I hope everyone's week is off to a great start. While some people have just started back to school, we're only a week away from our "fall break." Kind of funny when you think about it because it feels nothing like fall, but it's a great time to head to the beach, so that is what we're going to do next week.
Today is the next post in my Home Sweet Home Tour series! Yay!!!
In case you missed it, you can find all the previous posts linked below.
The Building Process - How we transformed a 1960's ranch into our dream home!
Building Tips - Advice I would share with someone about to build or renovate a home.
Entry & Office - What you see when you walk through the front doors.
Last post I shared what it would look like if you walked in the front doors and today I'm going to share what it looks like if you walk in through our garage. It might not be the "prettiest" part of our home, but it sure is the most used, most functional, and the part I couldn't live without!
You enter through what some would call a mudroom and what my kids lovingly call "Walker's room." Walker is our dog and yes I realize how silly it seems for him to have his own room.
You enter through what some would call a mudroom and what my kids lovingly call "Walker's room." Walker is our dog and yes I realize how silly it seems for him to have his own room.
The truth is, he pretty much claims the entire house as his. BUT, when he was still a puppy and couldn't be trusted out in the house while we were gone we would leave him in this little "room" because we could close the door and there wasn't really anything he could destroy. The name just stuck.
We do keep a bunch of his things in this room though. He has a bed in here and almost always goes to lay on it if we are about to leave the house because he knows he gets a treat. We also keep his food and water bowls in here and it is home to our dog shower.
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| What he looks like getting a bath. :-| Tolerates it, but doesn't enjoy it! |
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| What he looks like when he's out of the bath! :-) |
It was kind of a last minute add, but so happy that we included it in the plans. It's really simple and nothing "extra" about it, but it gets the job done and makes it a lot easier to get him clean! It's also great for hosing down my little guys legs/feet after baseball instead of all that red dirt getting all over the clean carpets.
Also in this mudroom area is a utility sink that I could dress up and make look a little nicer, but don't because there are much bigger projects on my list (hello new screen porch furniture).
We have an extra refrigerator in this room. It's filled with lots of drinks (waters, beer, Gatorades, sodas) and we call it our sticker fridge. We collect stickers when we travel new places to add to the display and also add stickers from local places, sports teams, brands we love, etc. We've had this refrigerator for almost as long as we've been married and I think I will be sad when it dies because that means all of our stickers will be gone.
To the right of the refrigerator you can also see an ice maker which isn't pretty at all, but SO functional. I was sick of the kids taking all the ice when they filled up their big water jugs for sports so this solved that problem! It's also great when we need to fill a cooler because we don't have to worry about going to buy ice!
I have this little chore chart hanging in there and wrote an entire post about it you can read HERE. Wouldn't you know my kids were all about earning some money so I made this awesome thing and the excitement over it wore of REALLY quick. I wish someone would pay me to do all of those things.
Looking out the door of the mudroom you come to the number one thing that was on my "must-have" list when we were building a home...
We call them our cubbies, some people call them lockers. No matter what you call them they are a total life saver for a busy family with kids in school. I mean, the bags, the jackets. the shoes, the hats...it would ALL end up on the kitchen counter if it weren't for this space. I found a bunch of pictures on Pinterest when we were building and literally just handed it over to the guy building it for us and he worked is magic. I knew I wanted 5, one for each person in our family, and a spot for baskets on the bottom and top. The bottom baskets hold easy to grab shoes and the top baskets hold hats, gloves, etc. The center has three hooks that we use for bags, jackets and hats.
Being completely transparent, the above pictures are 100% staged. I took almost EVERYTHING out of the cubbies in order to get a decent shot. Below is what it looked like yesterday afternoon. Not perfect, but at least there is a drop zone for all.the.things!!!
Directly across from the cubbies is a little bench we've had it since our very first apartment when we were just married. It's actually very handy for sitting and putting on shoes!
Walking down the hall from our cubbies to the kitchen I have a big photo wall that I adore. I started collecting different black frames anytime I would find them on sale at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, HomeGoods or even Target and Walmart! Once I had a good collection I picked photographs to print and have continued to add to it. I love using different frames because it allows me to continuously add to it and not have to worry about matching the frames.
This hallway has a coat closet that houses all the coats/jackets for our family and then my little command center area. It's a tiny alcove with a built-in desk and cabinet (that matches our kitchen cabinets). This is where you will find me into the wee hours of the night hammering out a blog post, completing room mom or PTA president tasks, and sifting through emails that pertain to the crazy schedule that is our life.
So there you have it, the most used spots in our home! Next up we'll be on to the kitchen and keeping room so stay tuned!!
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