home sweet home

The house and the street looking towards the ocean - one side is a development of a dozen homes built early 2006 and the other side is a mix of "older" homes (1980s), a small horse pasture, vacant land for sale and an orchid farm - we've seen some spectacular sunsets from here already, or as Thomas will tell you, "the sun is going for a swim". Though we are in a development (the thought of which has always made us cringe), it's an ideal situation because it is so small and to the right is a double wide drive to two houses and the guy who owns the house to the left lives here part time since he also has a home in Colorado. Must be rough being him. ;)

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Couldn't get a good shot of the ocean view from the backyard, but here it is from the master bedroom's deck. The house faces south so we see the ocean from the front and back of the house on both levels. The backyard is small, but has a nice variety of landscape materials. I wonder how long it'll take before the grass isn't looking so nice due to the dogs? The sprinkler system goes off every morning and there's a gardener but we haven't seen him yet. We want to do it ourselves, but the lawn mower was left back in Portland so we may have to have a gardener for awhile. Darn.

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The yucky yard next door is the part-timer from Colorado. The woman with the pool two houses down is friendly. She has three or four children, but I think they are all boys and range from 14 on up.

The front door really needs an eyehole or something, but it's lovely and quite large. It's 10 feet tall which is about right since the main level of the house has 12 foot ceilings throughout. On the right is the entry hall. Love the floors. Love the high ceilings. Love the open staircase.

The all important staircase - seen from the main floor and again from the top floor. It's certainly a climb. The second floor has a great landing with a built in counter and cabinets. At first I thought it was weird, but I love it for folding laundry and storing linens. It's against a short wall of about 4 feet high that opens to the living/dining room space below. If it were our house, we'd have to put up a rail. I can totally see how this might be fun for a child to climb up on and oops! fall right on over...

The dining/living on the left and the family room on the right. The first is a bit awkward and the second is a little funky with the off-center fireplace and entertainment center niches. I prefer a more symmetrical, traditional layout, but we're making it work. *sigh* It's tough, but we can make do if we have to. *sigh*

I love this kitchen. I could live in this space. It's big, beautiful, has tons of storage and the island is wonderful. There are two ovens and when I oohed and aahed over them, M asked when I would ever need two ovens. My response? For those times when I am roasting a turkey in one and baking in the other. Ha. That would never happen, but I do feel pressure with this great kitchen to do some serious cooking and baking. If it had a Sub-Zero like the refrigerator space is intended for, it'd be the perfect kitchen.

The master bath. Two sinks, a glass enclosed walk-in shower and a Jacuzzi tub the kids can learn to swim in. Big and beautiful. The toilet is off to the side in its own room and behind us are the walk-in closets.

A weird, but fun little retreat area in the master bedroom. The house next door uses it as an office and has french doors to close it off. We have the treadmill in there though I'm kind of thinking some runs along the beach sound pretty nice. I'll have to work up my endurance -- pushing the two kids in a Burley won't be easy!