"baby, you're too pretty for me!"

Well, the stagers are finished. They finished yesterday and then the photographer came to take the photos. I'll add captions to each picture. If you didn't see the old house, these pictures won't mean very much to you. I didn't think of taking "before" pictures until now - I'm not in the habit of snapping random pictures of my house, so I just don't have comparisons for you. When I am a professional blogger, I'll think of these things ahead of time. 

This is the view of our "new" living room from the entrance way (sort of). I was proud that they kept the large picture of the ship (hanging behind the sofa). That is the only thing that belongs to us in this picture - oh, also the tiny statue of the baseball player on the mantel (courtesy of the Duchess, Gma Nancy). This is the same living room, view from the kitchen. What is really ours? The two framed pictures by the lamp - painted squares of a tin roof taken from a farmhouse in Manitoba (and 2 of my favorite things in the house)

2 shots of the dining room. I am proud to say that the table, chairs and hutch all belong to us (as well as the china they kept in the hutch. Only the picture is added (and, I've already told RKZ I want to buy it for the new house - everything not ours is for sale, by the way. The kitchen nook. Pretty much the same except for the fake flowers and green lemons (also fake). Buck has enjoyed pretending to eat these and Thunder throws them everywhere. It'd be funny if I wasn't nervous about the "you break it, you buy it" policy. 

The kitchen looks almost the same (minus 3 years of clutter). I had to take a picture of the lovely oil and vinegar and pestle accents. These pictures really make me like my kitchen. I'll miss it when we move to the 80's kitchen of the new house (think "renovation-now").

The basement. You might also recognize this furniture as our California living room furniture. I've been trying to get rid of it for 3 houses now; but, the stagers have saved it for me. If you click on this picture, you'll see the brown "shaggy" pillows. I've already decided to buy the pillows and center table which will make this the den furniture in our new home. Everything old is new again! Oh, we are also responsible for the very cute boy in the shot. He goes where were go :) 

the room affectionately called, "Grandma and Grandpa's room" (the guest room to the left of the bathroom) has been turned into a home office. It's absolutely lovely. The lead stager (Jeff) told me that "the more small furniture you put into a room, makes it appear much larger." Interesting. The rug, clock, book of quotations (on table) and statue of the golfer on the desk are ours. 

The "bonus/TV room" upstairs. If you've seen our house before, you'll recognize this furniture because it used to be in our living room (around the fireplace). It was nice to hear that the stagers really loved our old stuff, but that it was just "too big" for staging spaces. Big furniture made the house look much smaller. This furniture is now in the room where the u-shaped couch and chair were (they were put in storage because they are "giant"). Buck said that the new pillows look like "giant bean-bags", which makes me laugh. The bean bags are currently all over the floor because they make it impossible to sit on the couches (especially if you're 4). In this room (I'm proud to say), all of the furniture and the movie posers are ours. The lamps will soon be ours as well (I've decided I have no skill picking out accent lighting). 

Our new Master bed room. The king bed is in storage and none of the bedding or side tables are ours. Everything else is the same (only seems much more neat). RKZ and I are both committing to not "cluttering" up our new house (roll eyes here). It's been interesting cramming 4 people into that double bed. Not that we do the "family bed" but by 6 am, we're all there. This set up does make our dresser and chair look nice, though. It was my dream to have the room set up like this (with the king bed in the room) - the next Master is bigger (but not enormous like so many new Masters'). RKZ and I have almost compromised into hanging our wall-mounted TV where the mirror is now (he is generally anti-tv in the bedroom). We'll see. I'll be sure to someday post pictures of our new house once we're finished decorating. 

Now that this is done, I feel as though I have our house back. Wouldn't you know it, but Buck was up ALL last night puking (once an hour) on the new Master bed (and us). The kids' rooms remained the same, but we have only 1 set of bedding per bed so we're already up to our necks in laundry. The house went up for sale last night, so I'm posting (currently) in my pj's while Buck watches tv and tries not to get sick upstairs (all over the bean-bag pillows). RKZ was home this morning, but March is their busiest month at work and he had to go. Thunder is totally off schedule and screamed bloody murder from his bed for 1 hour this morning (when he was supposed to be napping). He's asleep now (thank goodness for him and us). 

Two acres of land better totally be worth this :)