Curb Appeal update: The layout

So, we're busy working away on getting the curb appeal looking nice for our house....and boy is the paint job looking AMAZING {did you get a sneak peak on my Facebook page?}! But, I thought for you to better understand my house layout, I'd give you a visual of where things are and how things are laid out. {Home goals towards the end}.

From the street our house looks small, somewhat normal sized. But it's larger than it appears. It's not a mansion or anything {just 2400 square feet} but it has this layout that when you walk through, it seems to go on and on. It's all one level, which I really like.

Here is the house looking down, from Google/Bing maps perspective!

I took that map and laid out our house so you could see which room was which.

First off is our front entry. This is where you would come and I would greet you with a nice, big smile! We love having people over and so even though it's small, I've tried to make it cheery. You might remember that darling chair I re-did last year and even the paint catastrophe!

Next up is the living room. This room has a great view of the whole neighborhood with all the new windows. We use this room mainly for when we have friends over, hanging out and chatting with the family, and Bible Studies. It's a really nice-sized room and can hold lots of people. I even move all the furniture around and pull the piano in here once a year for my piano recital for my students.

If you are at the front door, you'll see right into our kitchen. It's probably not ideal for most people, but it used to be our dining room, until we tore down the wall and opened up the kitchen and dining area. Now it's wide open and welcoming, and we love it!

Walking through the entry and through the living room is the kids' hallway and their bedrooms. Rachel's room is a delightfully pink room right now - although she's now wanting a new color - so it's ever evolving and changing. You might remember her super organized closet we put in her room first. Her room has lots of light, too! It's beautiful.

The kids' bathroom is just down the hall between each of the kids' rooms. Adam's room is at the other end. It's full of maps, red, and his super organized closet, too!

If you walk through the kitchen and to your right {past the pantry}, you enter our Music Room - which is right near Adam's room also. It's a really awkward room, so I've tried to make it as normal looking as I can. We have our back entry in here and our guest bathroom.

The guest bathroom is in a perfect spot right off the back entry, where the kids can go right inside the back door from playing outside and not bring all their dirt and sand from outside too far into the house when they are playing. It has a shower in there, which is rarely used and it's teeny-tiny!

From there we enter our very favorite room - the family room! You have to go down a couple of steps {I suppose it's "sunken"}. This is where they made an addition in the 60s. It was formerly the "rumpus room" turned into a fully enclosed room. The fireplace actually was a rotisserie, which we had turned back into a working fireplace last year. It's so cozy in here and we can do so much.

Down the hallway on the left is our master bathroom, which is small but we are thrilled to have that bathroom right next to our bedroom!

To the other side on the right, across from the master bathroom, is the office and hubby's organized closet - which is considered the fourth bedroom but would be a very small bedroom. We use this back hallway as a master suite and it's great for when he gets ready in the morning, since his closet is right across from the master bathroom - he rarely disturbs me sleeping when he gets ready.

Then, at the very end is our bedroom. Yes, it's far away from the kids' rooms. It's very private and they are now big enough that if they need something they know what to do.

Last is my closet. Our bedroom is small, but having this closet open {the curtains don't close} really helps make the room seem bigger.

If you go back towards the family room and music room, our deck is right outside those two places. We have door in each that open up to the outside.

I want to share a few goals for our house this year that I'd like to share with you {thanks, Nester, for the inspiration}:

My shed is a mess - really, you wouldn't believe the state it's in. {The shed is attached to our garage}. Once our new roof is put on the house, I plan to overhaul that this spring.
I hope that putting the shed into order motivates me to do more gardening. I haven't done much since moving into this house five years ago and I used LOVE gardening. So, that's another plan.
I have a little crafter on my hands and I'd like to make a craft cupboard/area and organize it in some way. Right now things are scattered all over the place. I'd like to come up with a way to organize and make it all efficient.
My daughter would like to change the color of her room...which I think is fine. So, I'd like to work on that sometime this summer.
I plan to really go through my house and clear out any clutter that isn't needed or being used. I do this regularly, but I need to keep doing it every six months or so.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! The layout of our house is certainly unique. I didn't show you the basement, which is pretty rare in California. It's under the kitchen and dining room and houses the laundry and my hubby's workshop. We have other people using our home and over in our yard about 2-3 times each week. We tell our kids that this is not our home, it's the Lord's house and we use it for His glory. He has given us a great place to live and so we want to make sure that we are doing what He wants. I will be putting this layout into my "home tour" tab so you can refer back to it when I'm working on a house project and you can better understand how things are laid out! Thanks for stopping by...more organizing inspiration to come soon!