Living Room Tour!

I finally had a chance today to snap some pictures of the living room. Aside from Michael's room and the kitchen, this is the room that feels the most "settled." There are still some boxes, and there are no pictures on the walls yet. But it is cozy and homelike, and my favorite place in the house to be. 

This is the little reading/knitting corner. It makes me very happy. :) Sadly only half of our books fit on that shelf. We had another that didn't survive the move (it was cheap and falling apart and we don't miss it) so we need to get another one (or two). Some books were obvious choices to put out (as Keith says, some of our books just represent who we are), and others were easy choices to banish to the basement. But there were a lot of books that were really hard to look at and say, "I'm sorry, you'll just have to live downstairs for a while." (Actually, all of these books are still upstairs, in boxes, as you will see in a moment. But still.) 

The part of the house you can see through the window is our kitchen, which has a door to the outside. Sometimes when I sit in that chair Michael goes into the kitchen, looks out the door, and shouts hi. It's a fun game. :) 

That door goes out to our deck. (Pay no attention to the toddler "cave" sitting in front of it ... ;) ) The pink curtains were left here by the previous owner. They are weirdly waterproof in texture, a lot like shower curtains actually.There is so much pink in this house, there was no way this room could escape it. 

We used our wood-burning fireplace for the first time a few days ago. Someday we want to build shelves above the mantel. (You can see the boxes of books that still live up here with us.)

The Moroccan wedding rug was a gift from one of Keith's groomsmen who spent time in the Peace Corps; I'm so glad we finally have a place to put it, although I worry a bit about whether it should be in such a high-traffic area. And the couches were given to us by a family friend. A huge step up from Ikea! :) We love them. Although we will need to invest in some slip covers as soon as possible ... white upholstery does NOT mix well with little boys, especially ones who like to shake out the contents of their cups when their mamas aren't looking. 

The view out our window. Isn't it lovely? This room gets a lot of light because the windows are so big. 

The last shot is kind of fuzzy. To the left of the couch is the hallway that leads to our front door. On the right you can catch a glimpse of our (very pink plaid-wallpapered) dining room.

And that is our living room so far!