Guess what today is?!
It’s HOME TOUR TUESDAY!!!
Eek! I am so so SO excited to be bringing this series back to the blog! Today I am featuring Morie Smith from Salt Creek Wife. She has such a cute blog and we both love John Mayer, so you know we’re definitely meant to be friends!
Welcome to her precious home!
Welcome to our home!! We moved here a year and few months ago for my husband to start internal medicine residency. This is our first home together, and when looking for a home to buy, we both agreed that we loved this one the most! It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house and we were shocked when our two bedroom apartment filled it right up!
The first photo was taken our first Sunday here. The only thing that’s really changed since this is that we hung a Texas Tech flag off the center between the front windows. Wreck ’em, Tech!
So, here is where you are once you first step inside our home. On the long wall, we have a few hangings– the end square one and the middle one are from Hobby Lobby, and the end circular one was made by a sweet friend as a wedding gift. The wooden crosses were handmade and picked up in random places.
The mint bench has been with me since college and has had a few makeovers over the last several years (I’ve repainted and reupholstered it at least two or three times). I picked it up for $20 at an antique shop in Lubbock, and I think it has been well worth this for all the time I’ve had it and all the looks it has had. I love having it there as a decorative piece, and as a catch-all for my purse and other things I bring in from my car, but truth be told, my husband is not it’s biggest fan (it does block traffic a little, or at least narrows its flow) and I don’t know that it will live there forever. Above this, I have my vintage Nancy Drew collection on these shelves, along with a few of our engagement pictures.
Next room you will see is our living room. This is where we probably spend the majority of our time. We like that our house has a good division between all the main rooms (living, dining, and kitchen), but that it still feels pretty open.
The fireplace is my favorite part of the living room. I have styled, restyled, and styled this again, and finally feel like I’ve gotten it just right. The only thing I change is hanging holiday tapestries that my husband’s aunt sews for us during the fall.
On the mantel, we have a canvas print from our wedding, a decorative “S” (which I collect), our family Bible given to us for our wedding, a display of wooden pens that Steven handmade, and a shadowbox of pictures and his spurs from when Steven went to bull riding school (this was a one-time adventure, but something very cool that I like to commemorate!). On the hearth, on one side we have candles from Hobby Lobby on top of my Pride and Prejudice collection (I collect copies of all kinds of Pride and Prejudice because it is my all time favorite book), another decorative “S”, and a decorative lantern. On the other side, there is a bucket of cotton blooms (our homage to West Texas!) on top of more vintage books (Jane Eyre, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland), with two more decorative lanterns, a decorative “S”, and a hand-painted wooden bird Steven’s granny gave us. I made the grapevine wreath next to the fireplace with cotton blooms and an “S” from Hobby Lobby. 
The lamp on the side table was made by long time family friends of Steven’s family. It was turned from a mesquite tree on their family land outside Midland and is very special to us.
The picture wall is kind of half in the living room (our wedding photos), and half in the hallway leading to the guest bath and 3 other bedrooms. Right now, we have one as Steven’s office, and two as guest bedrooms (with one having all my craft supplies/ my office), but we are in the process of transitioning one into a baby room! Baby Smith will be here in February, so we are consolidating my craft/ office needs into the bigger guest room and turning the smaller one into the baby’s room once it is old enough to sleep in its own room.
Our dining room has been the most put-together room of our house from day one, and has just always been easy to keep together. I change tablecloths every so often, but that one is from World Market. The extra chairs in the corners are actually folding chairs (even though they don’t look like it), the owl pillows are from Earthbound Trading Company and I made the green pillows behind them.
On one side wall, we have vintage postcards from our honeymoon in Hawaii, and on the other side, we have our Texas wall. There are postcards of our favorite cities in Texas, and other Texas decor. Next to this, I have somewhat of a baker’s rack with all my cookbooks. My kitchen gallery wall has a few signs from Hobby Lobby, a Mary and Martha dish towel on a canvas from one of my dear college friends, and a few custom pieces that were made for us as wedding gifts. (It’s hard to see, but the top wooden square is a cutting board laser engraved with a buck and doe that has our names, and our anniversary is on the tree like someone carved it).
Our kitchen is probably my second favorite room in the house. I love to bake, so I love being in the kitchen! (I like to cook… but I LOVE to bake!). I love all the counter space and all the room we have for cooking and fun treasures!
My Tech plate was a graduate school graduation gift from a dear friend and mentor and one of my top favorite things in the kitchen! My canisters and utensil holder on this side are all Fiesta (Fiesta is the best!!). I switch out the tea towels on the stove for holidays, but right now I have one that says “You are My Sunshine” that was a gift from Steven’s granny, and one with a dressed up llama from World Market (because, one, who doesn’t love llamas? and two, I dare you to look at a llama and not smile!). My turquoise mason jar accessories (I have the cookie jar, spoon rest, utensil holder, and stacking measuring cups) are all from World Market. The flower print canisters are Pioneer Woman, and that’s usually who’s cookbook I have on my cookbook stand! Our turquoise Keurig is a fairly recent addition, and I love it!! On the other side, we have the sink and my one of my most prized possessions– my KitchenAid stand mixer. I love that thing like our fifth child (that includes 3 fur children, and one growing unborn human one). The mason jar cookie jar holds my dishwasher tabs, and the elephant cookie jar is a special gift from Steven’s granny. Before we got married, she picked this out because she said someone gave her and her husband (who’s been passed away for several years now) an elephant tea pot the was very special to them. She said elephants are special and good luck, and I love that gorgeous cookie jar! One, because it’s special, and two, because it’s so colorful and really ties everything together! On the counter above the sink is proof positive that I have a black thumb, as evidenced by the fact that I couldn’t even keep succulents alive. I need to dump them out and start over but I haven’t gotten there yet!
At the end of every tour, I always ask the same five questions. These are Morie’s answers:
1. What’s your favorite thing about your house?
My favorite thing about our house is our master bedroom. It has huge vaulted ceilings, and then a sitting room off the side, so I love how spacious and open it is. Even after a year, it’s still not completely decorated exactly how I’d like, but I love all the space so much!
2. If you were to build again, what is something that you would do differently?
Our home was a new build, but we had no say in the building of it– it was completely done by the time we were ready to look for houses and came across it. But, with that being said, there’s not really anything we don’t like. We looked at several houses before picking this one, and feel like it has everything we’d want. The only things we really plan to change in the future for our forever home is just straight up more space. We like the layout of this one, we’d maybe just want one twice as big later on.
3. What’s your favorite memory that you have made in your house?
I have lots of favorite memories! This is our first house together (we lived in an apartment for two months right after getting married before moving here), so pretty much every married “first” has happened here– first married Christmas, first wedding anniversary, etc. But, I would probably say surprising my husband to tell him he’s going to be a dad is my favorite memory in this house so far.
4. Any plans for your house in the future?
This sweet house is going to see a lot of firsts with us, but not be in our lives forever! As is the life in medicine, we are not going to be here forever, and will say goodbye to this house in a few years. We will for sure be here until June 2019, but there’s a chance we will move for fellowship training then. If we stay for fellowship, then we will for sure move in June 2022. Our hope is to land back in West Texas for my husband to practice because we love it, and it’s home. This is a great home, and it will be great to someone else whenever our time here is finished!
5. What’s your favorite store to shop for home décor?
I am a little DIY when it comes to home decor, so Hobby Lobby is usually my go-to. I also love Target and World Market. A lot of pieces around our house are junk or antique finds, or special things we’ve collected/ inherited, so they’ve just been picked up at random places here and there.
Thank you Morie for sharing your home with us! I love how special you’ve made everything in your home!
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