Peterson Family Reunion: The House

It's family reunion time in the Peterson Family and this year we lucked out on our rental house. This might be indulgent to post all these pictures, but this house was amazing and I want to remember it. It looks rather modest from the front, considering it's actual size. Isn't it lovely?

The pictures I took of this house don't do it justice. You'll have to imagine each room is much more grand than it looks, especially the front entry. Near the end there are some details that might give you a hint of the grandeur of some of these rooms.

One of the problems in the past with rental houses has been not enough space for 36 people to hang out (or to get away from hanging out, as the case may be). Not a problem in this house. There were many rooms and couches, sitting areas, playing areas, eating areas, sleeping areas, nooks and crannies. Here is the formal sitting room, complete with grand piano and fireplace.

Here is the formal dining room. I think I only saw this room being used once by kids to play games.

Here was the main hang out area, with the main kitchen (there were two full kitchens and a kitchenette, plus an extra large walk-in pantry with an extra fridge). The big table to the right in the picture below comfortably sat 18.

Turn around and here is the main family room, with more table seating, a fireplace, and a large TV.

If you follow the spiral staircase in the above picture (back left), you will go down to the pool table room with another large TV, fireplace, and the kitchenette.

There are 10 bedrooms in this house, all with multiple beds except two. I didn't take pictures of all the rooms in the house or this blog post would've gone on indefinitely. Plus, all the rooms were being lived in and they looked like it.

Here's the room our family was in. We had a huge walk-in closet that Henry's crib was set up in. Grace got the pink queen-sized bed and Scott and I had the floral queen bed.

When grandkids are together, here is the dream sleeping situation: All kids together in their own beds in a big room. Are 8 sets of bunk beds enough? Plus a spacious loft? Plus a large screen TV, air hockey table and their own bathroom? I think so...

The second kitchen was connected off of the bunk bed room, too, which is pretty cool. I didn't get a picture of it.

Extra Awesome Stuff

If the front of the house seemed modest, perhaps you get a better feel for the size of the house from the backyard.

Not only was there lots of space (14 acres of it), there were lots of trees, lots of lovely sculptures, an outdoor fireplace, a tennis court with riding toys in the shed, a gazebo, a play house, a swing set, a ping-pong table, and lots of lovely landscaping.

The bronze horses in the upper right corner were larger than life size. It was a really amazing sculpture.

Indoor pool, anyone? Yes, please. With a slide and a diving board. And lots of pool toys.

Oh, and of course a hot tub.

And while we're at it, throw in a racquetball court with an automatic retractable basketball hoop.

There are extensive closets full of all sorts of sports balls, rackets, goggles, even extra swimsuits in dozens of sizes. But you know maybe some people don't like racquetball, basketball, tennis, or swimming, but still want a workout? OK. I guess we'll throw in a workout room, too.

The Amazing Details

I just learned tonight that the square footage of this house was over 16,000 square feet. That alone sounds impressive, but what makes it even more impressive is almost every room in that 16,000 square feet has been personalized with delightful details. It's clear that when this house was built (in 1985, I think), no expense was spared.

Wood details, clockwise: main entry archway, family room mantle, ceiling pillars in family room/kitchen, main entry ceiling relief

There were little wood details all over that were luxurious. The main entry was breathtaking with carved leaves, gold berries and corinthian pillars sprinkled with horses all richly painted. There was an office turned into bedroom with dark wood panelling and ornate carved details.

Architectural details: spiral stairs pool room, spiral stairs family room, telephone nook, hallway arch

The architecture had little surprises around every corner. Beautiful rounded archways, the stunning spiral staircase, lovely high windows and ceilings.

Mural in upper level of children's play house

There were paintings and photography scattered throughout the house, mostly themed around horses, native americans and wildlife. There was one painting of Don Quixote that was fun. The mural above had so many fun details from the castle in the upper left to the hot air balloon on the right and the cloud pictures on the ceiling to the hidden grandchildren's names painted in the rocks, trees and bushes.

Bronze sculptures: Indian and eagle, playing child, um.. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young being blessed by Jesus?, moose

There were many bronze sculptures both inside and outside the house. This family clearly had good taste in art. There were three sculptures in the main entry that were Native Americans with animals. They were beautiful. The one above had a man on his knee holding a giant eagle taking wing from his wrist. The two others were with horses and Henry loved them. He pointed out the horses every time we walked by them.

Stained glass: Pool table room, door between kitchen and formal dining hall, swimming pool, children's play house