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Friday, January 16, 2009

House things

Thanks to all who outed themselves as blog readers the past couple of days. I love that you took it upon yourselves to come up with something to talk about! Tamara and SparklieSunshine both asked to see pictures of our house so I thought I would oblige them.


Here you go.

I know...they wanted a photo home tour. I'm not quite ready to take pictures of everything yet. It's clean, but there are a few things I would like to do to it before I take the time to photograph every room.

Here's a sneak peak at some of my favorites things in my house so far.


The bathroom. I love the tile and the glass shower. And don't even get me started on the bathtub. Love it! I do think I need some candles to complete the look though. Someday...


This wall. First of all it has the window seats which I am so very fond of. They look small, but I am able to sit with my back against the side and my feet up and look out of the window. Plenty of room. Also there is the dresser. Love this! My mother bought me this dresser and a matching taller dresser about 10 years ago. They are massive and heavy and great. My sister had been using them while we were in Turkey, but she willingly gave them back when she heard we had an empty house and plastic tubs of clothes. Whew!


This light fixture. Not sure why, but it makes me smile.


The windows behind my kitchen sink. The ceramic clock is from Turkey, and I needed some green so I bought some little plants to put there with it. If I am going to have to stand there and wash dishes I at least want something happy to look at!


This spot on my island. I searched high and low for a fruit bowl that I liked. They were always either too big or too small. I found a couple that were the right size, but they were plain. I'm not usually picky when it comes to things like that, but I was willing to wait since I had a plastic bowl that worked perfectly fine. Last week I was at Walmart when I saw this bowl. It was plain, but it had a metal stand! I loved it. It was the only one like it anywhere. There was no price on it or on the shelf where I saw it. I carried it all over the store looking for another one. I did find a price on a shelf that said "ceramic casserole with stand". I have no idea what that looked like because there were none there. I was determined to have this bowl so I just figured I would beg the cashier to let me buy it. (This is turning into a post in and of itself...sheesh!) When I was done shopping I scouted out the checkout lines. The lines closest to the grocery section of Walmart were definitely longer. I didn't mind long. What I was looking for was a cashier that could help me. I knew that whoever I chose was going to have to call for back-up. There were going to be price checks and waiting. I didn't want the line behind me to be full of people with full grocery carts. I decided to check out the other side of the checkout lanes. I was presented with a dilemma. There were three cashiers to choose from. One was a young guy probably of Indian descent. He seemed perfectly nice, but would he be able and willing to take the time it would take to find me a price? I wasn't sure. Next there was an even younger girl. The poor girl seemed lost and more than a little stressed. Then there was an older gentleman. He didn't seem to be happy to be there. Should I choose the young guy who was horsing around, stress out an already worried little girl, or choose grandpa? I chose grandpa. He was older, wiser, and surely knew the ropes for getting a price on something that I wasn't sure even belonged in that Walmart. I am here to tell you that I chose poorly. I'm not sure where grandpa was from, but I could barely understand him. Now I personally have a problem with accents. After living in Turkey for almost 7 years I have gotten accustomed to English spoken with a Turkish accent. Anytime I hear English with any other accent I have to really pay attention to get what is being said. I'm sure in time my ears will retrain themselves, but in the meantime I have to ask people to repeat themselves way more than I am comfortable with. That is what happened with grandpa. And because he was older he also mumbled. I had no idea what he was saying. He finally called for back-up. While we were waiting on more help he proceeded to scan the rest of my items. I was buying some plants for my house. The plants you see in the other pictures of this post. One of those plants had some water standing in the pot. He managed to dump all the water out all over his scanner. He walked away. I wasn't sure where he was going. He finally came back with a roll of paper towels. About this time I decided I better let the two people waiting behind me know that I was needing a price check and that it could be awhile. One immediately left our lane and went to stressed-out-girl's lane. The other figured she had time to wait. The manager finally came over to see what we needed. I explained the dilemma of the fruit bowl. I told her that I had seen a price for a casserole with a stand. She asked me if I was ok with that price. I was. She then told grandpa to enter it under 14 and type in the price. After he was done scanning the rest of the items he looked at me and asked me what number he was supposed to punch in. I told him. He asked me the price. I told him. He asked me what it was. I said a bowl with a metal stand. I was dumbfounded. Poor guy. He had probably had a hard day, and here I come with a basketful of problems! Oh, and I love that the black stand matches the "vase" the bamboo is in! So fun!

Ok. That's it. That's all the house tour you get for now.

15 comments:

Brittany said...

The house is gorgeous! I love it!

Sra said...

Way to go on the corner lot. Very pretty house, and that means a lot coming from me, because I don't really care much about houses and cars and things like that. So if I'm impressed, then it's really impressive.

Tami Wyatt said...

OMG!! I’m so happy that you visited my blog! I have very few readers other than my family and it truly makes my day to find out that someone else has enjoyed what I’ve written.

I’m planning on writing a post explaining who my cast of characters are so that if you would like to continue reading, or if you go back and read my archives, you will know who everyone is.

Thank you so much for leaving a comment. It made my day!

I enjoyed reading your blog and I look forward to being able to go in to your archives and get caught up.

I love your taste test series and I have to agree with Anna Grace on her opinion of egg nog and Yoo Hoo. Blech!

Also, your house is gorgeous. What state are you in?

 Tami

Tamara said...

That was a nice teaser! House looks beautiful. Very jealous of the gorgeous pines!

Anonymous said...

I looove your house. Like seriously. love.

HeyJoe said...

I can't tell much from the interior shots, but the outside looks freakin awesome.

Lynn - the piggy bank painter said...

I agree, you house looks gorgeous and awesome....

Mamadallama said...

I'm going to have to jump on the love-your-house bandwagon, too! It is so different than Florida houses. Really nice! I like the peaks into your rooms, too. I'm admiring your decorative skills. I'm not all that good at that myself. What I AM good at is getting into situations similar to what you described in your Walmart outing. That was pretty funny after you tried so hard to pick the best cashier. I would have picked the young guy, I think. I bought some flat leaf parsley at the grocery store the other day and the cashier punched in the code for sweet potatoes instead so the price came out to be 30 cents. I said I knew it had to be more than that and she said, nope, that's what it costs today. I didn't know what to do so I laughed, paid and left. I feel kinda guilty about that. Like the time I was shopping in a drugstore and paid for a whole lot of different items only to get out to my car and find I had a bottle of shampoos tucked under my arm. That time I went back into the store and paid for it.

Mamadallama said...

s/b 'peeks' not 'peaks'! LOL

Kayseri Protestan Kilisesi said...

looks great, looking forward to seeing more pictures! are the curtains in the last picture from your kitchen in Turkey? they look similar.

Anonymous said...

1. is this your home that you had before or is it new to you? (maybe you said before adn I missed it)
2. LOVE the window seat!!!
3. You didn't choose wrong at Walmart. At Walmart, there are no right choices in the check-out line. None. Period.

Anonymous said...

Looks great. Sometimes it is best to wait and find the thing that is perfect if you have a vision for it.

Natalie said...

brittany - thanks!

sra - thanks. we love the house as well. and we don't care so much about cars and houses either. i do love it though!

tami w. - you're welcome. your fantasy was funny! yep...i wasn't crazy about the eggnog either! we are in texas.

tamara - thanks! we ended up taking the gutter off the house because those gorgeous pines kept them filled with pine needles! none of the other houses had gutters so we decided they weren't necessary.

kris - thanks! me too! (i only know one kris...i'm not sure if you are the one i know. welcome...no matter who you are!)

heyjoe - thanks. i totally agree and can't take credit for it at all!

lynn - thanks!

mamadallama - thanks! it is probably the prettiest house we have ever lived in. love it! i am not a great decorator. i look at magazine and copy what i see. i definitely don't have an eye for it myself. i thought it was funny that you went back in the store to pay. once when i was pregnant i ended up with something extra in my cart when i got out to the car. i was tired and had a headache and just didn't worry about taking it back in. the next day i took it back and explained that i had forgotten to take it out of my cart when i was unloading the groceries. they looked at me like i had two heads. so funny.

abby - nope...different curtains. these were here when we moved in. they are very similar though!

~m - answered your first question for you in a post. and as far as the check-out lines i understand. i was trying to figure out who would be the least stressed by my request. obviously i need to do a better job of determining these types of things!

citizen of the world - i know. i have to look through magazines and see what i like. then i try to take what i own and make it look similar. i do like an uncluttered house so i don't have much to put places!

Irrational Dad said...

Wow. That is niiiiice. That's the kind of house you could grow old in.

Natalie said...

joe - it is amazing! they did a great job!