Our House, Part 4: Entry and Stairs

 It's been awhile since we've continued the tour of our house after the remodel. First, I would like to point out that the furnishings are leftovers from our previous house and need very badly to be replaced...that will come in a few months. And actually, the dining room table & chairs were given to us: they are coming in handy but are definitely not our style. This first picture is of the living room / dining room, with the entry way at the far left. All that we have done to this area so far is carpet and paint.

 Here is a better view of the entryway. We put in new tile here. The niche to the left is a nice touch, so have filled it with sailboats from our last house. We're not sure if the sailboats will stay there, but until we find something better, that is their home. During the kitchen remodel, the fridge sat in the middle of the living room - hooked up and running - for about 2 months. It was fun on Halloween because a few of the Trick or Treaters noticed: "TRICK OR TREAT - uh, why do you have a fridge in your living room?". The rest of them wanted to know why I had horns growing out of my head (they looked mighty good, I might add).

 One of the few purchases we have made since moving in is this vase. While visiting the Temecula Wineries, this caught our eye so be brought it home. It catches the light very well at this location.

Of course, Cory was following me around wondering why I was snapping pictures of everything.

 Here is what really ties the house all together, both functionally and visually: the staircase. It is really sort of a double-staircase with two sets of stairs leading to the landing in the middle, and one set of stairs going from there up to the second floor (more on that later). The room visible upstairs is our guest bedroom. The transom window is a rather unique feature that lets light flow through the interior of the house.

 Standing on the stair landing, we can see the architect has given us some nice platforms for sculpture. The face is new from Home Depot Expo, the other pieces have followed us from the last house.

 Looking up the rest of the stairs we can see the entrance to the master bedroom. Another transom window is located there. We're split on whether it is a good thing: My wife hates it, I rather like it.

 Looking back down at the living room. We have recently switched back from real to artificial Christmas trees, and purchased one from a friend at work (Thanks Micki!) that is 10 feet tall....it looked great in the middle of the living room...and thanks to Lucy it was decorated fabulously.

Looking just to the left of the master bedroom doors we see two more art niches. It is going to take a pair of very large paintings to fill them. We've been looking, but haven't found anything even close to doing the job.

 From the top looking back down, you can see the double-stair feature I was talking about. One can turn right and head down the stairs to the living room, or turn left and head down the stairs to the kitchen. It seems rather silly at first, but is quite handy once you get used to it.

Turning the camera left, you can see the hallway leading to the guest bedroom (straight ahead) before wrapping to the right and going on to David & Lucy's bathroom, bedroom, and "living room" (basically a bedroom used as their living area).

So there you have it - another installment of the tour of our home. Next, I'll show you the master bath. It may be a long post because I have a lot of before and after shots.