the charger was packed and stowed away (What, you're surprised we haven't fully unpacked everything yet? Bhaha.) so I knew I had to move quick.
Here's the front of our house. It's way cute - maybe quaint? Not the biggest house on our street, but I kind of like it that way. Neither Schmoobs nor I are fans of big houses anyway. We like character. Here's a fun fact about Kentucky: the grass here grows like CRAZY in the spring/summer. Like, there's no need to water it and it will grow like bananas. No sprinkles needed. (Haha. That should say "sprinklers," but I like it, so it stays.) However, it does go completely dormant in the winter. When we were getting ready to close, I asked one of Schmoobs' coworkers how often he had his lawn guy come out to tend to their yard, and he was like, "Oh, probably about five times a month." I just about fell out of my chair. We haven't bought a lawnmower yet, so our yard has a tendency of looking pretty unkempt and overgrown. Sorry, new neighbors. I swear we're not deadbeats. Funny story: A couple of weeks ago, before Schmoobs left town, we ordered pizza for a lazy dinner. The delivery guy was this nice, high school or college aged kid. As he's standing at our door, he says to Schmooblies, "So...um...do you guys want someone to mow your lawn?" Haha. I can imagine that having a side business mowing lawns in the summer is a pretty sweet gig here for those with the equipment. (Hm... *starts thinking about mowing lawns for money once we buy a lawnmower*) Anyway, I guess this kid had just saved up enough money to buy an equipment trailer for his car and was now building up his clientele. Schmoobs agreed, and he showed up a couple days later with his mower. $30 for our front and backyard. Good for us and him! But that was over two weeks ago and our lawn had since become overgrown again, but we still hadn't bought a lawnmower (Schmoobs out of town, etc. etc.). So, yesterday morning, I'm sitting at the computer writing with the windows and front door open and someone rings our doorbell. It's a middle aged woman who asked me, "Are you looking for someone to mow your lawn?" GEEZ, people! We get it! You need to keep your lawn under control in Lexington! Anyway, I hesitated because I figured we'd give that pizza kid our business one more time, but then she said she and her team would do it for $20, so I was like, "Uh, okay." Oh, hello Schmoobs' checkbook. Hahaha. I SWEAR I'M NOT A KEPT WOMAN. ANYWAY. So, our lawn is nicely shorn again. This picture makes it look a little dried out, but I assure you it's not. That yellow stuff is just the stuff they mowed and has dried out overnight. (I guess you're supposed to sweep it up?) Anyway, the next step is to trim those overgrown hedges in front of our window. They're seriously cramping Bela's outdoor windowsill viewing.
Close up! Thoughts: I really want to do something about those red steps. I'm not fond of the red shutters either, but I think the red steps look especially old and worn. I feel like painting the steps a more neutral color will help the red shutters look more fresh. Maybe a similar color to the siding? What do you guys think? I think I also eventually want to change the shutter color - like to a deep royal (dark) blue or something.
ps. This is what the house looks like in the winter, to give you a better idea of the facade when it's not slowly being eaten by monster shrubbery. I took this off the Internet listing when it was still on the market.
Living room shots! This is what you walk into from the front door. My camera doesn't have the widest angle, so all these photos seem to be a little cut off on the sides. Oh well. When we were getting ready to move in, I was worried that our lack of furniture would make the house feel too barren, but it actually doesn't feel bad to me. I like a good minimalist uncluttered space, anyway. (See: master bedroom below.) Maybe a rug and coffee table is in the works for later, but I'm okay without for now. 
Bela perching. Good kitty. Shaggy BB being my shadow, as usual. (She's getting groomed tomorrow, don't worry.)
Staircase vantage point. That thing on the right is our piano bench, but I put it there so Bela would have easy access to the windowsill.
Oh, Beebla.
Journeying upstairs...
Reaching the top of the stairs...
The previous owners had converted the entire attic (second story) into one enormous (to us) master suite. It's pretty luxurious, especially considering we had spent the past year living in a 700? square foot half of a duplex with, like, a shoebox for storage. Anyway, this space comes as sweet, sweet relief. Sorry for not folding up my Purple Blanket of Glory. This is literally all we have in our ginormous bedroom. Hahaha. I like it. Clean and tidy.
Closets! Three of them! For the first time, we now have a surplus of storage and closet space! Miracle of miracles! (Side note: If you open that center closet, you'll see another little mini-door that leads to even more extended attic storage space. I feel like murder clowns and clawed monkeys hide out in there. Therefore, I have blocked that little doorway with a couple of unpacked boxes. Can't get me, Knuckles!)
Walk-in. Please try to contain yourselves. On the right is a wall of shelves. You can't tell, but in a stint of boredom while Schmoobs was gone (Oh, let's not kid ourselves. I did it mostly for fun.), I organized his clothes on the hangers by type, collar, and color. Polos and t-shirts and dress shirts! Sport and suit coats! Khakis and slacks arranged by color gradient! I thought about doing it with mine (far wall), but I decided my wardrobe has too much variety of type (blouses, cardigans, sweaters, hoodies, halters, etc. etc.) and too many patterns that it just wouldn't work as well.
Another photo stolen from the online home listing. Holy designer shoes and bags, Batman! The previous owners were definitely a Supercouple. Twenty-somethings, tall, fit, attractive...and both are attorneys. Bigger budget than a college professor and doctoral student. Bastards! Not really. They were actually pretty nice. (Which made me hate them more...I'M KIDDING.)
The piece de resistance of the upstairs suite: the master bathroom. Again, I can't quite get the full perspective in one shot, but it's essentially a bedroom-sized space in and of itself with a sink, toilet, and shower/bath. Good work, previous owners. I approve. Oh look, it's me! I haven't showered yet. (Read: summer and unemployed. Blargh.)
I find the shower in this bathroom perplexing. I mean, it's awesome, but also weird. Like, see those three ledges against the wall of the shower? It seems like a logical place to set your toiletries, right? ...Until you realize that the each ledge surface is curved pretty drastically and so it's impossible to set anything on it. Strange. Who was the bathtub engineer who thought this up? Oh well. A shower caddy from Target solves that problem pretty easily. Also, "Oh? Another reason to go to Target? Darn."
This picture shows about 1/3 of the floor space of this "bathroom." We should put a piano in here. Maybe a couple arcade games. Anyway, so that's the upstairs. Let's head back downstairs.
I took this one with my phone. Beebla is ridiculous. Just chilling out, watching "Chopped" on television. Anyway, moving on...
I think this is supposed to be the dining area? For now, it's my work station. All manner of Interwebbing, writing, reading, etc. takes place at this table. Kitchen is to the left, living room to the right. I took this photo from the small hallway leading to the 2 guest rooms and the downstairs bathroom, which is...
...directly behind me at the end of the hallway. It's small and cute. The two guest rooms are on either side of this bathroom.
I would just like to also point out that I got this little scented ceramic owl on clearance at TJ Maxx for like $2. It's Cynthia Rowley and he has a small chip on his eyebrows (...? eyelashes? ears??), but I don't care. He's so cute and he sits on the guest bathroom counter making the room smell good.
Guest room one. We finally have a dedicated space for the super cute microsuede futon that my mom bought us when we were still living in Seattle! Yay! Guests welcome anytime! This means you. Come visit. I promise we'll have more stuff in this room when you come.
Guest room two. It's looking like this will eventually (i.e. when we unpack the boxes *ahem*) become our studio/office. It contains boxes of books, music, printers, and assorted instruments - piano, guitar, clarinets, trumpets, Kristina's flute, etc. I think we want to get a desk for this room. Also, notice Schmoobs' nice camera. He is wanting to get into photography as a hobby. He says I should use it whenever I want, but I'm scared to touch it because it cost a lot of money. I'm okay with using my iPhone 3GS and the 6MP Sony Cybershot that I am "borrowing" from my older brother. Hehehe.
Okay, let's walk towards the back of the first floor, shall we? Past our dining room is the kitchen. When we were looking at houses, I thought I hated the floor of this kitchen. In reality, it's still something we'll change at some point, but I'm okay with it for now. It's easy to sweep. Someday, I'll have a gas stove to cook on. Someday. Like the place we were renting last year, no dishwasher. Engh. It's fine for now. BB is stalking me still.
The other end of the kitchen room. To the left is the laundry washing machine and dryer. The washing machine the previous owner left us is HUGE!! I think we had become accustomed to the washer/dryer in our old place that basically held like three pairs of socks and maybe a t-shirt before it was full (slight exaggeration), so when we throw a normal-sized load of laundry in our washer now, it's like staring down into the Grand Canyon with all of the space left. It's glorious! I can wash more than one blanket at a time! Huzzah! To the right is the door to our patio/backyard. Also, please note Bela eating again. HUZZAH TIMES INFINITY!
This camera's limited scope makes it hard to give proper perspective. Oh well. Anyway, stepping out from our kitchen, you head into our enclosed patio. It's pretty sweet. Covered patios/porches are pretty common in this part of the country, I've found. It's essentially a deck with a ceiling and wrap-around screen. The only thing I don't like is that the previous owners put a plastic barrier on the outside of all the screens so the only breeze that comes in is through that outer door leading to the driveway. I'm sure it's to keep rain and stuff out, but still, a breeze would be cool. Get it? "Cool" breeze. Anyway. There's a ceiling fan above, which is pretty nice, and does give some air movement when the weather is warm, like it is today. Notice BB hopping up the steps as she has finished her morning piddles.
Part of our home offer was the stipulation that they leave their patio furniture, which they clearly agreed to. We can't wait to have friends over for some summer hangouts! And family, too. Hint. That Christmas Snowman and box are just things that haven't quite made it to the garage for storage yet. That 30 foot journey is really challenging, apparently...
Beebla enjoys the patio.
And, finally, we come to the backyard. Freshly mowed, heh. The back lawn wraps around the back of the garage for a little bit. I think it would be great to start a garden back there, but I have no idea where to even begin. Shovels? I have the perfect person to ask for advice...Papa!
View from the driveway. That's our garage. (We have a garage!) Patio to the left. Also, serious question: What am I suposed to do with that plant overgrowth on our gravel driveway? Weed killer? Pull it out by hand?
Here is our gravel driveway both from the garage and from the street. As you can see, it's a fairly long driveway and not super wide. Hey, did I ever tell you that the only thing I got marked down on during my driving test (sixteen years ago holy crap) was driving in reverse in a straight line? Yeah...that hasn't changed. You might find it humorous to know that I have, on more than one occasion, had to stop myself in the middle of the process of backing out the driveway because I realized that I had essentially backed the car fully onto our neighbor's front lawn. And then another time onto our own front lawn. Hahaha...hahaha...ha. I REALLY HOPE NOBODY SAW ME. Needless to say, I have since found out that we have juuust enough room on the gravelly space in front of the garage to do a two-point (sometimes four-point) turn and head forward onto the street instead of backwards.
View from towards the back of the lawn. Garage is to the left and, of course, our patio straight ahead. That window directly above the patio is the same window at the top of our bed in the master bedroom. I can often find Bela there in the afternoon peering out at the world. To the left is our driveway leading to the street. You can see the gate is closed right now to keep Knuckles out when the sun goes down. BB is all, "Ok, it's hot. Let's go back inside."
I hope you enjoyed the tour! Now come visit already. Geez.
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