Our summer home

So there was a request to see what our house looks like. I have kept putting off taking pictures until I had the house looking decent but I find myself rather unmotivated to get it fully unpacked and/or to keep it tidy when I have. Sigh. The knowledge that it's just for 4 months is not helpful. Nor is the lazy part of me. So here are the pictures in all their messy glory, starting with Meri's room, which requires a bit of an explanation. When Meri gave up naps we instituted quiet time, where they both have to stay quietly in their own rooms for at least an hour by themselves. They are welcome to read or color or sleep if they so choose. Meri's room always ends up looking like this or much worse by the end of quiet time:
Who knows what she does! Then there's Jell's room:
We don't feel like investing in curtains for 4 months but if her window isn't blocked off she wakes up with the sun. Oh, and the grandma rug? Our rooms are in the basement with cold tile for floors. This will be fabulous for keeping us cool throughout the summer months but the floor is COLD, so we borrowed Coop's grandma's rug that was in his parents' garage. Not our style, but again, not going to invest in a rug for 4 months. Like her red moving box book shelf on the left?
Then there's one of the bathrooms. There are 3 in this crazy big house, and the ridiculous thing is we use them all. The smart thing to do would be to close one off and keep it clean, but who's smart? Now we are SO grateful for this house and all the space but there are a few quirky things about it, take this bathroom for example:
It is very small because of the huge closet seen at right, which has space for a washer and dryer (although 1/2 inch too little space to fit our washer and dryer naturally). The door opens in, which it can't do much with Meri's stool in the way. However, every time I try to move her stool, she moves it back because she can't reach to wash her hands without it. Hard to blame her really. I should applaud the fact that she's actually remembering some hygiene! But do try to imagine going in the bathroom, forgetting to turn on the light (the switch is in the hallway), going back in, trying to get a towel out of the closet (no door handles on those doors and you have to close the other door first), wash hands or do much of anything without running into a door. This is getting increasingly difficult for my prego belly to manage. It's awkward indeed. Sadly, this is the main bathroom available to all.
Then there's the kitchen with it's fantastic counter space:
Also pictured here is my arch nemesis: the fridge. It worked for our first few days in the house, stopped for nearly a week, worked for a week, and gave out a few days ago (the freezer hasn't worked more than a day the whole time). The repair man came yesterday and confirmed that it is kaput. So currently our milk and a few other perishables I'm trying to salvage are in a cooler and I kick the fridge every time I walk by. But I do love the counters.
And standing at the edge of the kitchen, this is the rest of the room:
And all of our favorite, the play room:
I LOVE that the toys have a home and for the most part, stay there. On good days, it is clean ... for a few minutes here or there. Mostly I try not to look :)
And then the office/guest room which is supposed to be the master bedroom, but is on the main floor (20 degrees warmer than the basement. no air conditioning in the house) with curtain-less windows everywhere:
So anyway, this is where we are currently hanging out. Sorry for the novel. I didn't include pictures of our bedroom, because it's piled high with all the clothes I need to go fold and put away now. Nor of the other bathrooms, which I have yet to unpack. One of these days, right?