House Tour Week!

Stalkers and snoopers are gonna love this. This week I will be posting everyday (I know, right?!) and I’m going to show you the various areas of my house. I’ve lived here for 20 months and am finally getting around to the virtual house tour. If I like you and you live near me, chances are you’ve seen my house in real-life and will find this week's posts snooze worthy, because you’ve already opened up all my closets and drawers when I wasn’t looking. If you haven’t been to my house, it does not mean that I don’t like you, it just means that you should probably message me in some form (comment, Facebook, e-mail, letter through USPS, text, Twitter, radio waves, or telepathy) and tell me that you want to come over to my house for tea and cupcakes. I will happily oblige you. I actually love visitors.

Now let me just say, when you look at the photos of my abode this week, do not go all “wow, Joelle, really? You’ve lived there for nearly two years and this is all you’ve done with the place?” I will happily take decorating suggestions, so long as you are not recommending I paint anything. I realize that paint is the simplest, cheapest way to change the look of something, but at this point, I am totally over paint. If you recommend painting to me, you better be willing to drive over here in your white coveralls and help me. I’ll hold the ladder while you hold the brush.

Today I’m going to show you the outside of my house. The following pictures were taken last summer, when my house was looking cheerful. It still had the smile of summer across its face. If I took outdoor photos right now, you’d see a muddy back yard, leafless trees, and gray clouds looming overhead. It’s not pleasant. I prefer to re-live July and August via digital photos. I swear to you, my house does not look drastically different now. It just looks depressing outside due to the Oregon weather. So instead you get to look at my house when it was graced with sun.

I got this welcome mat from Target. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...

In case you were wondering, I mow my lawn with a non-gas powered, non-electrical, non-motor 1950s style grass cutter, which I bought at Sears. It’s the sort of lawn mower you can use at the dead of night and your neighbors will have no clue you’re out trimmin’ the turf. I like to do everything in a stealthy manner, and so this environmentally friendly grass solution was my best friend. Plus, it gives me a mini-work out.

The side of my yard is basically the width of a bowling lane.

 Below is my back patio when I set it up for the good weather. I previously dedicated a whole post to it, so I will be brief with you now and tell you I painted the chairs and re-upholstered them myself. Glass of lemonade, anyone?

And here are a few more photos for you to click through.