Bridgewood: Our New Home - an Exterior Tour...

Oh, hello! What is that, you say? You happen to not be tired of my endless rambling about our newest most exciting thing ever? Sweet! Feel free to follow me around the outside of our new house. I would take you inside, but we don't get the keys until 11am on the 27th. But that night? I promise to give you the in depth look on the inside of our baby that you've been dying for! In this case, she is just as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.

Meet... House. Yeah, I know, the name is boring, but we've been waving at her and saying "Hi, House!" every morning and afternoon since late May, just hoping that she would be ours eventually. I think me and God were on the same page on this one.

{side note - I forgot my kit lens at home - you are stuck with the images my 50mm was capable of taking, hence the lack of pictures of the actual whole house from all angles}

So, this is the front of House. Taken from the street, because I actually had to be that far away to get most of the front of the house in the shot. Even still, some of the garage is cut off, as well as part of the living room. There are 7 windows on the front of the house alone! So. Much. Light. Our place we are renting now has 4 windows on the front, and they are small and let in hardly any light at all.

Here is a better look at just the front door. I'm madly in love with the fact that I've got french doors. I'm not madly in love with the walk up to them. If it had just been raining, you would have to go mud boggin' to come a knockin'. I don't want to lay a whole mess of concrete in my beautiful forest of a front yard, so I'm thinking that pavers or flagstone will do the trick.

Directly above the front entryway is where two of the upstairs bedrooms are. There are a total of 4 bedroom's upstairs (including the master) and a 5th bedroom downstairs that we plan on converting into our home office. While there are a lot of things to love about this house, J and I just went dopey over these wood shingles that go around the entire 2nd floor. As it turns out, these shingles are actually called "shakes." Whatever they are called, I didn't see these things on the houses in Arizona!

Are you tired of looking at windows yet? No? Good! Because these are the windows that look directly into my living room. I don't know how I'm going to fit a Christmas tree and our 3 piece sectional in front of those windows, but it is going to happen somehow!

2 things. I could swear there were no numbers on this front door when I took pictures a few weeks ago. Also, the hardware on the front door is some fantastic brassiness. I'm probably going to have to paint those black to match my awesome black numbers and black shutters.

This, friends, is my garage. Actually, it WILL be my garage... once we install a garage door. And that is the door that people will be using to avoid mud bogging if I don't get those pavers installed ASAP. The garage actually has two storage areas on the left side that can be locked up, which will be an extremely handy place for J to keep his tools. Also, please notice the adorable little trash can corral. I'm not sure that ours will fit in there, but it is worth a shot!

I love this view of House! Right now you are seeing the garage to the left, and the patio off the garage to the right. You can also see the door that leads from the patio straight into the Family Room/Den (yes, that is a wood burning fire place!). I have many grand schemes for this patio, mostly involving lots of potted plants. I might also need to learn how to build a big water fountain, because this patio needs the sound of trickling water. Directly above you will find the nice big window into what is likely Mikey's room (to the left) and one of the windows into the Master Bedroom on the right.

Completely skipping ahead out of order is a snapshot of the "camp fire" portion of our backyard. Don't get me wrong - I'm stoked to have this, and I think it will lead to many fun nights roasting marshmallows with the boys as soon as they are a little bit older. Strictly from a convenience aspect - what a great place to burn all the leaves that will be falling from my 8 million trees.

This is a good look at the back of House. The pretty windows closest to us are looking right into the family room. The sliding glass doors on the deck walk you right into the kitchen. That sweet little door right in between? That belongs to our mudroom/laundry room. It is hard to tell in this picture, but that door is seriously narrow. Up on top you will find the 2nd set up windows that look into the Master Bedroom. I love this view of the house. It makes me giddy to inhabit this space and make it my own.

I told you it was a narrow door! I'm not sure I'll be able to walk out this door in my current state, lol. And isn't our little deck adorable? Just big enough for our little family and a grill for cooking out!

Do you see the beautiful Dogwood Tree I get to spy every morning when I wake up? This yard is amazing!

This is the part of the tour where I stand in the middle of the manicured part of the backyard, and spin in a circle taking pictures of the woods that are part of our lot. No joke - there are probably snakes and all sorts of not fun animals out there. But I still love it, snakes and all.

This isn't the most glamorous view of the house. That teeny little window is the one right above the kitchen sink. I was sort of hoping that the big fat window right next to it (and shown right below) was the window living above my kitchen sink, but I was wrong. The house we are renting now has 3 windows into the kitchen, but is still soooo dark. I'm hoping the big ol' sliding glass doors let plenty of light into my new kitchen.