ALL the Home Tours

When new subscribers sign up to be emailed whenever we post something new, we send them a series of four “welcome” emails that cover the basics–who we are, our favorite home tours, how the blog works, and our top posts.  Even if you’ve been reading for awhile, you might not know some of these things, just because information tends to get buried in a blog over time.  We have almost 1500 posts in our archives, believe it or not!  

So today we’re sharing our second email in the new subscriber series–a roundup of all of our home tours–because we’ve lived in a lot of houses over the years!  {Email #1–“About Us” is here}

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Hello, friends!  I’m back today with the second installment in our new subscriber email series.  I absolutely love looking at other people’s homes, don’t you?  That’s all we’re going to do in this email–better grab a drink and get comfortable!

As I mentioned in my first email, our families have lived in ELEVEN houses between us in the almost seven years that we’ve been blogging.  I can hardly believe it myself!  Amy has managed to limit herself to houses in the state of Virginia, where she was born and raised, but I’ve lived in North Carolina (three different houses), Tennessee, and Georgia during that time.  My husband has served in the Army for 24 years and counting, so the rule of thumb is that we usually move just as soon as we start to feel settled, or every 1-3 years.

Before we jump right in, let me give you a quick disclaimer.  When you look at pretty pictures of houses on the internet, just remember that we’re real, too.  We have busy families, too, so reality for us is usually dirty dishes in the sink, dog hair on the floor (everywhere), and toothpaste blobs in the bathroom.  It’s dirty underwear on the kids’ floor and unmade beds, and never-ever-ever-ending laundry!  In every pretty, staged picture, there’s probably a pile of clutter out of the view of the camera.  But, hey–you’re probably here to see what a cozy home can be on its best day, and we aim to please.  Sometimes we look at our own home tours to remember what a clean house looks like!!

When we began the blog back in 2010, my family was living in {this} beautiful 1915 colonial revival home in Fayetteville, NC.  While the digital cameras we had back them didn’t really do this home justice, the tour is still amazing because the house was amazing.  I adore old houses and this was, hands-down, my favorite house that we’ve ever lived in.

Now I’m going to skip around a bit to show you our current homes, and then go back in time, but I wanted you to see the 11 Magnolia Lane house first, because that house inspired the blog and had a huge magnolia tree in the front yard.

Amy’s current home in Virginia is absolutely lovely:

Prior this home, they were in a nearby rental for a brief time.  While she wasn’t there long enough to make it totally fabulous from top to bottom, several rooms received her magic touch, like her daughter’s pink and gold bedroom:

My two kids and I are currently living in a rental in downtown Southern Pines, NC, that’s just under 1600sf; we downsized from a house that was about 4000sf just a few miles away.  As I mentioned in my first email, we’re staying put for my son’s senior year of high school.  My husband has an apartment at Ft. Riley, KS, (you can see a mini-tour of his bachelor pad here) and we needed to downsize in order to afford two homes and plane tickets for him to come home–hopefully often!

By the way, if you’re in a rental home, we understand some of the decorating challenges you experience because we’ve been there, too.  Check out {this} post and {this} post for some of our rental decor ideas.

We call our new house the Mint Chocolate Chip House (or MCC House for short).  It’s pretty obvious why:

We love the convenience of living downtown and it’s such a cozy old house.  You can tour it {here} and yes, I did have to downsize like a madwoman AND put things in storage!

Before we moved in April, we spent almost two years in this beautiful Southern Pines home:

I never put together a comprehensive home tour post, except for my Christmas tour, but that shows pretty much every room in the house.  You can see it {here} or visit all the posts related to this house {here}–the kitchen, pantry, and master bath were my favorites  Oh, and my daughter’s room, too.  You can tell it was a great house!

Speaking of holiday home tours, we host an annual Christmas tour with lots of talented bloggers and you can see all those archived posts {here} if you’re looking for inspiration.  In the spring, visit our home tour series {here}.  We have very talented friends and we love to share their spaces with you!

Back to our houses…before Amy’s current home, her family lived in Virginia Beach in this gorgeous lakefront home:

It’s a tossup as to whether her current home or this one is my favorite.  She uses more neutrals in her decor than I do, and I love how tranquil her spaces feel.

Before we moved to North Carolina this time (our third time stationed here), we lived in Savannah, Georgia–such a beautiful city!  This was the first and only time we’ve lived in military housing on an Army post; it just made sense at the time given my husband’s job.

We loved Savannah and made some lifelong friends there; if you’re planning a visit be sure to check out the Savannah section of our blog {here}. Be sure to pack a lot of loose clothing, as the restaurant scene is to die for!

Last, but not least, I’d love for you to visit our Nashville, TN, home:

We lived in this house for two years and I had so much fun decorating it–when we moved out, we left eight chandeliers behind!

If you’re not tired of home tours now that we’re at the end, then you can visit our magazine features:

|   Christy’s kitchen   |   Christy’s laundry room   |      Amy’s office  |   Amy’s front door  |

Or our book feature:

Thanks for hanging in there with me until the end.  Until next time, thanks for stopping by.