Friday, March 23, 2012

Home Tour: The Rest of the House

I'm not a feature sort of girl. I can't stick with anything long term (except Josh, and child rearing, so far). So, in epic "Before" fashion, here is the rest of the house.

The Family Room: Looking much better now that I have donated many toys to goodwill, and purchased a couch. Love the skylight, but would love it even better if there were 2, because this room can be pretty dark if it isn't high noon.







 The Porch: Our screened in porch is worth more than it's weight in gold, especially now that I vacuumed up all the cobwebs, and the wildlife hair from the carpet (the owner claims she caught and released several raccoon, fox, snakes and other exciting things). It has kind of turned into an overflow area for the boys outdoor toys, but I don't care, because I refuse to let the kids outside while the bees and wasps are conspiring against us. The critters still manage to sneak in, and just this morning, Johnny picked up a delicious cricket and tried to eat it before I noticed the wriggling leg hanging out of his mouth.





The Formal Living/Dining Room: Seriously, Southerners. How much money did you have to spend on furniture? I love your gorgeous hardwood floors, but I have no use for you, and have instead decided to convert you into a lounge of sorts as soon as the boxes are unpacked. Yes, a lounge. For, like, listening to music, and playing roleplaying games with the fellow nerds we hope to find someday.








 The Boy's Room: Needs some more personality, but it is coming along nicely so far! Loving the "outerspace" theme.








{Can I haz sock?}

The Guest Bathroom: Perhaps the most awful, tiny, horrid room in the house, yet one I've somehow become fond of. I guess the wallpaper finally won me over. Already looking better with a white shower curtain, but it still needs a lot of help...




Epic Hallway: I love our hallway. It is empty, but always clean, and the hardwood floors amaze me here, even in this windowless area of the house. If there was a zombie apocalypse, I would totally hide in our hallway. So many doors to confuse the zombies!





That about sums that up. As I do things to improve the place in the future, I shall document and post. Many thanks to Johnny, my most excellent tour assistant. 


How does your garden grow?


My garden/yard is a hot mess. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there are wild onions growing in my flower bed in the front yard. Oh, and those gorgeous, delicate purple flowers growing like crazy all over, well, they are actually weeds (go figure). One of the neat things about moving to SC after being a desert dweller for so long is learning the names of all these damn plants/trees/shrubs/bushes. Here is a sampling of what is in our yard, as captured a few weeks ago. I'll have to drag the camera out again this weekend to show you what it looks like now that things are really kicking into high gear with flowering.

 {I'm told these are called Lenten Roses}
 {Uh... uh... uh... I don't know}
 {That fine architecture right there is my next door neighbors 2 story guest house apartment/meth lab}
 {Monkey grass abounds! It is like the crab grass of SC, but meaner, and people. do. it. on. purpose}
 {This might be an Iris.. or a Lily... or something else. How am I supposed to know? Pa-in-law knows...}
 {Oh oh oh... I know this one... it is a... no wait, Dogwood are trees}
 {Delicate purple weeds, strangled by monkey grass}
 {I think these are the branches of oak trees, but it could be one of the 700 dogwood trees in the front}
{I think I finally remember... is this a Hydrangea???}
 {errr... I don't even remember... I already called something else an Azalea, so yeah...}
 {Dogwoods, in a busted @$$ flowerbed, frought with peril, and purple weeds}
 {No clue... ficus? maybe? I don't know...}
 {All I know is, don't eat the berries!}
 {Those are all Iris's.. or Lily's, or Tulips, or something...}
 {Monkey Grass, part 2}
 {More Lenten Roses}
 {Yellow flower bush thing... we totally had those in AZ, and they drove the bees wild!}
 {More beautiful purple weeds}
 {This might be the most impressive flower bed of all in our backyard horror story}
{No, really, I'm convinced that a snake lives in there}
 {Look at it sideways... Snake city, I'm tellin' ya!}
 {Oh, eff... not another one. WTF are you? And why do you have red berries, too?}
{I finally googled "Purple Weeds" and got a bunch of pictures of Michael Phelps... still no idea what these weeds are called. I'll just call you Phelps Flowers...}

Someday I'll figure my yard out. Someday, after I burn the mountain of leaves, hack back the monkey grass, extract the hidden snakes, and weed the wild onions. The Phelps Flower can stay.