loft living

many moons ago, i promised to show you all my house. well, today is the day. there's a combo of really good photos in here and some that i took. i'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference :)

anywho, we live above a flower shop in historic downtown siloam springs. the building is over 100 years old and when we began the renovation, it was totally vacant. no walls, no electricity, no plumbing...nothing.

here's what our building looked like in 1910.

these are the before pics. we had just talked with the contractor and decided to go forward with the reno. i planned and dreamed of this place for so long!

this is the kitchen area of the loft. i bought pretty much everything off of ebay-the sink, faucet, stainless steel work table, and range. all of the shelves are from an old bookcase that we took apart then screwed brackets on to hang on the wall. the table is one that i designed and my dad built for me. it's one of the most special things in the house.

my fridge is a hand-me-down from my parents. it was pretty lame looking so we chalkboard panted it (which now shows the nfl playoff schedule) and switched out the handles. matt uses the top of it to display all of his single malt scotch bottles. and the pantry is an old cabinet i got from my grandma.

and here's the living room! we wanted to fill the wall around the tv with all sorts of posters and random stuff. that way, it wouldn't seem like the television was the focus of the whole place.

the hammock is from bolivia where matt grew up. we love having it up in the house and isaiah uses it like a playground swing.

isaiah's room. his hammock swing is from guatemala.

the master bathroom. the tub is probably my favorite part of the house. i use it every single day. we got it for free then found a company to resurface it for us. i love it!!!! and the large photo above the tub is by a photographer friend of ours. it's of a surf shack in st. barts.

and the bedroom! this is such a haven for me :) the words painted on the wall are the lyrics to the song matt wrote me and sang in our wedding. the heart is made up of photos of the two of us from when we were dating to now.

this is another very special thing in our house. it's the chandelier that my grandpa bought my grandma back in the early sixties. there's a smaller version of it in the bathroom above the tub. these two light fixtures and the table are the things that, in case of a fire, i would have to find some way of unwiring and taking apart to get them down the stairs before being consumed by the flames.

so that's the tour! i tried to just hit the high points. we've only been here for two years but are wanting to sell. this place is way too big for our little family. i'm not much of a housekeeper and the extra square footage is not worth it. i loved getting to design the layout and realize a dream. it's been so fun to be here in the middle of town and be so close to my shop and see the pretty lights at christmas and watch parades from my window. but, it's time. we're ready. so if you know of anyone who's interested...........