Happy first day of September! Last month’s House Tour Tuesday was so much fun to do, so I’m bringing you another one! (I will be posting a house tour every 1-2 months.)
This month we are touring my sister, Rachel’s, home. She and her husband are in a unique situation in that they are renting a home. If you’ve ever rented, you know how hard it is to put your own stamp on something that you can’t change–I know, Dustin and I rented the first 11 months of our marriage. But Rachel has done a great job making this house a home for her and Nick–and she was fortunate enough to be able to paint some too….that helps a ton! Let’s tour Rachel’s home!
The front door–love her fall wreath!
This is what you see as soon as you step through the front door. The house they are renting was built in the 1950s and this entire room has the real wood paneling.
Kitchen/laundry
Since Rachel couldn’t paint the wood paneling, she painted the cabinets to brighten the room up. I would have painted them a creamy white (because I’m so obsessed with white) but Rachel did great adding her own touch!
I bought her this tea towel from Anthropologie!
Living Room
My brother-in-law, Nick, paints really well and he painted this for Rachel for Christmas one year. She had this picture from a calendar and he looked at it and recreated it!
Guest bedroom
Office
Master bedroom
I love this deer in her bedroom!
Screened in porch–you can see that Rachel loves color!
I debated about putting this in this post since you can see my post-gym reflection, but this shows how organized Rachel is! She used to have this calendar at home and posted everything on it. If I wanted to know if Rachel was free on a certain day, I just checked the calendar. She’s transitioned it into her marriage haha!
I forgot to post this earlier of the sink. It’s original to the house.
Bathroom
1. What’s your favorite thing about your house?
The character and how we have made it ours. Before Nick’s dad died, his parents bought this rental house and the land on it so we would have a place to live once we got married. It’s special to Nick to live here on his parents land. It’s a very old house and doesn’t have very much lighting though. The living room–which we made into our master bedroom–has nothing but wall outlets. We have three lamps in there right now. Having the patio entrance with the large doors is great lighting during the day. And our living room that used to be just the dining room is the same way. We’ve put two lamps in and just keep the windows open during the day.
2. If you were to build again, what is something that you would do differently?
We have already been talking about how much we need more and bigger closets and a larger bathroom (and more of those too). We share one very small bathroom right now, and Nick has a pop-up closet in our office since all of my clothes are in our bedroom closet.
3. What’s your favorite memory that you have made in your house?
When we first started fixing up our house, there was a distinct smell that was present. It was a stressful time because there was lots of cleaning, painting, cleaning, wedding planning, and cleaning some more. The other night we were in our bedroom and Nick said, “It smells just like when we first moved in right now.” We talked about how far we’ve come with the house and how much it feels like home now, and we are very happy in it together.
4. Any plans for your house in the future?
We’re starting to save money to build. We would knock down the current house we live in and build right on top of it. It’s a perfect location–back off in the woods where you can’t hear the road but close enough to town. We love this land. We also like our air conditioning units. They’re ugly, but they are very eco friendly and have saved us lots of money. So we will probably be using something like that once we build.
5. What’s your favorite store to shop for home décor?
Anything on sale! I don’t think we have anything brand new other than my Lay Z Boy recliner (which I got on sale). Our couch and love seat were a gift from a friend. Our bedroom furniture were passed down 1970’s furniture that I painted with chalk paint. Our coffee table was listed for $150 at a furniture store and I talked the guy down to $80 if I took it home that day. I drove a convertible at the time and it was 59 degrees. I put the top down and looked like a redneck driving home, but I saved us some money! Anything to save the newlyweds money!