The rest of the house....

It has been quite some time since I shared pictures of our kitchen and living areas.  I kept postponing showing the rest of the house (the upstairs) because I felt like it needed to be "better" before I did...perhaps more organized, more things on the walls, etc.   I realized that, because this house is not ours, it will never be just how I want it so I will just have to show it "as is".

The upstairs is probably what you would expect...the bedrooms and a bathroom.  Doesn't that sound exciting??  I bet morbid curiosity will keep you reading...or at least checking out the photos!

Looks kind of like a hospital hallway

In case any of you are interested in visiting, I will show you the guest room first (this room is also used as an office).   Like most of the rooms, it needs some decorating, but at least the bed is comfortable.   The girls refer to this room as either Nana and Papa's room or David's room.  "Who is David?", you may be asking....David is a good friend of the hubby and his main "partner in crime" before the girls and I moved here.  We thought that the boys might go through withdrawal once we arrived (since they don't hang out quite as often), so we called it "David's room" to ensure that he felt welcome here anytime!  (We even changed the pink IKEA light to a white one to make the room less "girlie").  We have lived here almost four months and David has yet to try out his room!

I know...it's very pale!

Ah...a splash of color!

Now we move on to the girls' rooms.   Although quite a bit smaller than their bedrooms in the states (smaller than in the U.S. is a common theme around here), their rooms are cozy and accommodate most of their things.  The hubby did need to buy them Swedish-sized beds before we arrived as their beds from their old rooms were too big!

Malena's room

Bed by IKEA

CeCe's room is pretty much the same set up.  Both girls have "decorated" their rooms on their own (so far) which makes things interesting.

Yes...she hung purses on the wall!

Hello Kitty is big in Sweden, too!

Now, onto the bathroom (sadly there is only one full bath in the house...there is just a half bath on the first floor).  It gets a little crowded in the mornings if everyone needs to brush their teeth at the same time, but we manage pretty well for the most part.  Thank goodness our girls are not teenagers....THEN we might have a problem with the lack of space in the bathroom (and lack of access to it as well)!  With storage space significantly downsized from our last house, I realized that I really don't need to keep 6 different skin cleansers, 4 moisturizers, etc....

Absence of color is a common theme...

Daily essentials must fit in your assigned bin!

Although most of our toiletries and shower stuff has a place (a shelf or a basket)...there is only one towel rack (it is heated, though, which is nice).  So I created a "linen closet" just outside the bathroom.  It may not be the most attractive thing in the world, but it's functional.  It even has hooks where the girls can hang their towels.

Practical, practical, practical

Now on to the final bedroom....if I call it the "Master", your expectations would probably be set way too high.  It is probably the biggest bedroom and it does have french doors instead of a window, which is nice (although it would be nicer if there was a balcony!).   For those of you who don't know, last year the hubby and I finally bought what I refer to as the "big kid" bed...one with a headboard, etc.  (we had not invested in a decent bedroom set since we've been married).  We were a little concerned that our gigantic American bed would not fit in our not-so-big Swedish home.  Luckily, the bed fits in our room...barely...although we could only squeeze in one of the nightstands!

Our cat also enjoys the big comfy bed!

Because of the lack of closet space, I was forced to keep a dresser that I have had since I was a child (and when I say "child", I am not exaggerating!).  It has followed me from apartment to home to home (it was kept in the master closet at our last house) and I was so looking forward to leaving it at the curb in Lombard....unfortunately necessity has kept it around!

Luckily there is enough room to open the drawers! 

You may have noticed that you didn't see closets in any of the bedrooms (with the exception of a small free standing one in the guest room)....and that is because there aren't any!  Instead, there is a "bank" of small closets in the hallway (you can go back to the first photo if you didn't notice them).   I have to say that the lack of closet space (and storage space, in general) has been one of the bigger challenges of this house.  I am quite certain that Malena's old closet was as big as all of our closets here combined.  Sigh!

Again...adapt and overcome!  Each of the closets has space for hanging clothes and then a small IKEA basket-holder thing  (I checked their website...they call it the "Antonius"...from the name I would expect it to be a little fancier!).  Anyhow, the closet set up actually works pretty well for the girls (thankfully with small children comes small clothing!).

Malena's closet

Each closet also has a cabinet above....which provides additional storage for things that are needed less frequently.  As you might imagine, fitting an adults entire wardrobe into one of these TINY closets (they are all the same size) is impossible.   To manage the situation, I first had to move most of my dresses and the hubby's sport coats, suits, etc. into an extra coat closet downstairs (not super convenient, but it works).  I also have become the master of the under-the-bed storage containers.  It reminds me of our first house where there was a seasonal clothing rotation as the closets there was also too small to hold everything.

Just a small sample of what is hiding under the beds!

I guess that's it about it for the interior of the house.  Many people have asked if it has been a difficult adjustment after living in a considerably larger home.  It really hasn't been that hard....although I certainly miss some things about the old house (the kitchen and ample storage space are at the top of the list!).  On the plus side, moving to a smaller space forces you to get rid of old clothes and random crap that you've been hanging on to for no good reason.   I guess this means you won't be seeing us on an episode of "Hoarders" any time soon!