painted ladies*

home sweet home – boston edition.

the “third is a charm” home we applied for & are living in…is a big old updated colonial home built in 1861, we actually have a plaque by the front door honoring the home from our town. do the math: it is 150 years old this year!

the home is full of natural light, three-and-a-half baths, eight – yes – count ’em – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 BEDROOMS, lots of parking space, the most darling-ever tree swing in our front yard. and in our price range…which is the best part. although technically i think the best part is that it is right next to the best park in town which also boasts the most amazing playground i’ve ever seen. our munchkins run over there daily to play. downside: we have no garage, which is interesting. meaning: our backyard and dining room are housing what should be in a garage. and, we have no a/c. which is pretty common in these parts – so, our bedrooms are all housing window a/c units & they’ve worked great.

so, our nightmare of finding a new home has ended for a little while. we only have a four-month open-ended lease here because the home is also for sale.

fact: the market is slow here, and we expect to live here longer than four months. however, we are still actively browsing the local market for a possible-move-in-the-very-near-future.

see that tree on the left? i’ve circled the cutest hole it has – it really looks like a tree out of a cartoon, and every day especially in the mornings we watch the squirrels and chipmunks run-along the fence tops then go back in there. at first we were fascinated with the wildlife – when husband and i first started to go jogging here i’d come home and tell the kids “we saw 6 squirrels & 12 chipmunks!” now. we’re practically locals – seeing a squirrel or chipmunk is old news. i particularly dislike the larger animals that attack our garbage cans at night – that is news for another post.

and, the picture of the radiator on the right? they are charming. we have a total of eighteen of them in our house. i have no idea how they work, but i’m hoping those babies really keep us warm this winter. eegads. i don’t even know how to turn them on! i better inquire soon, before we’re all freezing when the first cold weather hits! what i dislike about them: spiders love to weave their webs in between all the pipes. yuk.

{the left door in the kitchen is a darling yellow 1/2 bath & the right door is our laundry room.}

{this kitchen wallpaper just about kills me. if we weren’t renting – i would change it. however, it does fit nicely with the time period of the home. and, those cupboards – they WERE white & they’ve been painted a light beige. seriously a design sin. i LOVE white kitchens. ALSO, that door just to the right of the radiator – it leads to our scary basement.}

our dining room. i am struggling with this room right now because it is housing our dining table + piano + all the sporting goods that should be in a garage. needless to say, when we eat in here, it feels really chaotic & messy. we are trying to figure out what to do!

this picture/map hangs in our dining room and is included with the home. it is an original map of wellesley from when the area was being settled & marks the placement of the home in the town. such a cool detail.

this side of our bedroom has a “secret-staircase” as the kids call it that goes from our room to the kitchen. it’s pretty rad, we all love it.

the only two rooms we painted in the house & changed from their original colors were sela’s & kj’s. kj’s was originally lavendar & he was not ok with that! he chose a blue-grey, and sela’s was a pale aqua that she didn’t like. so, i took her to the paint shop & literally let her choose whatever color she wanted! she chose this bright papaya, and the room illuminates a serious-bright-orangey-peach glow. if you stand in this room, you look this color. so funny. i just keep thinking: we’re renting, so it’s ok! and, to be honest, it totally fits sela.

kiana & myla are sharing a room, i’m not sure how i’ve missed taking a picture of their bedroom because it’s a favorite bedroom of mine. their room looks about the same as these two, except it has a bay window & is the same yellow as our family room. it’s turning out darling with their furnishings.

every room on the third floor is also different colors – when we first walked through this home, kiana nicknamed it “the colorful house” because every room in the house was a different color. i’ll post pictures of these rooms soon.

{we only send the boys down there…!}

we have lots of space for the kids to play outside between the front yard, our fenced-in backyard, and the park nearby. everyone loves the tree swing & to be honest, i’ve always wanted a homemade swing like this! we have a public walking/jogging/biking trail that cuts right through our front yard. at first, we thought this was a bit strange – now we love it. husband particularly started liking it the day ‘Ray Allen’ went jogging by! {he’s a Celtics player, for those of you outside of the sports loop.}

long-story-short about our moving company… they didn’t plan very well when they planned what-size-truck it would take to pack everything in our home & move it out here. meaning: they were very late. obviously, we all survived.

…and, we were very happy when our stuff did arrive! sela immediately started driving her smart car, and i am working as fast as possible {when not going to the beach!} to get our home all put together. i will be posting more “home-decorated” photos as we continue to get more settled. it has been very fun to unpack & decorate – starting with a clean slate. it’s fun mixing our more up-to-date furnishings with the colonial style. i think it’s working.

*Painted ladies is a term used for colonial houses and buildings built between 1849 and 1915 painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. our home qualifies as a painted lady with it’s green siding + purple shutters + red doors, and we adore it! totally not our style, but it is a great conversational piece for our adventure!