In the beginning...

Since the age of 5, I've been dreaming of being a HO (Homeowner)!

When I was little, I would draw pictures of a dirty room and then a clean room on the other side. All my time playing Barbie's was spent on creating and decorating my house, not playing with the Barbie dolls. Before TLC and HGTV's shows got big, I got addicted to home improvement shows. I've been watching them ever since and along the way I've picked up countless ideas and techniques to use on my own home. John and I accomplished one of our biggest dreams, becoming a homeowner and finally, I have a place to use all my creative juices on... our casa!

These are the first pictures taken of our house. Good ole' Marcelo documented our entire home on the day of our home inspection. (Click on each picture for a bigger view!)

Welcome to our home!

Our kitchen needed some freshening up, but there is a ton of storage space.

Our backyard looks out to a creek and green belt. There is a walking trail with a small park at the end of the street. This was the selling feature. As soon as we saw the backyard, we knew it was THE house!

Here's a picture of the greenbelt. I just love it!

Here's my excited family in the backyard. Wait until you see our green grass now!

I LOVE our family room! It's right next to kitchen and it's super cozy.

Here's our scary half bath. My mom swore she would never set foot in it. It looks a million times better now and every time the woman sees it, she comments on how great it looks now.

Our living room has a huge vaulted ceiling and it's right off the front door.

I just love having a dining room. I was excited to have a place to feed my family and to tutor my students during the summer.

The butler's pantry is between the kitchen and the dining room.

This is the view from the front door.

Here's a picture of foyer from upstairs.

This is our upstairs guest bathroom.

I love our master bathroom.

This is the BEST part... John has his own sink...

and this is MY sink!!!

Our master bedroom looks out to the greenbelt.

This is our guest bedroom.

Here's our study.

Here's a picture of the backyard from the study.

Our garage was nasty, but we were thrilled to have a place indoors to park our car. I love the fact that I can walk a few feet to take in the groceries, instead of going up three flights of stairs.

I can't wait to show you all the things that John and I have done to our first home!