Our Empty House Tour | Welcome To Happiness House

We officially moved into our new apartment on January 9th. The apartment is actually the upper floor of a historic victorian house with a private entrance and front porch. Because the apartment is a divided house, we tend to refer to it as a house instead of an apartment. We have nicknamed it “Happiness House” because we are already so happy here. The move was a good one for us as a couple. It is in a beautiful historic New England town surrounded by the countryside and so many gorgeous farms and parks. We loved our old studio apartment located in a historic factory building, but it was time to move on. With the rent going up yet again our tiny studio loft would have cost us about the price of your typical two bedroom apartment. We decided that for what we were paying we might as well actually move into a two bedroom and have the extra space for living and for guests. I do miss the cathedral ceilings and brick walls, but it was time for the next chapter. We exchanged those brick walls for windows and wooden floors.

Last fall we were ready to buy a house, but with the current market (and after being outbid on the same house twice) we ended up renting a house right down the road from where we attempted to buy. The timing was right. We were ready to move to the town of our dreams even if we couldn’t buy at the moment. The house rental popped up right at the perfect time. We didn’t necessarily need more space, but we did want a little more than a studio. We wanted to feel at home. Our last apartment was about 650 square feet and this one is around 1100. It wasn’t the lack of space that made us so unhappy, but rather the lack of sunlight. What I wanted most was window light since our last apartment was so cave-like year round. Until we moved I hadn’t realized how large an impact this lack of window light had on our lives until this point. The darkness was lifted and now we wake up happier and ore energized each day.

Today I would like to bring you on an empty house tour. We are still unpacking and organizing our new place so I will share the reveal as it unfolds. I was feeling pretty down about it not being finished just yet, but with Matthew and I both working during the day and Matthew in school full time with his last semester and senior project, I’m learning to organize our home slowly and accept the process. I would be so embarrassed if anyone saw the state of our kitchen currently, however, I am learning to be happy with the small wins and we have decided to work on just one project or room each week. Hopefully by spring it will be completely ready to reveal to you. For now, let me share with you are new home and our plans for this new place and chapter in our lives.

For privacy purposes I will keep photos of the front of the house out of this post, but there is a lovely front porch entrance. When you walk in there is a historic parlor room with the original 1880s block printed wallpaper and a wrap around staircase that leads to our floor! Downstairs is our neighbor’s apartment entrance as well as a small armoire that we are using for sport equipment. The red corner hutch is our downstairs neighbor’s. (P.S. We have the most lovely couple that lives downstairs. Hopefully our kitchen kitchen will be complete soon enough so we can invite them over for dinner.)

Now let’s head upstairs!

The armoire at the top of the stairs is where we keep our winter coats, jackets, boots, and camping gear.

The first room you walk into is the living room. Everything you see left behind in this apartment belonged to the tenant before us and we have since cleared things out and moved the plants around. I absolutely adore this room. For the first time ever our living room is just a living room. It no longer serves as a home library, office, dining room, or anything else. It is simply a living room and we love it. Our television is against the left hand wall and the sofa is to our right. We have left the window area open for yoga, workouts, daily meditation, and for our future Christmas tree.

To the left when you walk in there is an extra room that wasn’t in the rental listing! We have since turned it into our home library and office. It is almost as big as the living room. Here is a look:

This library room is my favorite room in the house. This is where we also keep our art easel, Matthew’s desk, and a small vanity table for me to sew. We also moved our love seat into this room for a cozy reading nook.

Back in the living room to the right of the entryway there is a small guest room. This room will also serve the double purpose of being my “dressing room.” Because there are only two small closets in the entire apartment, we decided that we would each get one. I’m using the guest room closet to store my camera equipment, storage, clothes, and shoes. Matthew has the master bedroom closet. I will also be moving my childhood dresser and a clothing rack into this room for extra storage. For all of my creative projects this coming spring and summer it just made perfect sense. Matthew has already put together a full bed with a twin trundle for guests.

Off of the living room there is a small hallway/entry way with stairs leading to the back door and our downstairs laundry room. This mini entryway will become a music center for our record player.

In case you were wondering, we keep our portable inflatable kayak in the laundry room! It fits in the back corner. We don’t have any storage or use of the attic or basement space so our regular sized kayaks are currently in my father’s basement. We got permission to keep our bicycles in the shed outside so that they would not scuff the historic wallpaper in the front entryway.

In the hallway back upstairs to the right there is also a doorway leading to our master bedroom. There is a shelf that was left in this room that we moved out to the home office.

Our bed is now against this wall:

I don’;t know how we managed it but both of our dressers and my lingerie chest (tall dresser) are in this room with our queen sized bed and side tables. It all fits in rather cute actually.

Across from the bedroom and out of the entryway there is the entrance to the kitchen. The kitchen has three separate sections; one for the sink, another for the fridge and pantry and cabinets, and another for the stove. Because there is no storage in the bathroom we are using the smaller of the two pantries as our linen and storage closet. The other is being transformed into a food pantry. The cabinets and counters are all a little different, but they are all painted white so I am happy with the arrangement. I have so many ideas to freshen up this space, including removable tile stickers for the backsplashes. We’re using the open space to the right as a mini dining room where our table is now located. In the spring my goal is to organize and decorate this room into a country kitchen to be proud of. I will share my ideas with you soon!

The last room is the bathroom, hidden down a mini hallway past our kitchen stove. The bathroom most likely has not been renovated since the 1950s, but we love the ceramic tub and the classic look doesn’t bother us. I made our own curtains for this room. It is narrow, but a good use of space and it has a bathtub that is larger than the ones we have had in the past.

Thank you for stopping by today for our empty house tour. I will be posting follow ups as I create some home designs and follow through with my plans. I would love to hear your own home recommendations in the comments below. For my fellow home organizers and home decor lovers out there, I would also love to know what you’re looking forward to seeing most from my future home design posts.