our new home

We've lived in our new place for a little over a month now, and I decided that if I keep waiting for our home to be spotless to take the pictures (that friends and family have been asking for) and post them then it's never going to happen. So you have been pre-warned, there will be some clutter/ mess in these pictures... don't judge.  Plus, I'm at a phase in life where I'm for the first time starting to be comfortable with my mess/ clutter... that I don't have everything together, neat and organized... that I don't need to appear perfect... and that I'm comfortable with people seeing me and my home the way we truly are.

First let's discuss the layout... our home is a typical New Orleans shotgun 1/2 double.  Shotgun meaning each room connects directly to the next (as in the wikipedia picture below) and that there are no hallways.  Double in that our house is two rooms wide, consisting of two mirror imaged shotgun floor plans.  1/2 in that we live in 1/2 the house, and another couple lives in the other.  We each have our own separate front entrances, and there aren't any doors that connect/ cut through between our side of the home and theirs.

This shotgun is unlike the other two that we've lived in here in New Orleans in that we have a front door, but we also have a side door that enters into the middle room of the house.  In all of our other homes all of our guests have had to walk through our bedroom to get to either the kitchen or the bathroom, but in this home we made the side door the entrance that our friends use, and the front two rooms Noah's bedroom and our bedroom, so that now our guests only walk through the living room, kitchen, and bathroom.  I REALLY like this layout, although always having guests walking through our bedroom has been a good motivator for me to keep our bedroom clean in recent years.

So without further delay, here are the pictures...

 the front of our double, we are the 1/2 on the right

the side of the house/ the door we use as our main entrance

(view from just inside the front door) Noah's room is the first room if you in the front door (that we don't use).  His room is the largest in the house and the only room with a ceiling fan.  We could easily fit another crib and baby in this room if/ when that time comes.  This would have been a spacious bedroom for us, or a living room, but I really wanted Noah's room at one end of the house, so that we weren't always tromping through it to get to the kitchen or bathroom and interupting naps.

Our couch is a 3 piece massive u-shaped sectional that has plagued us in every home we've had in New Orleans, because the living rooms just aren't large enough to set the couch up properly.  In this case our chaise ended up in Noah's room, but I really like having a nice comfy seat for me while Noah has this massive floor to play around on.

Next up your have our bedroom, which Noah's door attaches directly to.  (on the other side of the door with the hanging coats is Noah's room).  Our bedroom is still a good sized room, and probably the largest bedroom we've had shared together.

Our bedroom contains the only clothing closet in the house (there's also a linen closet in the bathroom).  This is the worst part of living in old houses, they don't have any storage space.  This is by far the smallest closet that Jeremy and I have had since we've been married, and we have to share it.  That said, we made it work, we crammed every inch of it full and got rid of what we could.  We are really fortunate to have as many clothes as we do, and a shelter to keep them in, so I really don't feel justified in complaining that we don't have enough room to store our clothes. 

this is the one room we haven't hung a single picture in yet, but we have several propped up against a corner in our living room just waiting to be utilized

Our bedroom directly connects to our living room, which happens to be the smallest room in the house (aside from the bathroom).

Where's Waldo?... er... Noah?

Our kitchen is the next room.  In most New Orleans houses the kitchens and bathrooms are the back rooms because these rooms (and the plumbing) were added on years after the original construction.  We went down a room in this house from our last one, and no longer have an actual dining room, so we make due with our eat in kitchen.  We also no longer have a laundry room/ closet, so the kitchen also serves as our laundry room... it's multi-functional.  Good thing it's so big to start with.  This kitchen is way more nice and modern than our last one, I am really grateful to have more updated appliances again.  We also have a small privacy fenced back yard that this door opens up to, but it is way too hot outside today for me to venture outside for a picture of the yard.

(Ignore the two different curtains hanging on the window... we are still debating on whether we like the red or caramel better).  since our cabinet space is very limited the armoire in the back left corner of this picture serves as our pantry.

The bathroom is also a good bit larger, and more modern than our last one.  It's nice to actually have a newish tub this time, that doesn't have 50 plus years of other people's caked on stains and grime.

I don't love this blue color, but I'm not much into decorating or painting so it will stay as is.

So there you have it.  This is the fifth place that we've lived in together in the four years that we've been married.  I'm really hoping that we'll be in this one for at least a few years and put an end to the move every year trend.  Although, I do think each move gets easier and easier as we get rid of more and more extra junk.  This place already feels like home.  It feels cozy.  We love the house, we love the neighborhood and neighbors.  We'd really like to be here for a few years and have the chance to really build on the relationships that we've already started making with all of our neighbors.  This really feels like a neighborhood, all of the neighbors know each other.  Most of them sit on the front steps in the afternoon/ evening and talk to each other and those who wander by.  Every time we spend the evening sitting outside we find someone to engage in conversation with.  We are within walking distance of a beautiful park, and of fun local restaurants and grocery markets.

This house is our home.  I wonder what our years here will hold... new milestones for Noah, lots of laughter and love, relationships being built with our neighbors, and more I'm sure.

Lord, help us to remember that our home is yours, let it be dedicated to you and your work.  May we give and receive ministry here.  May lives be healed, changed, transformed, and surrendered here.  May all who enter our doors encounter you, and your perfect, sacrifical, unconditional love.