Staple it Together.

In short, we moved. It was a close move, so nothing changed, yet everything changed. We have much more space, we get more afternoon light, and we have a pond in the backyard. We ended up here kind of last minute and feel amazingly lucky. We don't know exactly how long we will stay in this house--it's a rental and we are growing more ready to buy a place of our own. I think that's partly why I am so anxious to make this place feel like a home--if we are only here for a year, I need to get a move on.
Here is our house at it is in our third week of living here.*
Some notes: the house was built in 1904, and was remodeled and added onto during the last ten years. It is simultaneously the oldest and newest place we have lived in. The floor plan is unique, so I'll try to explain where pictures were taken so it's not so disorienting.

 The living room/front room. The view above is what you see when you walk in the front door. We want to make this room welcoming. It is currently the store room for all our unhung artsy stuff.

 

 The piano room, I tend to call it. This room was the original dining room of the house. (view from living room doorway)

Piano room (view from corner of room by kitchen)

(view of piano room from corner by family room.)

 The kitchen. Its walls are actually the same soft sand color as the rest of the house but those lights make it look green.

 kitchen and dining room. 

 dining area. the windows on the right look out at the pond.

 the deck.

 the dock (the kids keep mixing up "deck" and "dock." I can see why.)

Yard, looking to the right.

 Bathroom/laundry room (Fun fact: we've never had more than one bathroom. Now we have 3!)

 Art closet. I am super excited about this. It will have its own post later. With a straighter photo.

view from the piano room: the family room/tv room. 

 That's our new, *luxurious* sofa L-shaped couch. We feel like Real Grownups since we got this l-shaped couch.

 Master bedroom looking right. in progress.

Master bedroom looking left.

 Master bath. Boom. Grownups.

 Flora's room (view from doorway) (ignore the draped fabric, I'm trying out curtain options? that's not a question, but asking you to ignore it kind of is.)

Flora's room looking right at the coveted cozy reading nook

 J & G's room (from doorway)

J & G's book/play nook

So we're feeling more settled, but there's still work to do. But I love this kind of work so I'm fine with that.
Not (yet) pictured: the creepy awesome basement. The kids have been riding their bikes down there. Brad has half an art studio down there. Also you can see the original foundation, a well, and the fondly named "dead body room." Jane wants to host a haunted alley down there, but only if she helps so she doesn't get too freaked out.

*I'm excited to do a more stylized, cleaned up version of a tour. Instead of waiting, I'm posting these. Plus it will make the next post more fun, right?