Welcome Tour - Part Dos

Wednesday, already?!  This week is flying by!

So I didn't have a chance to post more of the tour yesterday like I promised.  While I sincerely apologize, I doubt anyone was holding their breath for my post ; )

Let's continue on... Shall we?

The Common Area

Clockwise from top left: (1) You will notice we have a comfy couch positioned in the center of our 'common area.'  I've never referred to our family room/living area as the common area before - but it sounds really British and official, it just felt right in the moment.  On the left-side end table there is an adorbs [if I do say so myself] photograph from our Honeymoon to Jamaica.  It's a really good picture, I'm glad we have it!  (2) Oh, hey!  More couch!  The couch and ottoman are a perfect fit for Jim and me.  It came with more pillows than I like to deal with, but they look nice so we keep 'em around.  This is where Jim & I watch our favorite TV shows: Modern Family & Parks and Rec.  We are big Netflix fans so we don't even bother with cable.  We have seasons 1-3 of Modern Family on DVD and we're about halfway through season three and we don't have season four.... so.... if anyone wants to take my hint.... text me for our address if you'd like to send us anything in particular ; ) I'm just messin' around!  We appreciate that there is a redbox just less than a mile up the road, so we get in some good movie nights here and there as well.  The couch also serves as a perfect cuddle spot for a morning quiet time with the Lord.  (3) And our crafty entertainment center!  We didn't have a use for the coffee table that we purchased before getting our couch and ottoman, so the coffee table became our TV stand!  Not super normal, but works perfect.  As you can see, the entertainment center also houses our collection of board games.  We love playing games together, but, unfortunately, I lose about 90% of the time.  Jim is a hack at games!  The Lord is going to teach me to be a gracious loser.  As of right now I'm not having much success with that characteristic : (  Total sore loser right here.  Oh well, we still have fun together and we love that we have stuff to do aside from sitting on the couch watching TV every night.

Wow, I really didn't realize I had so much to say about two pieces of furniture!  I'll attempt to summarize better.  Alright - next spot!

The Office/Guest Quarters

Clockwise from top: (1) Here we have the office/where our guests will stay when we have visitors.  This room is quite spacious and has plenty of windows and sunlight!  I'm a HUGE fan of sunlight and fresh air, so I definitely appreciate this room while I'm working during the day.  As a lot of you may know, I work from home for the same company I worked for in MN, but now I work as a virtual employee.  I work 9am-3pm my time, which ends up being 8am-2pm Minnesota time.  I'm loving this set-up so far, it allows me to get in the things that I want to do in the morning, and then I have flexibility in the afternoon to get housework done, run errands, get dinner started, or relax for a bit. As you can see, I have two screens - super essential for my job; I couldn't function without it!  Also... we have a mess along our wall of boxes that still need to be organized.  I've totally been putting off consolidating and organizing our file folders... it'll get done!  (2) This is a pic of the closet in the office/guest room.  Real exciting stuff.  I would like to point out the fabulous artwork though!  I purchased this painting off of Etsy as a gift for Jim upon his graduation from TBS [The Basic School].  It is customized and reflects everything that I requested appear in the painting!  Kami did an excellent job and communicated with me along the way to get my feedback on her sketches.  I highly recommend you purchase a painting from her - it's a very unique gift for someone special to you!  Visit her store: studioKmath (3 & 4) These are vintage Marine Corps advertisements that I ordered from online.  I thought they would be cool, and eventually we can make this room into a Marine Corps/Jim shrine : )

Guest Bathroom

Clockwise from top left: (1) Here's our guest/spare bathroom.  This bathroom is twice the size of our master bathroom... It's huge and we really only use it every now and then.  At some point I may transfer my stuff over to this bathroom since, as you'll see eventually, the master bathroom is very cramped.  Jim & I have a hard time getting ready at the same time [which, fortunately, we don't have to do very often] due to the small counter space, and small space in general.  I brought the white/glass cabinet from home.  Right now it houses our spare toilet paper rolls.  There was a huge gap between the toilet and the counter, so we thought this would be a perfect space-filler! (2) Toilet and shower.  You know what those are for! (3) Stick on wall decal.  I thought it would work well with this bathroom.  Kind of a French-ish style. (4) I put together this bathroom counter tray using the card-holder suitcase from our wedding.  The guest bath has so much counter space, it's nice that the suitcase doesn't overpower.  It contains a cute birdcage thingy with small, travel sized toilettries for guests to use.  There's also hand lotion, scented spray to cover odors, cottons swabs, a fake plant, and three candles.  It also made for a nice place to lay the hand towels.

And there you have it, part dos of the welcome tour has completed!  Come back again for the next part in the series : )  Tomorrow will be my favorite spot: the KITCHEN!!

Until then,

Mrs. Gretchen Niemann