The Front Entry and Back Hallway

Our beagle, Stomp, waits anxiously at the front door for one of the kid's to come home from school.

I was looking through the archives to find a post for the Home Tour series and I honestly could not find one simply celebrating these two separate, but connected spaces in my home.

Oh, I have lots of posts on these areas: but each and every one treats them as places with messes to be cleaned up and with problems to be solved. That makes sense: the blog started as a place to record my doing the Cure, after all.

(side note) Apparently, there was a cure last month. I'm absolutely indifferent to the fact that I missed it. I remember an old friend announcing she was not going to do the cure because, well, her place was "cured," thankyouverymuch. I can now say my place is too. That doesn't mean there aren't things I want to do and that there won't be changes: but I know my house, I know my family, I know how we live here and what works for us. For the most part, it works. I like my home, now, too.

Since that very first cure in 2009, the entryway has had something in it, namely, an old cabinet my husband found. It fit just perfectly--but only just.

photo from the Spring Cure, 2011

 

It was useful: but it made the hallway, just over three feet wide, quite crowded.

 

In late August, we returned a piano my Mother had loaned to us for about ten years.  Its spot was just around the corner in the living room:

 

photo from August, 2012

With the piano gone, the logical thing to do was to move the cabinet in. So, we did.

That left the hallway almost perfectly empty.

Here it is as you would see it on entering the house at the front door.

I wonder if I can retake this with the stairway centered and light streaming down the stairs?

Living room to the left, dining room to the right.

And now back the other way, from the foot of the stairs towards the front door:

That's the window from the original door reflected in the mirror. Neat, eh?

You see why I said it was "almost" empty. There's the small child's chair at the entrance to the living room, perfect for taking on and off shoes and boots (or, more relistically, holding my daughter's backpack and coat after school).

Opposite the mirror, we have a small telephone alcove, an original feature of this house built in 1949. Can you imagine being tethered to a telephone in that spot?

 

The button (barely visible) under this plate still holds the telephone wires.

 

 

The back hallway (and stairwell) is yellow-green. I am quite over it.

 

 



As a nod to Valentine's day, we're all decked out in pink this week.

 

This space has four doors: two rooms and two closets. That's my cleaning supplies/towels/tools/lightbulbs/etc closet and my son's room (all that red!) right beside it.

 

It's a windowless space, so I hung a mirror beside the dresser to catch the sun from the bathroom oposite.

 

 

 

The doorknob below is from the coat closet opposite the ancient Ikea dresser (reflected in the mirror above).

 

Yep, that's the kitchen right through there with the side of the fridge still uncluttered.

 

 



On the top of the dresser is the place where the kids and I are supposed to transfer papers. It's not working quite as well as I'd hoped, but I'm not giving up yet. The oldest has three and a half and the youngest another five and a half years left in school, after all! The calendar is right above it. That is working well.

 

That's it. That's out front entry and back hallway. A small "ell" shaped hallway that sees a lot of comings and goings.