The Secret Life of Bees (Pineapple Edition)

I tried and tried and tried to think of a nice juicy secret to share with the hive, but alas I am boring. So instead I will share with you a big part of my life that you have never seen, our home. I am the mover of all movers and shakers. Between May 2006 and August 2008 I lived in 6 homes. When Mr. Pineapple landed his dream job in his home town, we once again began the familiar search for a home. We were having a hard time finding a place big enough for our 3 cats, dog and the two of us plus all of our stuff (I don't know where it all came from). Then a friend of Mr. P's told us her folks rented a house on a farm that was soon to be vacant. The monthly rent was way out of our price range, but amazingly her folks dropped the rent hundreds of dollars to fit within our budget.

When we first visited the home it was in pretty rough shape. The carpets were horrible and smelly. There were cigarette butts in the radiators and random holes in the floors put in by the former tenants. It also looked as though it hadn't be cleaned in years. The walls were in really bad shape too. Most of the wall were a dingy off-white and the hall way was wallpapered, dirty and peeling. Apparently the folks who lived there before us didn't care about keeping the house nice. So, Mr. P and I spent every weekend before moving in helping the landlord and his friend fix up the house. Enough jibber jabber and onto the (after) photos...
The house is 4 (little) bedrooms and 1.5 baths, but we turned one bedroom into a closet and one into a studio.

The windows on the left are the living room:
Does that painting look familiar? It was the inspiration for our wedding invitation design. The coffee table houses four ottomans which are great for extra seating. The colors in this room are pretty wacky, but much better than the white they once were.
All the floors in the house are painted either brown or red.
This is where Princess Zazu spends all day everyday.
Our rarely used dining room. Mr. Pineapple picked out this table, I love the bench because I can picture our kids kneeling over the table and working on craft projects.

Our kitchen is bright and a little messy, but I'm okay with that:
The chair on the left is where Harrison spends all day everyday waiting for someone to accidentally leave the bread on the counter for more than 15 seconds so he can eat it all.
This door leads to one of three porches surrounding the house.
This is the half bath downstairs that we pretty much only use as a place to store our vacuum. Check out how close the wall is to the toilet. You pretty much have to hug the wall to sit down.
This stairwell may not look like much but it was a huge project. Dad Pineapple and I put new drywall up on the green walls to cover what were once wallpapered and very damaged.

At the top of the stairs if the most important room in our house (in my opinion). It is my studio where I spend all day designing invitations and of course blogging.
The rug is there because Rooney the puppy kept eating the paint off the floor. Dad Pineapple and I made my desk from a door. It is just big enough for my laptop, printer and of course a little TV.
Studio storage, job white board and Rooney's food.

Okay, brace yourself. Our closet:
What a mess! Oh well. This used to be a bedroom, but we converted it to a closet because the few closets in the house are too shallow to put hangers in.

Across from the closet is the bathroom/laundry room.

Next up is "the wedding room"
This room never got painted or used for that matter for anything other than storage for wedding stuff. As you can see, even after the wedding it is full of junk. I have been avoiding this organization project like the plague.
Now onto our cozy little bedroom:
Our bedding was a shower gift from Mom Pineapple. In the bottom right corner is Rooney's bed, he eats out of bird dishes when we are away.
The photo above our bed is bow bridge in Central Park, where Mr. Pineapple proposed. To the left is a squirrel lamp that Sister P gave us as an engagement present.

Last but not least is our water:
The blocks on the right used to be the foundation for a spring house. Back in the days before refrigeration a natural spring fed the house and kept all perishables cold. Now the spring feeds our entire house. It is the best water I have ever tasted, plus is is clean and free which is amazing.

So now you have seen my secret of life of having a life outside of wedding planning.