The Big House

Seems like the place I live has been affectionately dubbed "The Big House." Which, you know...it is. Everyone that comes over gets a tour. Seriously, everyone. I think it happens about twice a day. Anyway, I have decided to give all of you a tour. But if you want the real deal, you have to come visit.

We'll start with the outside. First, I live in a great little neighborhood. It is very, very small - probably only 20 houses or less. The main road outside my neighborhood is pretty and quaint and lined with pine trees. On this road, you have the pleasure of passing a small lake and a bunch of cows. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the "country" when I'm driving on this road, but I am still very close (5-10 minutes) to everything (grocery store, bank, NC State campus).

Imagine you have just arrived at my house. This is what you would see:


You could pull into the driveway (or garage) on the right side:


Or, you could pull into the driveway (or garage) on the left side:


If you decide to use the front entrance, you would see this:


Before going inside, you could walk around to the backyard and you would see this:


Then, you could walk up the stone steps onto the deck and take a closer look at our grill and screened deck:


Now, let's walk back around to the front of the house and enter through the front door. You will now be privileged to see this:


For a different view of the front room, we can walk up the staircase to the top level and look down. It will look like this:


We are not going to tour the top level because it basically contains: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a messy craft room.

We will now go to the living room. It looks like this:


Next to the living room is the kitchen:



Here is the breakfast area, which is where we do all our eating, not just breakfast. Because it's the only table we have.


Oh, and when we hire a butler, here is his pantry, complete with a wine cooler (where we store 2-liters of soda):

Now, let's head downstairs to the basement, which is at least three times as big as my last apartment. Here is a big room with pretty much nothing in it:


Oh, but what is through those open doors? That's our media room! Check it out:


It even has movie theatre lighting:


Also in the basement: a really large bedroom, bathroom, LOTS of closets, a bar with sink and (another) wine cooler.

Going back upstairs to the main floor, we can find: the master bedroom with a closet pretty much as big as my last bedroom, a bathroom that could fit a queen size bed, a seriously large bathtub, and a high-tech shower. I have not taken any pictures of this bedroom because it is (unfortunately) not mine.

BUT, my bedroom is also on this floor. Here is what it looks like:


Please do not make fun of my bedding. In my last apartment, the (twin) bed was furnished, so I have a couple sets of twin bedding. When I moved here, I had no bed, but was blessed by the wonderful generosity of a girl at church who gave me her old full-size bed (and dresser!). And I haven't bought new bedding yet, because...that's just not at the top of my necessity list when I don't have an income.

Anyway, if you promise not to gag at how many pictures you can see of Jared and me, you may now look at this view of my room (and private bathroom!):


Oh, whose jetted tub is that? Mine! And the best part is I only have to share it with me.


This did not come with the house, but for those of you that have not seen it, this is my awesome (and soap-scummy) world map shower curtain:


Ok, so my house is pretty awesome, right? Right. But there are a few quirks that I have to point out.

• There are 16 electrical outlets in my room. Sixteen. I cannot imagine a scenario in which I would need to plug in 16 electronics at the same time.

• My closet is pretty awesome, especially since it's big enough to camp in. Also, it has 2 rows of bars to hang clothes on. Cool, right? Except for the fact that neither of them are tall enough to hang dresses. All I have to say is this was OBVIOUSLY built by a man:
  

• In the living room, there are these nice white cabinets, where we could store all these games so the shelves did not look like this. BUT, the cabinets don't open. And there is NOTHING behind them. There is no reason why they shouldn't be used to store things except that they are mysteriously bolted shut.

• Oh, so I know I said I wasn't going to take you on a tour of the top floor, but I do have to point out this strange feature, for which I have no explanation:

Thanks for coming on the tour!