This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for a while now: a tour of our home!

The basics

• Size: 975 square feet
• Year Built: 1955
• Bedrooms: 3
• Bathrooms 1
• Shared by: Me, my husband, our three kids (ages 6, 2, and 4 months), Siberian husky, and black cat
• How long we’ve owned our home: 11 years

This is our place. The place where we eat meals, homeschool, pray, play, and live life. Our home has seen Jimmy and I go from newlyweds to parents of three sweet kids. We’ve held gatherings, Bible studies, and events here. Our walls have witnessed sickness, noise, chaos, everyday life, and so much joy.

When I started taking photos for this post, I decided not to edit anything or make things look ~aesthetic~ because that’s not real life. And I always keep it real here! So, welcome to our home 😊

Entryway

When you walk through our front door, you get a peek at our 1950s doorbell (that black thing recessed in the wall), artwork painted by me and Sadie, our beloved robot vacuum, a toddler potty, toys, a shoe storage bench, and our IKEA bookshelf.

Our bookshelf holds so much! I have it stuffed to the brim with all my favorite books, Jimmy’s books, Sadie’s homeschool curriculum, our tech (laptops, iPads, chargers), and craft supplies.

The top part is a bookshelf, and the bottom is storage. Here’s a look at the kid’s craft supplies. You can find these door flung open every day as the kids grab coming supplies, scrapbooking stickers, sensory bins, and notebooks.

Above the shelving, you can see a tiny peek at all my cookbooks: Taste of Home cookbook, King Arthur Cookie Companion, Modern Jewish Baker, and Rising: The Book of Challah.

Living Room

Our living room has a big picture window and if you drive or walk by our house, you will either see children, a dog, or cat (or all of the aforementioned) in the window! We’ve had those chevron curtains since we moved in and Jimmy begs me to replace them. I’m of the mindset that they’re so out of style that they’re going to come back in style soon 😉

I am forever lint rolling husky fur off of our couches and wiping dog nose and kid handprint smudges off the window. It’s a daily task that is so satisfying once it’s done!

Let’s go on a little tour of our fireplace fixture! Jimmy created it in 2021. He made all the steel, installed an electric fireplace, and put in a living-edge wood mantle and shelves. I absolutely love it!

On top of the mantle, we have my assortment of faux plants. I adore them. I can’t keep plants alive, so this is my happy medium. I’d love to have more around our house. Give me all the plants! During holidays, our mantle is decorated for Christmas, fall, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc. and the kids and I enjoy the decorating process.

On the shelves, there are my morning Bible study books and a cup of my favorite pens, a salt lamp, Sadie’s animal figures and doll house accessories, Jimmy/Sadie’s gaming supplies, and a tin holding Mordecai’s construction trucks.

Kitchen

A few years ago, Jimmy knocked down the wall that divided our living room and kitchen and it made such a huge difference in the feel of our house. We also painted the original cabinets. That’s about all we’ve done to the kitchen. Jimmy is itching to do a full renovation, but I do a lot of cooking and baking and hate the thought of having our kitchen out of commission, haha.

Our IKEA table always has some sort of baby paraphernalia on top of it. And crumbs. Lots of crumbs. We feed our cat on top of the refrigerator because it’s the only place semi-safe from our agile husky. When people see our cat jump on the fridge it’s always a conversation starter!

This cabinet above used to have doors but we took them off and painted the wall behind the shelves my favorite color: bright yellow. Actually, inside every cabinet and drawer of our kitchen is a pop of yellow! Life’s too short not to use color in your home, especially color you love. One thing I love about open shelving is that it forces me to keep things pared down and neat because it’s always seen.

How cute is the little 1950s trim detail above the sink? The side shelves are so useful, too! I store our dishwasher pods, napkins, and paper towels on them. On the windowsill, I have my essentials: Bible verses, all purpose cleaning spray, electric salt and pepper grinders, and dish soap. Oh and there’s our beloved coffee maker and milk frother!

I prep all of our meals to the right of the sink. It’s a tiny spot but I make it work and I like that it’s above the dishwasher. Perfect for keeping the area cleaned up.

Next to the stove is our pot and pan rack that Jimmy made me! On it we hang our pots, pans, brooms, measuring cups, outdoor serving tray, oven mitts, meat temperature chart, dog leash, and more. Vertical wall storage like this is a key with a tiny kitchen.

And there’s more yellow! Our back door is painted yellow and it makes me so happy ☀️

Hallway

We have a tiny hallway that leads to the rest of the house: our bathroom, master bedroom, and the kids’ rooms. Since it’s summer, I have simple decor there (oh how I love the macrame hanging!), but around any seasons or holidays, it’s decorated a bit more.

Master Bedroom

Our master bedroom fits our king bed (designed and made by Jimmy!), an IKEA dresser, Dakota’s folding bassinet, and a wardrobe and that’s it! I bought those humming bird paintings off of Etsy in 2017 and still love them to this day. I think that was some of the first artwork I ever splurged ($70) on. Do you like the pop of yellow with the blanket? 😬

If you stand at the foot of our bed, this is the rest of our master bedroom. Dakota’s folding bassinet comes in clutch. We have her little sleep suit stored inside there. Jimmy has a vast assortment of hoodies (I think I have two?!), I have a beat up yoga mat and foam roller, and the wardrobe is from… you guessed it… IKEA! I installed the little leather handle pulls (with a little FaceTime help from my dad!) and was so proud.

Bathroom

Jimmy renovated our bathroom in 2016 and we really like how it turned out. People are always surprised that the walls are purple (Gothic Amethyst by Olympic) and for some reason the color just works in there. That sink is where we’ve bathed all three of our babies in a simple folding bathtub. Memories!

The art in our bathroom is really playful! I commissioned a local watercolor artist to paint bathroom-themed portraits of Niva and Malcolm. So, everyone who sits on our toilet and looks up is greeted by the pets. It’s fun!

Here’s a look at the bathroom if you were stepping out of the tub. Yes, it’s small! It gets pretty busy in there on Sunday mornings when we’re all trying to get ready for church.

We’ve had to keep the garbage can on the counter for the past several years because we’ve always had a curious toddler or baby trying to rummage in it! I really enjoy the simple things like seeing cute kids towels hanging on the hooks on the door. Life is lived here 💛

Mordecai’s Bedroom

Mordecai’s bedroom is the smallest bedroom in the house, but he’s the only one who has his own room! His room feels so cozy to me. The crib and rocking chair were both Sadie’s and now I’ve rocked and fed three sweet babies in that chair. What a blessing.

Mordecai adores his garbage truck blanket and actually likes his room to be really tidy. Just the other night, Jimmy laid him to bed and Mordecai kept crying so we went back in and it turned out that there was a small toy on the floor. Once we picked it up, he went right to sleep 😂

Mordecai’s bookshelf (from IKEA!) holds all of his toys and books. Oh those books are so special! A lot of them were Sadie’s as a baby and now they will be passed on to Dakota once Mordecai outgrows them. When I lay Mordecai down for his daily nap, the kids and I all gather on the floor on his farm rug and choose books to read, eat snacks, and wind down. It’s chaotic and special.

Sadie and Dakota’s Bedroom

Sadie and Dakota’s room is definitely the one to give us the biggest challenge with fitting their things and just making a layout work with a twin bed and a crib… but we’re making it work! Sadie’s bed has a play area underneath and she and Jimmy chose lights for under there. Sadie and her friends can be found playing baby dolls under her bed on the daily!

When you first walk into the girls’ room, this is what you see! I watercolored the artwork of the girls names on the wall. The paint color on the accent wall you see above is a very light blue (Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams). Before we had Dakota, we asked Sadie if she wanted a sort of theme for their room and she said beach, so we tried to go for a slight coastal vibe in there!

Hi from Dakota! Her changing table/dresser *just* fits between the door and the closet and I like this little nook a lot. We added different knobs on the dresser (they’re the color of the accent wall!) and hung a basket on the wall to hold diapers, a basket of bows, and stain remover spray. Sadie wrote the “I love you” sign above the changing table and taped it there and it makes me so happy every time I see it!

This is the size of a closet for a house built in the 1950s! The smartest thing we did was install two sets of rods to hang clothes. Jimmy also added in some extra shelves. The girls’ hoodies hang on the top rod and their church dresses hang on the bottom rod. The top shelf holds board games and the bottom shelf holds baby wipes and bedding.

The girls’ bookshelf (…..from IKEA!) holds chapter books, baskets of Legos, crib sheets, and baby toys. We get a lot of storage out of our bookshelves!

And that’s it! Those our our rooms. I hope you enjoyed a look at our real life 😊

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Living in a Small Home

I love our small home. It forces me to stay organized and constantly evaluate if we have too many possessions. It really narrows down my world to the people I love versus owning and storing stuff. In the winter, it can feel claustrophobic in a small home, so we get out to the library a lot! In the summer, we spend a ton of time in our backyard.

Renovations

Jimmy has done so much to our home since we moved here in 2014! The bathroom, recessed lighting, fireplace, kitchen cabinets, and so much more. We’re always doing a dance between him wanting to renovate everything and me wanting to change nothing because I hate living in the middle of construction 😂

Personal Style

Jimmy and I have totally different style preferences. He likes a minimal, industrial look (clean lines! all the steel!) and I lean towards a bright, bohemian vibe (plants! yellow!). I feel like we’ve blended our style preferences to create a lived-in, happy home that reflects our personalities well. Also: sorry if it seems like this post is sponsored by IKEA haha. It’s not. We just have one close to our home and it’s so affordable!

Three Kids in Less Than 1,000 Square Feet

We just find ways to make it work! Storage solutions, owning less, sharing rooms… it helps us tap into our creativity to finding solutions to live in harmony. The family that lived in our house before us had four boys and I always tell myself, if they could make a small house work with four kids, we can make it work with three!

Pros and Cons of a Small Home

I’ll start with the cons: it’s hard to host a big gathering in the winter months because we don’t have a lot of space. Sometimes we all need the bathroom at the same time and the kids often wake each other up because their rooms are so close or because they’re sharing a room.

The pros outweigh the cons for me: it’s quick and easy to clean and keep up a small space, it forces me to stay organized and tidy (or else I’ll start to feel like the walls are closing in on me!), and its just fun to be creative with our unique home and family life.

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How do you feel about tiny homes?