This Is The House That Love Built

Let me just preface this by saying that this house is WAAAAY too good for us.  We know.

And we feel so lucky every day to wake up here.  

When we decided to build our dream house straight out of residency in a field in Idaho, I know people thought we were crazy.  And I was right there with them.  But I have to say that building and designing this house was one of the funnest + hardest + craziest + scariest + most rewarding things I've ever done.  

And I'm so glad we did it. 

So here it is.

The house that Love (and a little crazy) built.

The details:

1.) I designed the floor plan together with the help of architect, Scott Adams.  He took my sketch and perfected it and and then I tweeked it again until we got it just right.  All of the interior finishes + furniture + all of it was designed by me (and sometimes, my kids. :)  It was built by Guardian Homes (and if you're building in the eastern Idaho area - LOOK THEM UP!)  The house is 6900 sq. ft., has 3 stories and a walk-out basement.  It's on a 1 acre lot in Idaho and we can see our church and kid's school from the backyard.  So basically I never have to leave. :)

We wanted a really open floor plan and lots of light and widows.  (Who doesn't though?)

We put all the kids' bedrooms on the upstairs and after much pleading and begging decided to give each kid their own room.  

Bailey's Room.

Bailey's bedroom before this house was a crib in our closet.  True story.

And since Bailey is our last baby (YES, Luke.  She IS our last kid.), and she's never had an official room, I went guns-blazing on a pink girly nursery.  No complaints from her yet. :)

Cameron's Room.

The coolest thing about Cameron's room (that you can't even see in this picture - sorry) is the hidden play room that he has in his closet.  It's where we store all his toys and crap, I mean, treasures.  He gets to make a mess and I get to not clean it up.  

WIN.

This is the shared bathroom for Bailey and Cameron.  I know for a fact that Bailey will love sharing a bathroom with her brother when she's a teenager.  

Aubrey's room is basically a garden party in a bedroom.  It's so fun and girly.  Just like her.  One cool detail in her room is that she has a ladder that goes to a loft with a door that connects to the loft in Brooklyn's room.  I made the light over her bed, and she thought up the swinging bed on her own.  I see a Design Assistant position in her future. :)

 

This is the Jill and Jill Bathroom.  The counter top is made out of  thousands of sea shells that we collected in California.  There were even a few from the Dead Sea in Jerusalem, so my kids like to tell their friends that Jesus might have walked on their bathroom counter.  Haha.

Brooklyn's room is so....... HER.

The funky walls + the cozy chair + the California pictures + the built-in bed + the shells + the laid-back vibe.

It was fun watching her dream it up and helping it come to life.

Music Room.

Our music room is on the main floor.  Here's what you need to know about it: My mom and I painted that piano at 3:00 in the morning the day before the Parade of Homes started and we were essentially sleep drunk and it got weird.  Also, it drives me craaaazy that the pillows are facing different ways in this picture.  Promise that was either a "helpful" child or a bored parade husband.  It was not me.

We wanted a really open dining area and it's so fun when we eat in there. Which is like once a year.

Our kitchen is where the magic happens.  You can find me whipping up culinary masterpieces in the candlelight wearing my silk robe pretty much every night.

Just. Kidding.  We have cereal 3/7 nights a week.  I told you we don't deserve this house.

 Mud Room:

Laundry:

Powder Bathroom:

Office:

One fun detail about our office is the hidden door we had built it.  It honestly just looks like paneling and then BOOM.  It's a closet.  It's where I usually go when I want to hide from my kids or want to eat a whole pack of Oreos and not share.

Someday when it gets above -14 degrees, I have big plans of reading a book out on that swinging bed.  But for now it just taunts me daily and calls to me "Come sit on me.  It's OK if you loose a toe to frost bite.  You have 9 others.  Come, child.  Come."  

Curse you, you beautiful porch swing.

The Master Bedroom: 

(you have no idea the amount of cleaning I had to do to get it looking like this.)

Master Bathroom:

Before we started designing our house I swore I would never have a basement.  For one thing, they are dark + dank + dreary + have you ever seen a movie where a person being tortured was not in the basement?

  No you have not. 

I wanted none of it.  But once we decided it just made sense to have one, I was determined that our basement NOT feel like a basement.  So we made it bright + full of windows + as unbasement-like as possible.

Mission Accomplished.

 This is the guest room/sleepover room.  The back part has black sliding barn doors so the guests can leave the room open or close it off for more privacy.  

Guest Bathroom:

 Basement Powder Bathroom:

Theater:

Basement Kitchenette:

Playroom:

(The cut out wall is actually a slide.  It goes from the Mud Room upstairs all the way down into the pit.)

Pit + Rock Wall + Playhouse

 This is my favorite part of our whole house.  And also, Luke and I might have more fun in here than the kids.  I can neither confirm nor deny.

 And there it is.

The House that Love Built.