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Since we’ve lived in our fixer-upper for a little over a year now, I’ll get occasional requests from some of you who want to see more of the house. I haven’t had any qualms about that request, save one thing—the house isn’t done.

But I recently decided that if I waited for that to happen, this post would never get published (amiright, those of you who’ve renovated houses?). And since last week my book’s publisher came to the house to film some video (which you’ll see soon!), I decided now was as good a time as any to give you a little tour.

Because well, we cleaned. And with a three-year-old in the house, that lasts 5.7 seconds.

So here you go, five-plus years into this blog with nary a house tour—welcome to our home!

When you walk in, you can go one of two ways—straight ahead is our office; left is the rest of the house. Let’s go straight for a second.

Here’s the office I share with Kyle. He added that awesome thrifted door and hung it with barn railings. It’s incredibly heavy and blocks out all sound, better than a “regular” door.

Also, we recently decided that this is too much desk for us—we honestly need a wall of storage and a simple flat surface for our laptops. So, we’ll probably get rid of these desks. We’d love the space to be more guest room than office.

Here’s where I do most of my writing. And podcasting.

I saw these blue bikes at World Market this summer, and got the two they had left. I can’t find anymore… Would love to give them as gifts to people who helped with my upcoming book, if I can find more. Because blue? Bikes? Awesome.

Heading back out, we pass the stairs.

Yeah… we still have to refinish the stairs, risers, and banister. They’re a mess. No idea what colors here, but I’d like something fun—any ideas?

Over there in the corner is Ivan the Tiny, the kids’ Russian dwarf hamster tucked away in his green and purple cage.

And through that door holding the red calendar is Narnia—our kids’ play storage area.

I recently put away half of their toys in the garage, and they haven’t said one word. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few months, we have nothing but Lego, Hex Bugs, puzzles, and books. Not exaggerating.

And then moving forward, we pop in to the main living area, where we hang out most.

The dresser to the right of the couch houses kids’ craft supplies. We let the kids go to town whenever they want with paper, markers, scissors, and glue, so long as they clean up afterwards.

I get asked all the time, so I’ll add it here—the map is from Ikea (as is the couch and coffee table), and the art is a mix of Etsy finds and local artist Katie Daisy.

Here’s my favorite corner of the house. It’s where I journal, read, drink tea, and snuggle with the kiddos.

Thrifted chair, and Target clearance ottoman, curtains, and bat lights.

If you spin around from there, you’ll see where we do the bulk of our schoolwork.

Kyle built that skinny desk from thrifted closet doors. His mom made the “Happy Harvest” sign from a potato sack.

I love this space—so small but efficient. The chalkboard was a thrift find, the magnetic board is actually an auto drip pan, the stepstool (which I still need to paint a fun color) is Ikea, and our mission statement was created by the talented Dee of Red Letter Words. I’m so grateful for her talent!

We also keep all the kids’ books out in the main living space; a subtle but significant message that reading is part of our everyday life, not a special occasion activity.

And everything on top of the bookcase is thrifted (still thrilled over my school clock find from years ago!), save the globe, which is from Lakeshore Learning. I looked everywhere for a cheap-yet-accurate globe and couldn’t find one. So, I bit the bullet.

Thrifted yellow school chairs, thrifted black basket, thrifted lamp, and Kyle’s mom made the standing twig lamp. Because she’s amazing like that.

We formerly had a black and white rug here—and then three-year-old Finn smeared peppermint toothpaste all over the thing. So we relegated it to the garage until we could clean it and resurrected this find from Pottery Barn Outlet a million years ago. Now we’re starting to like this rug even better.

Spin around again (dizzy yet?), and you’ll see the dining area. It was getting late when I took this pic, and yeah, there’s the un-photogenic laundry basket and trash can—but who needs perfection here? I love seeing other people’s reality, so I figured you might like it here, too.

The wire baskets were Target clearance, the canning jar art is wrapping paper from Paper Source, and the bacon art is by a local Austin artist.

And tucked away in the corner lies our kitchen. We gutted the entire original thing, and added Ikea cabinets and open shelving. I need to dig out the “before” pictures, but the work Kyle did here is pretty astounding.

There used to be a hallway here that led to the den (now our office)—which meant teeny-tiny kitchen. As in, you couldn’t open the fridge, oven, or dishwasher because they’d bonk in to each other. So Kyle knocked down a wall, rewired a bunch of stuff, and rebuilt our pantry here.

Head over and walk through the door near our dining table, and you’ll be in our mudroom. Aka, the Mothership.

Kyle’s mom built those bottom drawers—they were originally meant to go under a twin bed, but now they house our shoes. We’ll get around to painting them… one day.

Birds in the corner are courtesy of Mercy House. (They go on top of our Christmas tree in December.) And the “Give Thanks” print is Dayspring.

Phew. Okay, so maybe this is my favorite spot in the house. When the weather’s nice, the front porch is my second office.

…Our home is continually a work in progress—perfectly imperfect, frugal, random, simple, us. We don’t know how long we’ll be here, but for now, it’s feeling more and more like home. And since home is wherever we are together, there’s nowhere else I love on earth more.

I hope to show you the upstairs eventually—one step at a time, right? I’ll get the boys to pick up all their littered socks first.

Thanks for stopping by!