We have just come back from a week long vacation to Disney World. Holy cow, you guys. It was a lot of fun, but I am completely wiped out. Temps near 100 degrees, crowds like you wouldn’t believe, and more skin showing on people than should ever be seen. Izzy even asked me if the girl in front of us forgot to put her pants on. I wondered the same thing. I am SO glad to be home. This was our first trip to Disney, and I learned a lot. The next time we go I’ll be so much more prepared and will pack entirely different. I think I may even put a quick post together if anyone is interested.
Anywho, today I’m sharing with you guys our fourth house. If you’re just joining, I’m sharing how my style (or lack thereof) has changed over the years and with each house. You can catch up by clicking on our first house, second house, and third house.
This fourth house was the one we rented when we first moved to the Houston area. Mike came down a few months before the kids and I since we were still trying to sell our home back in Wichita. He took care of finding our rental house for us. It was really nice not having to stress about it. Well I mean he stressed, but I didn’t 😉
Our Fourth House – Houston, TX 2013
I am really grateful for this house that we rented. It was an incredibly nice house and it taught me a lot. I learned what worked and didn’t work for us, which was oh so helpful when it came time to build our current home. Example: Fully tiled floors seemed like a great idea after coming from our last home which was mostly carpeted and was always in need of cleaning (muddy dog feet, young kids, etc). But, after living with it for a few months and constantly breaking anything that came into contact with it and fretting over Sam cracking his head open on it, we decided it wasn’t a good choice for us after all. Mostly, I realized how important square rooms were to me. I know that might sound strange, but this house and so many model homes that we looked at all had irregular shaped rooms. Arranging furniture was a NIGHTMARE for me. It was also while living at this house that I decided to say goodbye to the patterned drapes and yellow pillows from our last house, and go completely neutral.
The laundry room was my favorite transformation in this house. Proof that you can make a big impact with temporary and affordable changes. Check it out here.
You can check out a full tour of this home on my Home Tour tab here.
Only one more post to share with you guys in this little series! Our fifth and current house.
So, I’ve been wanting to paint the powder room for quite some time now, but have kept in on the back burner until some of the major projects have been taken care of (painting trim, new doors, etc). I finally tackled it when I needed a break from painting all of the windows. Which now…
The other day I was going through photos and came across some from our first home eleven years ago. We were newly married, Mike was still in the Air Force, and we had just PCS’d from Wichita, KS to Sumter, SC. We bought a small duplex and were beyond excited about owning our first home….
The kids went back to school this week! Â This an extra special school year for us because Izzy is in 4th and Sam is now in Kindergarten!! Â He is so ready and was ecstatic about walking into school with his big sister this year. Â I am so proud of them both! With both now in…
This is one of those projects I’ve had done for a while, but haven’t yet shared. I had a boat load of photos documenting the process of how I installed the wood trim around my master bathroom mirrors and was so excited to share it with you guys. Unfortunately those photos were all on the…
Some of you may already be in the throws of getting your homes decked out in Christmas splendor, but there may also be some who are holding onto the last bits of Fall before diving in. Before the holiday decorating posts come rolling into your feeds a group of bloggers and I wanted to bring…
Oh the guest room. The place where old furniture and unwanted decor goes to die. In our house I call it our bone yard. It’s also where I stash piles of stuff when I’m too lazy or don’t have enough time to put it where it really belongs. And to think that’s where I have…
4 Comments
you guys really made that rental home and look like YOU. i love your distinct style!
Thank you! I think I really enjoyed the challenge of making it feel like home without spending money or doing anything permanent.
It's amazing how much you can learn from living in a place. I never thought about the square rooms but I can imagine it would be hard to decorate irregular shaped ones. Our home is very traditional but we used to live in a condo that had kind of an irregular shaped living area. Though, back then we were young and not really 'decorating' much yet! I love seeing what you have done in each place you have lived. Such fun posts! Shelley
The square rooms thing really drove me batty. It was, no joke, number one on our list of requirements for a new house. It's funny looking back at past decorating decisions. I can't help but think about how I would change everything if I was there now. Kind of like looking back at our wedding. Yikes!
you guys really made that rental home and look like YOU. i love your distinct style!
Thank you! I think I really enjoyed the challenge of making it feel like home without spending money or doing anything permanent.
It's amazing how much you can learn from living in a place. I never thought about the square rooms but I can imagine it would be hard to decorate irregular shaped ones. Our home is very traditional but we used to live in a condo that had kind of an irregular shaped living area. Though, back then we were young and not really 'decorating' much yet! I love seeing what you have done in each place you have lived. Such fun posts!
Shelley
The square rooms thing really drove me batty. It was, no joke, number one on our list of requirements for a new house. It's funny looking back at past decorating decisions. I can't help but think about how I would change everything if I was there now. Kind of like looking back at our wedding. Yikes!