Come to My House, I Will Show You Around

Hi friend! Would you like to hear a little bit about the house we just bought to fit our brand new family of ten? And maybe take a tour? You would? Fantastic.

(Fair warning: we have barely touched the house since we moved in. Give us a break man, we did a lot of big stuff like getting engaged and married and blending families and buying a house and moving all in a very short period of time. We are tired. So I’m just sharing some ‘before’ or ‘pre-move-in’ photos today, cool? Cool).

After we got married in September last year, Cannon moved into my rental house with me and my kids, though we knew we’d have to start looking for a bigger place right away. But we were stumped … should we rent? Buy? Build? Stay in my town? Move to the other side of the Phoenix valley and start fresh? We avoided making a decision for about a month, mostly because I am a world champion at Decision Avoidance. It should an Olympic event, because I would DOMINATE. I think. Most likely. Not sure. Maybe. No yeah, I probably could.

So we (I) waffled for a while, but we ultimately had to make a quick decision because his kids were moving down from Utah after Christmas to start school, and stuffing ten people just barely getting to know each other into a teeny rental house sounds like the premise of a reality show nobody wants to watch.

We decided to call a realtor friend to look at a few houses nearby. Fun times: since we started our search in my neighborhood, the first three homes he showed us were the exact same model of the house my ex-husband and I once owned. Ehhh. While I obviously liked that particular model enough to have chosen it once before, it was just too weird to consider. And also not big enough for ten people. And real weird.

Then we looked at a couple more homes that were big enough, but required so much work. Imagine if someone discarded a bunch of industrial-grade carpet, and someone else stole that carpet from a dumpster, then took the dumpster carpet and infused it with the stench of ten thousand cigarettes, then, using NASA-grade adhesive, glued it to every walkable surface of the house, (and a few walls) and then tried to get you to pay money for it. Girl, I do not have the energy.

So no, embarking on a brand new life with eight kids did not find us in the mood for a fixer-upper. (Unless that is a reality show people WOULD watch??? Call my people, we’ll set something up).

Then one afternoon our realtor called us. He said he had a house available and the owners were moving out of the country and were eager to sell. We hurried over to check it out.

I know it sounds extra-cheesy, but as soon as we walked inside, it felt like home. We both could immediately feel it … just a really peaceful, welcoming vibe. It was clearly well cared for and as I looked around, it felt to me like the home of a happy family. Well to my surprise, I later learned that I actually knew the family! I had never been to their house before, obviously, but I’ve known them for years and they are the sweetest people. I feel like that’s half the reason that the home had such good energy.

The other half is probably because yes, as fate would have it, it was supposed to be our home too. We were under contract in two weeks. Apparently we like to do things really, really fast.

But now that we’re actually moved in, we are taking things slow. Might be nice to catch our breath for a bit, you know? So other than repainting the walls white and the doors black, everything else is untouched so far. We don’t even have a dining table that fits everyone yet. (Side note, where can I find a table for ten that doesn’t look like something your great-grandma churned butter on, or cost several billion dollars? Need tips).

So! Enough rambling. Let’s take a peek inside! I wanted to share the MLS photos today, just to give you a glimpse of how the house looked when we bought it, (also, let’s be honest, we are only like 46% moved in and in no state to start sharing house pics yet and also I don’t even know where my camera is), and to serve as the before pics as we go about transforming this house to be more ‘us.’ Like I said, my friends had kept it so nicely maintained, but there are still lots of things we plan to tweak and change to reflect our style. So far, I think Cannon and I are on the same page style-wise. That would be a huge bummer if we weren’t. But remember, I already knew that about him on the our first date when he was excitedly showing me pictures of tile and faucets haha he’s so cute. Ok, I am still rambling, sorry. Here’s pics!

As you may know, any house built in the 2000s in Arizona comes standard in beige, brown, more beige, and maybe some tan to spice things up. These walls are now white and the doors are black. We plan to update the railing next.

The formal front room, strictly for use when the Pope or Oprah come to visit, or Poprah, as I like to call them when they visit at the same time. Alas, that happens less often than you’d think, so this will become an office.

I think this is supposed to be a formal dining room, but since we eat on paper plates while hovering over the kitchen sink (haha but really), we plan to make this a music room. We have a drum set, a piano, several guitars, two ukuleles, and a violin, so we’re placing our bets that at least one of these kids will become a virtuoso/rock star/one-hit-wonder and support us into our old age. It will totally make up for the UNENDING CHAOS that is having eight kids and a drum set, a piano, several guitars, two ukuleles, and a violin.

Dining area is a great size for a crowd. Current plans include deciding on a new light fixture, railing, and a table that doesn’t require us to eat in shifts.

The kitchen struggles a bit. It is not laid out very efficiently and the island is weirdly small and off-center. The oven door practically bumps into it when it’s open.

It will get a redo as soon as we can make it happen. I have dreams of physically removing that island with my bare hands and throwing it out the nearest window.

The family room is nice and roomy. As you can see, the previous owners had several large pieces in here. We currently have a single sofa, floating all forlornly in the middle of the room because we like to live like squatters I guess. However! We did just order a new sofa, our first big purchase for this house, so we’re coming along.

I’m most excited for this room. The previous owners used it for a bedroom, but it’s actually a large loft. The goal here is a super fun space where all the kids can play, read, relax, or watch the world’s most annoying YouTube videos at an deafeningly high volume at 6 am. (Is this just my kids?) Going to take some thinking to make this room happen …

Master bedroom is a blank canvas. The whole house feels like a blank canvas, especially now that all the walls are bright white. (There are like, bathrooms and stuff too, but who really wants to see MLS pics of that? Not me. MLS pics of bathrooms are the worst, like oh here is a toilet).

Wow, thanks for reading, this got long. Anyway. We’re just really really grateful that we found a house that fits the needs of this crazy bunch so well, and so quickly too. It’s overwhelming for sure, (I also dominate in the Olympic event of Being Consistently Overwhelmed) but I’m so excited to see where it can go and what we can create together. I hope you’ll follow along!

---

PS: title of this blog post is a favorite song by a favorite band of mine.

PPS: did you know I have a Better After Amazon page of all my favorite Amazon finds? Will you possibly be so kind to give it a quick visit? Amazon is threatening to to take it away from me for lack of promoting it. #badblogger But I’ve spent a good deal of time collecting some great stuff there, from hand-picked decor, to my tried-and-true beauty products, to my favorite books that I promise will make you snort-laugh, so please give it a quick click if you can! Thanks so much friend.