Since you seemed to enjoy our previous messy house tour videos (remember the one from our last house in 2011?), we decided to share another honest look around. We’re not a household of perfectly folded towels and immaculately placed pillows all day, every day. With most of our attention on the showhouse and a few last-minute nursery details, a number of projects around the house have been paused—some literally halfway finished—and several rooms have slipped into temporary chaos. When life looks like that, why not record it and share it with the world?
A few notes about the tour:
- There is no rapping in this video. I’m both relieved and a little disappointed.
- I usually avoid narrating and just hold the camera while Sherry talks, since I have steadier hands. But she was busy with showhouse tasks this time, so I put on my big-boy pants and gave it a go.
- Burger steals every scene—he’s all over the place like an overenthusiastic sidekick.
- Don’t worry about the droopy fig trees in the office; they perk right up after a drink. They do seem unusually thirsty lately, though.
- If a sabre-toothed tiger had married a pony when I was a kid, I would have begged to attend. I was obsessed with tigers and checked out tiger books from the library week after week in elementary school.
- Walk up to the second floor and you’ll see those gleaming hardwood floors. They make me swell with pride every time.
- For anyone asking about the fourth wall in the nursery: you get a brief glimpse in the video. Right now it’s just a floor lamp and the doorway to the hall, but we might add a “wall of fun” like the one we put in Clara’s room eventually.
- There’s also some rarely-seen footage of the unfinished storage room at the end of the upstairs hallway—and yes, it’s messy too.
- I edited out the end where I shouted “keeping it real.” For some reason I felt compelled to yell that like a Backstreet Boys fan in 1995, and I decided it didn’t need to make the cut. You’ll understand.
If you can’t watch the video right now, the visuals do most of the storytelling even without sound. For those who prefer a quick summary instead of watching, here are some highlights captured during the tour.
Many projects around the house are in a holding pattern while we finish the showhouse and tweak the nursery. Paint cans, tools and half-unpacked boxes are scattered in a few spots, and several rooms show the visible signs of interrupted work: taped-off trim, partially painted walls, and furniture temporarily shifted to accommodate ongoing tasks. It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s honest—and it reflects the real ebb and flow of life when you’re balancing big deadlines and preparing for a new baby.
We hope to have a short window of time between the showhouse deadline and the baby’s arrival to tackle a few lingering projects and restore some order. Of course, that plan assumes everything stays on schedule—right before Barnacle arrives and upends our carefully made plans once again.
Does anyone else have half-finished projects that are spilling into other rooms? Is there a single project creating a ripple effect of clutter throughout your home? We know we’re not the only ones living with a few chaotic corners while life gets busy.
Psst – Showhouse deadlines have made this week even crazier than expected, so we don’t have a new post for tomorrow. We hope to be back on Monday.