To make a very long story significantly shorter, we're now living in our almost-totally renovated dreamy little white farmhouse in rural Nova Scotia, with 40 acres of perfection surrounding us. Everyone loves a good house tour, and I had grand ideas of posting perfectly tidy, perfectly lit pictures throughout the house. But since this is real life, I arrived home after work one afternoon this week when the sun was actually shining, grabbed the camera, and took a bunch of pictures during those few minutes. I kept my coat on - I was afraid that the sun would disappear behind a cloud and I might miss some of that gorgeous light if I paused to take it off. So take off your coat and come on in - this is a little taste of how you would find our house on a random afternoon.
This is where we spend a lot of time every day - at the kitchen sink. The windows are low enough even for me to see out (I'm on the shorter side of short) and we have a lovely view of the pond, the barns, and the neighbour's field.
This is the laundry room; it's a tiny little space with just enough room for the washer and dryer. The window looks west, at our back field and the edge of the woods where the deer graze most evenings. All of the walls throughout the house are off-white; the colour is Style at Home's Window's Dress, available at Home Hardware. It is the perfect off-white. It changes subtly with the light, is always warm, bright and inviting.
And the office - I'm sitting in that very chair right now. Adam works from home and spends a lot of time here. It's the room that still has some unpacked boxes of odds and ends that I can't wait to put away. We have a lovely sideboard on its way (tax-free and 60% off!) so once that arrives in a few weeks, we'll have places for all of those necessary things.
Looking back into the office, from the kitchen. We have several paintings by the lovely Sarah Jones, and I just love them. Give me off-white walls, wood floors, plenty of plants and some great art, and I am in raptures.
Looking up the stairs, there is a branch full of twinkle lights, and a perfect little triangular window over the regular window in what we call the book nook. The book nook has no books in it yet; we're awaiting bookshelves. And I'm thinking of building a little platform of some kind for a proper daybed to read and dream on. Right now it's a pile of pillows and quilts.
This is the playroom, on a random day in January. Real life! That mat is actually pretty fantastic - you can get a little peek at it there on the right. I bought it at Frenchy's for $25; it's hand-tufted wool and is still available online, here. Heh heh.
And this is Heidi, our sweet kitty. We adopted her in September, and she hid for the first few months, which is why Phillip named her Heidi. (Brilliant, eh?) She is just the sweetest. And talkative.
The light! Oh, the light in this house is so lovely. We opened things up and removed some walls, and the light is like another presence in this house. It moves so beautifully through.
The boys are sharing a room for now, and now that they've settled in, it's going really well.
(I'm having a bit of an issue with vertical images in this template - sorry about the weird size of this one.)
This is probably my favourite spot in the house, right at the bottom of the stairs. There's a small selection of our games... games and books are the only things that I can stand in large numbers, and we love playing games together. In fact, Adam and Phillip are playing one right now. That window looks west, with a view of the back field. The plant was grown from a cutting from one of my grandmother's plants after she died, and it loves it there, too. My phone is usually docked on the stereo, playing some kind of lovely music. Food tastes better when it's made while singing Three Little Birds.
In the living room.
One large wall in the dining room is now covered with prints of my Instagram pictures. I love that everyone stops to look and enjoy them, and that the boys have fun remembering places we've been and things we've done when they look at them.
So there! There are some peeks of what you would see if you popped in for tea. Happy weekend!