It's been a while, I know. I've had a few requests (mainly from family members) wanting to see our new house. I took a few pictures today and I figured that I could give you the typical "here's Bedroom #1 tour," but I figured I'd throw in a little more personality into it. Because after all, it is just a house and I'm assuming you guys want to see our home. So instead of giving you a tour, I'll just give some snap shots of our home and the five rules that I have learned about being a homeowner. I think that you will see that Amanda has taught me a lot.
Homeowner Rule #1- "The pillow rules"
Not all pillows in this world are meant to be used. Apparently my head is rather large and heavy and some pillows Amanda buys are for display; not to be smooshed. Amanda taught me that fashion beats function more often than I thought. In fact, my one piece of wisdom to any future husbands: err on the side of fashion.
Another pillow rule that I have learned is that if you have two or three different colored pillows or patterns, you are suppose to separate the patterns and colors. Sometimes I put the blue pillows on one side of the couch and the green ones on the other - just to keep Amanda sharp.
Homeowner Rule #2 - "Pottery Barn is for inspiration, HomeGoods is for shopping."
It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and then Amanda asks to stop by the mall. It still puzzles me why we would stop at the mall, considering the fact that we rarely buy anything. When the men in my family go shopping, there is no browsing - there's a purpose. If you need a pair of jeans, we go straight to the pants section and grab our size. The women in my life have fought me for years to get me to even try on the pants. If I know I'm a size X, why would I try on a size Y? Makes no sense. However, what I've learned from Amanda is that we aren't always at the mall to shop; sometimes we are simply scouting. For instance, Pottery Barn has nice sand. I didn't know anyone could actually sell sand, but they do. And they make a killing off it. Pottery Barn makes $12.95 on a little bag of sand. Amanda knows that I won't pay that for sand - why would I? If I'm going to spend that much money on sand, then I'm simply going to spend a couple extra dollars on gas and just visit the beach... and I'll bring back as much sand in the back of my truck as my wife wants. So needless to say, we don't buy Pottery Barn's sand. Why? Because our neighborhood HomeGoods has sand for $3.99 - and even if I don't like paying anything for sand, I can't get to the beach for anywhere close to $3.99.
I know this last picture just looks like I threw in a random picture of the letter "B." But Amanda brought home this big letter "B" from the store the other day and we hung it in our bedroom. Very artistic & simple. Very Pottery Barn - but without the Pottery Barn price.
Homeowner Rule #3 - "Good staging is a convenient accident."
If Amanda asked Engaged-Andrew if he could put a little pot of flowers on the coffee table, he most likely would have taken the pot of flowers and put it directly in the middle of the table. However, Married-Andrew quickly learned that being symmetrical is good when it comes to people's faces, but not always when staging props in a house - except the occasional picture frame on the wall. Now that I'm more domestic, if Amanda asks me to put something on a coffee table, I know that I'm suppose to find a book or something to set it on. Apparently it looks "less planned." (side note- is anybody else impressed that I'm using the word "staging" instead of "decorating?' Tip for the fellas: decorating is what you do for a 5 year old's party... staging is when you create ambiance.)
Homeowner Rule #4 - "Not everyone wants to see our toys."
When I got my first Huffy bike, I wanted to leave it in the driveway so all my neighbors could see my hot ride. When we got our first Ninetendo (NES) I liked to scatter the games all in front of the T.V. right before my friends came over, just so they could get the feeling like an arcade was available if they were up for it. When I got my first car, a 1993 Geo Prism, I parked my sleigh in the front line of my high school parking lot just in case none of my friends had ever rode in a car with a hatchback before - which, as unbelievable as it may sound, most people hadn't (it was more of an "Asian hustle-car" than an "American muscle-car.") When I got to college, I had a movie shelf right in the middle of the living room just so nobody ever felt the need to run over to Blockbuster Video (another side note: I actually had enough movies to charge my roommate's friends $3 per barrowed video). But now that I'm married, I've quickly learned that not everybody wants to see my collection of 1960's monster movies or video games. So now we hide them. So if you are ever a visitor in our home, feel free to open the big black cabinet shelf in my office if you are ever in the mood to watch the 1984 classic Red Dawn. In fact, while you're at it, crawl down the upstairs hall and plop in front of our TV in the loft... inside the drawers is a Playstation and a Super Ninetendo. I heavily recommend Star Fox.
Homeowner Rule #5 - "A walk-in pantry beats a walk-in closet any day"
Before we moved into our house, Amanda was looking forward to her walk-in closet. Me? I was probably most looking forward to my walk-in pantry. In the perfect world, every man would be permitted 1 Man Cave (theatre/game room) and 1 walk-in pantry. I'm still lobbying to put our small fridge in the pantry for all my drinks, candy bars and other snacks. I don't know if that will happen but at least I can walk into my pantry every morning and stare at my cereal selection. It's like having your own 7-Eleven convenience store in your home.
Before we moved into our house, Amanda was looking forward to her walk-in closet. Me? I was probably most looking forward to my walk-in pantry. In the perfect world, every man would be permitted 1 Man Cave (theatre/game room) and 1 walk-in pantry. I'm still lobbying to put our small fridge in the pantry for all my drinks, candy bars and other snacks. I don't know if that will happen but at least I can walk into my pantry every morning and stare at my cereal selection. It's like having your own 7-Eleven convenience store in your home.
Here are some other shots of our home...
The piece of art in the picture directly above is a Mahi-Mahi - my favorite type of fish. My Mahi is hung in my office. My office is my favorite room and Amanda has let me go crazy with a Nautical/fishing theme. In fact, you can kind of see a couple pieces of art that I did hanging on the wall two pictures above of a marlin and a spanish mackeral.
