Our Steedly House: Entryway

So, I have had so much fun planning on participating in the 4 Moms open house!

Last week, I rebelled and participated but didnt follow the assignment ..;) This, week I will make up for both assignments!

The 4 Moms are touring their homes, and because I have enjoyed looking at theirs I figured ..why not?! I have had so much fun looking at my house through the view finder of my camera! I have enjoyed taking the time to ponder each part of my house that we have shared so far. I have noticed several things that need doing (including touch up paint, some dusting, some clutter that I hadnt really noticed before) and having to take pictures has motivated me to GET IT DONE!

First, we have been in our current home for about 1.5 years. It were first-time home buyers, and love owning our home! This house was not at ALL what I had been looking for when we started looking the first of last year. I was getting quite discouraged when we found this one, which my husband immediately fell in love with. I did not. It was not at all what I had in mind when we started looking, and the evening we looked at this house I had already fallen in love with the one we looked at immediately before. I was crushed when MY house was listed incorrectly, and so was not even an option.

While I whined and felt sorry for myself, my sweet husband quietly suggested we consider this house again. I didnt want to. BUT, in order to honor his suggestion we came and took another look. As it turns out, it is the PERFECT house for our Steedly Home.  I had no idea that I needed a kitchen that was far away from the playroom and the living room (I wanted a totally open floor plan, kitchen/living room/dining room combo), that we would benefit from living in an older home (rather than the new builds I loved), that we would be on this side of town (I liked closer to where our rental house was) ...I can promise you that my husband reminds me regularly that the home I love LOVE was HIS idea :)

Okay..so to start with ...right now, the summer has killed all our flowers and the front of the Steedly House is not beautiful ..but here is a shot from what it looked like during the first Charleston, SC snow in 10 years (February of this year):

Picture it with lush green grass, pretty flowers hanging from the porch, green bushes and tulips in the front flower bed. That is not what it looks like now, because the 110 degree weather killed all of them :)

Our entry way ... this is taken  from just inside the living room (that is next week!) that you can see into from the front door. Up the stairs is the all the bedrooms, and has the only carpet in the house. Unfortunate that the only floor I have to vacuum is stairs ..blech.

I have had this dresser since I was about 13. It has a beautiful mirror that has avoided being broken for 20 years AFTER I got it (it was antique when I got it) ..until I broke it a few weeks ago while moving it. Awesome.

On it sits a book I am proud to own ...

 It is a pictorial tour of Arlington Cemetery, where my baby brother is buried. My brother in law found this at Barnes and Noble where he was flipping through the pages, and he found my brothers head stone front and center on page 169.  A few weeks later, my parents received a leather bound copy of it from the Superintendent of Arlington Cemetery.

 I leave it there in the entry way so that I can never forget that he lies with heroes! :)

And, finally for this room ...the saying above my door.  This saying was part of my Uppercase Living order that I placed a few weeks ago!

Okay..moving on to the dining room and kitchen! ...