AND NOW, FOR THE REST OF THE STORY ....

Welcome to the Kitchen.  I think I posted a photo of what we chose for our main Cabinet before, but maybe not.  I saw this somewhere so I can't take credit for the idea. This is a Stainless Steel Toolbox on Casters.  I just love the Kitchen drawer storage it gives us.  I looked at a lot of similar styles but decided on this one (Costco) because of size and the fact that it has both drawers and a Cabinet.

The drawers are perfect depth for so many of those 'odd shaped' Kitchen items.

     

One of the 'extras' we knew we wanted was a pot filler.  No more lifting a big heavy pot with water from Sink to Stove.  The convenience is all right there.   That's the funny looking thing you see there on the counter.  It just has a cold water connection which is all you need.

Our Coffee Pot is on this counter and so it's very convenient for filling that to make coffee too.  And, with the amount of coffee the two of us drink, that's major!  :)

I opted for mostly open shelving in the Kitchen. First and foremost, I like the look.  And second, I wanted the Kitchen to be convenient.  The truth is we're not getting any younger, (well ... Glen's not :) and to have things easily accessible just makes sense.  The non-open cabinets are Hickory Cabinets, the same as what we have in the main bathroom.

This is the Kitchen Island now finished.  Our friendly little Pig on the counter usually holds notes from our Grandchildren.  When they come to visit, one of them will usually write a 'love note' on it to us.  But, before the day ends, that note can be changed 3 or 4 times by another one of the Grandchildren.  It's become somewhat of a contest as to whose note will be the last one on there when they leave.  :)

sorry, this is a little dark.  This our Buffet and it is directly across from the Island.  

These shelves are to the left of the Buffet and pretty much in the center of the room.  I opted to do our wall this way because I wanted the whole open space to flow from one area to the other fairly seamlessly.  

Here's another view ...

The diningroom table.  This is one of those things that (hopefully!) will get changed  at some point.   It's a great table, it opens up to double in size, but for this space I think a narrow Farm table would be better.  I'm working on that!  :)

Now we are in the Livingroom area.  Yes, the Binoculars are always there.  Out that window we have a great view of the Mountains on the other side of Mullan.  Almost daily we can watch the Elk and Deer grazing on the hillside.  

More Livingroom area.  The Sofa is probably going to get changed at some point too.  It's soooo comfortable but we are probably going to replace it with a Sofa bed at some point.  We don't have a guest room per se, (just our RV 'guest house')  but we've had so much company since being here that we could occasionally use an extra bed.

In case you noticed, yes, I did change the big painting.
The Winter trees are what is up there now.  :)

We have two of these Brown Leather chairs (at the bottom of the photo below) that face across the livingroom to the window (with the binoculars)  For some reason I didn't get a full photo of this side.

That's my Studio space.  YES ... IT IS TINY.  :/  It was suppose to originally be our Office Space and we were going to build a separate Studio Space for me in the back yard.  The house was first priority though, so we said 'Next year' for the Studio and I would just carve out a niche 'somewhere' in the house for now.  Well, the 'Office' actually fit nicely in our Bedroom so I took over this space.  Temporarily. :)  But, other than storage for the non-daily essentials (frames, extra canvases, etc.) this works out just fine.  It is somewhast cramped right now, but I will probably only be designing Jewelry through the end of this year.  Once I stop that and just concentrate on my Artwork, this space will actually be perfect for my needs.   And, the coffee pot is just a few feet away!  :)  

Well, that is where we are at the moment.  There is still a lot of fine tuning to do inside.  But, since the weather is becoming nicer, the priority for now is the outside and the Garage (which needs a whole new makeover!)   Could almost be another whole Blog.  NOT!  :)

"THE ORNAMENT OF A HOUSE IS THE FRIENDS WHO VISIT IT."

                    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Will keep you 'posted' !

Charleen

WELL ... ITS BEEN A MONTH.

AND ... A LOT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED!

Walls are all up, painted, the trim is done, the floors are stained  AND SWEPT as per instructions from the Inspector. (Is that a little power trip or what?!) That all had to be done before the Plumbing/Gas Inspector would come back for his last inspection when he would (hopefully) unlock our gas meter so we could get some real heat in the house.  

We passed.  Well, sort of.  He unlocked the meter but wants two of the 4 sink traps replaced.  Because of their positioning under cabinets, the fella's used two accordion style traps.   Evidently they are not legal in Idaho.  They sell them in Idaho but they are not legal in Idaho.  ??  How does that work?  Anyway, he said to replace them, take a photo and text it to him.  Then we are done.  Hallelujah! 

Kitchen sink is in the island.  You can see some finished/painted walls behind it.  I LOVE the sink and the faucet!  

This is our bedroom (walls finished but no trim on the windows yet) and that's Glen and Ernie attaching an old Barn door to the wall for our Headboard.  (Many coats of varnish later!) You can't see it in the photo but there is an old brass plate that says 'Private'  right in the middle behind Ernie ~ it was on the door when we rescued it :)   It has great shades of old barn red, brown, black and even some white paint on it.  There's even an old rope handle. Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to capture it in the photo.

Electricians have been back and installed 'most' of the lights.  These two are over the island. 

These three are over the kitchen stove and counter area.  

Installing Medicine cabinets in the main bathroom.  Lights are up.

Done!

Next, the cabinets.  We went with Hickory for both this bathroom and the kitchen.

Yes.  That is pennies.  This is the floor for the shower.  I did the penny work  (and, in case you are wondering ... never again!)

When Glen suggested we do the whole bathroom floor that way I 'politely' told him he was welcome to go ahead anytime and do it.  You will soon see how far that idea went!!  :)  I covered the whole thing with about 6 coats of an oil based polyurethane floor varnish, and no, it is not slippery.

  

The rest of the shower finished.  Those are galvanized steel panels that have been made into a shower surround.  (Thus, the industrial part of Rustic Industrial.)  :)  Bob did the majority of the work on this and he did a great job.

Cabinet above microwave is in.

We spray stained the concrete floor.  We used two coats of a white-wash stain, two coats of a midnight slate gray and 3 coats of a high gloss varnish (which turned out to be not really high gloss).  They suggest you use a weed sprayer to do it, which we did.  That takes some practice   :/  We practiced in our closet.  We won't be giving tours of the closet.

A close-up of the floor.

For the most part, the floor actually turned out great.  Well, lets say it has its own personality.  But when you realize we had no idea what we were doing when we started the project it's not too shabby.  The floor catches everyone because they are not sure what it is when they first see it.  (PLEASE NOTE: no pennies :)

Bob and Ernie working on putting in the 'mudroom/coat rack' area.  If you go back and look at the photo of the kitchen sink, this is on the wall that you see just beyond the sink (with the rag stuffed in the electrical hole).  :/

This is our grandson Sean, taking a break and having lunch up in the small loft above our bedroom.  He has claimed this as 'his room' when he comes up and visits.  :)

These photos have been waiting for me to do something with them but I have been VERY busy packing, and now, unpacking..  Two weeks ago tomorrow we moved.into the house.  No, everything is not done, but it is livable.  As soon as I get the rest of the photos re-sized, etc. I will be doing another Blog and can show you the progress we have made just in the last several weeks.  

Unfinished or not, it feels great to finally be in the house!

See you soon!