Dwell: Our First House

A heart heavy with bittersweet feelings, we are taking a big step in our lives and moving out of Texas. Through this process one thing got done and that was photographing of the house by professional property photographers. Ours was taken by Realtor Media Source. 

The house is 3 bed 3 bath, 2524 sq ft built in 1984. From the front facade of this house it is quite hard to tell that it is two stories. This is because a)the houses in this neighborhood sit on a hill and is supported by retaining walls, b)the second floor is a much smaller square footage and is located towards the back of the house. 

As you walk into the foyer of the house, this formal living room sits to your left. I had big plans for filling up the empty walls....but that will have to be postponed. My favourite things in this room is the Burmese Teak Coffee Table and the Peacock Mirror. 

Here is a view of the foyer and the stairs leading upstairs. Beyond the white door is the corridor to the bedrooms. All three bedrooms are located behind this door at the end of the corridor. We had thought of removing this door once but our wise friends suggested that it is great to have to be able to block out sound coming from the living rooms into the bedrooms....so we have kept it. 

We built a custom desk for our study by clamping cedar boards on top of each other. We got them cut exactly to the width of the room so that it looks like a built-in piece. The full length white shelves up top help to finish the look and also blend it with the white wall and highlighting the books and objects that are on the shelves.

Only when we started living in this house did we realize how functional the kitchen is. It has an abundance of cabinets which are not even completely full. Our pantry is small compared to walk-in pantries but it is super functional because it's side walls are lined with shallow shelves for spices. It keeps us organized. The tall deep cabinet marking the end of the cabinets on the wall shown in the picture is actually full of pull-out drawers. We keep all our pots and pans and all sorts of food containers in here. Once I pull the drawer out I can see where everything is. No need to dig around blindly. 

Having windows in the kitchen is a blessing when your culture is rich with food and cooking. When we cook we keep the kitchen window on top of the sink open. We also open the patio door ever since we had the net door installed on the other side. This takes care of all the food smell that gets trapped inside the house. Having ceiling fans in every room also helps a lot. 

The main functionality of the kitchen lies in the way the things are ordered in place. So the space between the sink and the stove is a counter space that is perfect for chopping. This way we can wash vegetables, chop them and then put it on the pan over the stove, all standing in one place. Right under that chopping station is a drawer cabinet that holds the trash. The trash is also sectioned into garbage and recycle. I absolutely love this amenity. I have placed a big chopping board that slides onto the counter space and has a drop edge which I use to just slide off the garbage directly under and into the trash bin. I am going to miss cooking in this kitchen. 

We only have one dining space and it is lined with windows which brings in an abundance of natural light. This space feels super bright and airy which is why we bought an all white dining table and paired it with florals. Having black granite counter tops also was a reason behind this. A dark dining table would make it feel congested visually.

There are two doors in this photo of which the one on the right is the pantry. The other one leads to the laundry room which then leads to the garage. So when we come home we enter the laundry room where I have arranged shoe storage and a little ottoman for sitting. The opening on the left in the image is the corridor that leads to the rest of the house. Also in the picture is our favourite wall of cook book display. 

The only thing I would want to change in this kitchen would be to have two smaller ovens instead of one big one. But there is no space for that to happen. 

Our laundry room is lined with two walls full of  white cabinets for storage and also a little wash sink.

The master bedroom has an unique feature where the wall between the two windows is already set up to place the bed. There are two can lights on either sides and also two electric sockets on either ends indicating where the nightstands and lamps would go. And on each side of that are windows to give us natural light. 

The master bathroom was fully updated unlike the other two bathrooms of the house. It has a skylight right over the sink area filling the entire room with light all day long. The walk in closet is located inside the door on the left in the image. 

This is the second bathroom which is a jack and jill serving two bedrooms together. Here is the post of how we updated this bathroom. This bathroom gets a lot of natural light which in turn lights up the corridor outside. 

This is the second bedroom which used to be light blue and we painted it all white which made the built in desk to nicely blend in. 

Here is the third bedroom and here is the post on this bedframe.

Our third bedroom is located upstairs with the den. There is a large walk in closet behind the white door in the image. When we bought the house this bathroom strangely had carpet in it. We had it replaced with tiles immediately. I had planned to fill the little wall space inside this bathroom with an array of masks....I only got to four. 

The den, great room, tv room - whatever you want to call it waits upstairs. And the large space with the angular ceiling really has a wow factor to it. The downside to this room is that it gets really hot in the summer. Most of our hangouts happen here because of its laid back feel. 

The big ceiling fan in this room keeps the air flow of the entire house maintained. 

This is the balcony that is accessible from the den. We have seen many sunsets from standing here.

The house sits on a large lot. Even with this deck and pergola, half of the lot remains with grass. 

I really appreciate the original owner for keeping everything in a most beautiful shade of grey. My entire circle of family and friends will miss this house for its outdoor space. 

A most useful thing in the backyard is a tool shed. We were lucky to get one with the house.

This large oak tree shelters us from the Texas sun and makes our backyard colorful in the fall. We keep our outdoor furniture off of the deck most of the time. When we have gatherings that is when we layer the deck with rugs and floor pillows and lounge chairs.