A Country Home Tour {Jodi Allen}

Dreamy. This home.

I frequent it and know it well. 

Welcome friends, to my sister Jodi's beautiful country home! Jodi's answers reveal the warmth and love of the family that makes this home so special. 

Please tell us who makes this lovely house a home?

My adventure-loving husband of almost 17 years and our three absolutely wonderful children.  Luke is 12 and enjoys basketball, soccer, and building awesome bunkers in the backyard for airsoft wars.  Jack is newly 10 and cannot get enough of fishing, boating, and basketball.  Julia Rose just turned 8 and is a farmgirl in the truest sense, never complaining about feeding the chickens, checking on the rabbit, or walking the dog.

What made you choose your house?

When my husband was offered a job in the Seattle area, we toured 52 houses in 4 days.  Seriously.  The one we bought was the first and last house we went through.  All we pictured was our two little boys (at that time) running and playing. 

How long have you lived here?

I can’t believe it has been almost 10 years!!  Time does fly.  It is  fun to look back through pictures of growing our kiddos in this home. 

Looking back, how has your decorating style changed since you first moved in?

Oh wow!  Lots in some ways and none in others…if that makes sense.  I have always loved the feeling of old: Old furniture, old thrift store finds, old pictures in worn-out frames. When we moved in, I was all about the French countryside.  Never having actually been there, I scoured books and magazines to create vignettes of what a countryside cottage in the hills of France might look like.  Over time, as my husband began bringing home antler sheds from hunting trips, and our pets outnumbered people, I began to find our family “niche”.  Let’s face it…We were much more farm than foreign!  Ceramic cows now fill the kitchen, books of fishing facts fill the shelves, and dirt on the floor has become a little comforting.

What do you hope your children remember about living here?

Hopefully they will remember most their cousins playing in the yard or swimming in the creek.  Long summer nights and Fall pumpkin parties.  Running down the stairs screaming on Christmas morning.  Building campfires with Dad and mom’s s’more trays.  Friends coming and going.  Grandparents stopping by to celebrate a birthday or for absolutely no reason at all.  And finally number 1:  Remembering feeling so LOVED in this house we call HOME.

What holidays do you most enjoy decorating for?

Christmas would most definitely be our favorite!  Nothing tops the celebration of the birth of our King, Jesus.  It’s like the biggest birthday party ever, and I love that! 

What home projects are you currently dreaming of doing?

Well, the one I finished today was cleaning our carpets with a rental Rug Doctor!  Sometimes the best home projects are just cleaning up after the LAST home project! Next, I would have to say, would be to get rid of the yellow-gold tones on the walls of the kitchen and family room.  I’m thinking a warm white or even a soft gray?  Nothing too major.  For now, at least for this evening, I feel very blessed and extremely thankful to have been given such a full life with my growing family…even if the upstairs bathroom remains a little dated….

Thank you, Jodi! What a treat of a tour it was. 

xo