Home Sweet Home…At Last!

It seems as if we are making the habit of ringing in each new year with a bang!  Two years ago, I quit my teaching job to stay home.    Last January we were sealed for time and all eternity.  This year, we have a new home.  Maybe next year we will have a new addition to our family.  That is on the horizon, but not yet…

Moving is stressful.  Plain and simple.  Although we had the help 0f our awesome neighbors and hired movers, who moved an estimated 8+ tons of furniture, there is never a dull moment in the Bancroft household.  Amongst running out of boxes, and willing neighbors running in and out of our old house to help move a few boxes the night before the movers came, a usually bubbly Matti laid on the couch, suddenly very sick.  After giving her a blessing, she was taken to Instacare, where we found out she had come down with pneumonia.  Not good timing.  My stress level with Christmas, moving, a very sick child and putting on an education workshop for church was almost too much to handle.  So thank you to all the neighbors, friends and grandparents who picked up the slack.  I wouldn’t have made it without you! 

Over the next few blog posts, I will share  the results of the organizing and decorating I have been doing in my “spare” time.  We are planning on staying here for the long haul.  It will be fun to see all the changes in decorating I will be making over the years, so this is just a starting point.  This is the 4th house I’ve built, Justin’s 3rd.  My track record has shown that I can usually have my house unpacked, organized and decorated within about a week.  I just can’t function surrounded by chaos and boxes.  But this beast has kicked my butt.  We have been here 3 1/2 weeks and I have most of the organizing and decorating in the main areas done.  A house and family twice the size has more than taken twice the time.

Building a home that is “ours” was one of the steps we needed to take to blend our family together, so I’m glad this dream has finally become a reality. 

Here’s my office.  This is the room I get to collapse in.  Once things calm down, I plan on blogging, reading and creating something in this space. 

The piano room is off to the left of the entrance.  Most people would use this room as a formal dining room, but we aren’t that formal, and we needed a place for our piano.  I am trying to re-teach myself to play, and Britney is moving right along with her lessons.  I put a collage of our wedding photos in here.  I love walking by this wall.  It is a constant reminder of our eternal goals.  We need a lot of reminders to get us through daily life and the challenges and surprises that come along with it.

Here is the gourmet kitchen.  Hope that doesn’t mean I need to become a gourmet chef.  I have daily cooking for 8 down now.  I’m glad I have the tools and space to do it.  I’m also glad I had the guts to put in a white kitchen with a house full of lots of dirty hands.  I love the way it turned out.  I think it is classic, and will never go out of style. 

Here is the birds eye view of our living room.  I greatly appreciate Doug and Milt for helping Justin hang that monster of a mirror.  It is almost 7 feet tall and just the thought of hanging it was causing Justin to have nightmares.  He was dreading it.  But all in the name of decorating, it’s done, looks great and hasn’t fallen off the wall.  I consider that a great success. 

My morning is over.  The special ed bus will be pulling up any minute.  Hope you enjoyed today’s tour and I will be back soon!