Welcome to our home! We're the end house of a row of 5 houses, which means we have our own parking spot, have a playground just to the right of the house, and a dead end street where only 3 cars drive (including ours).

We have a large entry way, perfect for multiple kiddos to put on shoes all at once. That's not always common in Switzerland, so we are really thankful for it.

I love how bright this space is and the rounded arch adds a simple touch of elegance.

Coming in to the right you'll find my kitchen. It is far more spacious than I had before, so having the kids in there with me is no longer quite so stressful. 

My counter space is limited but since I have a table in the corner, it works just fine! I've had my super amazing coffee machine for a year now as well, and it is my joy to make coffee for visitors - so please stop by!

Breakfast nook and pantry

I love this built-in cabinet - the top half is all my coffee and tea paraphernalia, and the bottom half is for kid dishes and various soft things that can't be destroyed by toddlers! To the left is the fridge. I only have a small freezer box inside the fridge, so I had to buy a chest for the basement.

Straight ahead when you walk in the front door is the living/dining room. A big couch was essential, and we were thankful to find someone getting rid of this one for $50!

We are able to keep the dining table at full size and not feel crowded. This room can hold quite a few people, and practicing hospitality has been one of our goals in our new home. But in addition to that, this room has become my resting place. I limit the toys stored here and enforce a quick clean up at lunch time and a full clean up at bedtime so that this room is always peaceful. Then I can take advantage of the peace myself, or extend it to others when they drop by.

I was unsure about the pink floral wallpaper at first (the landlords asked that it stay), but the longer we're here the more we like it, to the point that we'd probably choose it again. In the corner you can see our large game collection - we are always looking for people willing to play!

Elias hid the little "Zwerglihuus" that he made with the girls in a special spot - you'll have to come visit to see if you can find it ;)

Up the stairs we have a little hallway with just enough space for a linen cupboard, as well as the bathroom, bedrooms, and office.

The bathroom is pretty small for 3 kids brushing their teeth at once, but it does have a nice big bathtub!

The smallest bedroom is Elias's office. 

We moved a few months before Elias took his med school exams, and despite the upheaval, it was worth it for him to have this space removed from the rest of the family to focus on studying.

All three girls share the largest bedroom.

They each have their special shelves above their beds, and there are lights strung up underneath the bunk bed so they can play.

The corner has a play store for all the food toys. Although one time, half of the kids' shoes disappeared, and I found that Becca had put them all here so she could open her own shoe store!

I restrict the stuffed animals to what fits in this giant basket... though I don't count the large unicorns and bears that live on their beds.

Elias and I took the small bedroom, since we don't spend much time in it. This built-in closet is one of Elias's great successes. He took our normal long closet, cut it in half, and then made each half face the other.

He added a motion sensor light, and now we have a walk in closet with automatic light! 

Elias also made this little bridge to help reach the other side of the bed.

It's cozy and works well for us :)

We get to go up another flight of stairs to the attic, which was finished into a spare room.

And it is the best room! This is our guest room/play room/craft room.

My desk and all the craft supplies are in this corner, and I can easily shove my desk aside when we want to pull the couch out for guests.

The girls have a craft table, and behind those walls is a lot of storage space.

A little cozy seating...

And the play area for the kids. This area changes as we sometimes store the mattresses away, but they're available, so if any families with kids want to visit, we have the space! 

The basement stairs hold more coats and shoes because Kindergarteners go out to play in all weather and need to have all of the appropriate outdoor gear.

We have some extra food storage and a small chest freezer in the basement.

And I have my own laundry room! I might not be exaggerating when I say this was the biggest life change. I went from scheduling my life around the one day every 8 days that I had access to the shared washing machine (no dryer), to not even thinking about laundry because I can do it whenever I want!

The other half of the basement is the garage/work room. The workbench was already there and the landlords were happy to not have to move it! Elias has thoroughly enjoyed having a real workbench - you can read the post about the mini-workbench he created in our former apartment here. Outside the door are stairs that lead up to our driveway.

Lots of storage space! There is another wall of shelves behind those orange shelves if you can't tell.

The door in the living room leads straight onto the back patio. We eat out here whenever the weather is nice enough.

We were able to change the footprint of the backyard a little bit. Right where the sidewalk cuts through the yard used to be a tall hedge, with the far side of the yard being open to the street. We removed the central hedge and plant a new one along the street. We use the yard much more now! The gray pole there is my clothesline for sunny days.

If you know Elias, you know he loves nature, and this house gives us many opportunities to garden. We kept the raised bed we made for our old balcony, added some herb planters, and we may plant more in the yard later.

On the side of the house is another bed with peonies, hydrangeas, another Japanese Maple, a currant bush, and a few other random flowers.

I'm still trying to convince Elias that we need a trellis over the entrance to our garden with a cute little gate!

We made a little wildflower bed in the front yard, and Elias has found so many new species of flowers and insects right in our own garden! He identifies all of them and uploads them to the nature section of our website.

I've hinted several times, so now I'll come right out and say it - we enjoy having visitors and would love to welcome anyone reading this to drop by if you're already in Switzerland or even come stay with us for awhile and share in the blessing of the home God has graciously given us.