NEW YEAR . . . NEW KITCHEN!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I have a friend, whom I have been friends with for about 57 years, give or take a day or two.  :)  (Am I right Lupe?)  She has been bugging me for photos of our house down here in Ajo, and I admit, I have been lax in sharing any, anywhere. Mostly because we have been VERY busy with the renovation and also, things seem to change around here on a daily basis.  Glen will ask me "What are you doing?"  I respond "I'm thinking."  His response is "PLEASE stop thinking!!"  (If I start thinking too much it usually means more work for him!)

But, we are moving ahead, and really a lot has gotten done.  Today I'll concentrate on photos of our 'new' kitchen.  A kitchen designed around a lot of very old parts, pieces and a little Ajo history.

The original house was about 450 sq ft. The livingrm/kitchen was a combination room about 10 x 20'.  At some point an addition was put on (above) in which half was designated to a new kitchen (1950's style) and half to extend one bedroom.  Unfortunately, the addition was not the greatest quality so we tore everything back to the original 450' except for the roof and flooring. We decided to use this space for an open air deck and it provided for many wonderful gatherings with friends last year.  That turquoise cabinet you see was the original kitchen dish cabinet which we kept.  1950's nostalgia.  :)  The rusted dado along the bottom half of the wall is part of the old roof from the house we tore down.  

Here is the second wall completely covered in the old roofing.  Down here it seems to be almost sacrilegious NOT to use what is already here.  When we tore down the other house I can't even begin to tell you how many people stopped and asked if they could have (or buy in some cases) this metal and/or the old wood from the house.  We honestly didn't do a lot of sharing because we had a sense we would use it, we just didn't know what for in the beginning.

The deck was very funky to say the least.  This rounded shelving was built in to a wall in the livingroom.  We took it out to put in a  doorway but I couldn't bear to get rid of it at the time. Thus, it took its spot on the deck.

I think Glen hauled away 25 trailer loads of 'stuff' the first year here, and more the second year, to either the dump, or if usable, then the resale shops here in town.  

I know, not looking entirely glamorous here . . . Electric is in and 

that's some of the old wood from the tear down now gracing the walls.  New flooring in boxes waiting to be installed.  As much as we liked the original wood floors, it was a situation where 'it just wasn't meant to be'. Too much damage.

Two outer walls now in along with 2 nice big windows.  :)

Stuff everywhere!

A real door out to a small landing (next year hopefully, the landing will be part of a new deck).  Tools are everywhere!

French doors in and now awaiting that same deck. (The other door you see now goes into a new pantry).

Walls are finished! Walls and windows are both awaiting new trim.

The start of cabinets, etc.  For those of you that remember our Mullan home, you might recognize the fact that we went with another toolbox in the kitchen.  I LOVE my toolbox.  Perfect for everything from silverware to spices to pot lids, baking pans, etc. We actually should get a kickback from Home Depot.  I know for a fact we have sold several of these for them!

Getting there . . 

Cabinets stained, counters in, shelves up.

Yes, we were going for the industrial look.  It was planned. :)

You probably can't tell, but the black and white photo in the upper left is a photo of the house when we initially rescued it from demolition.  People love seeing the difference between now and then.

Double oven, and for overkill, a microwave/convection oven above it.  In our defense, we bought the micro/conv. before we knew we were going to be doing all this.

The ceiling is also covered with old wood, now varnished.  And yes, both of those prints over in the corner say 'Cafe' Martin'.  :)

A little hard to see against the dark wood, but that is an old Cotton scale friends of ours down here gave us for our new kitchen.  He is originally from Alabama and has carried this around for years.  He asked if we would like it.  He thought we would appreciate it and he was correct.  Hard to see, but that is a 'bell' weight hanging on the right hand side.  He said, when the sharecroppers brought their cotton in to be weighed, it always managed to weigh out in the landowners favor.  Some things never change.

Light over the table.

And for the piece de resistance . . . our table.  This we rescued from a yardsale about 17 years ago when we up visiting friends in Newport, WA.  It was originally the back door to a bar in Post Falls, ID called the Lions Lair.  We know this for 2 reasons. First, carved on the underside of the table is 'Lions Lair 1976'.  The second way I know this is because it was an old haunting ground of my husbands 'back in the 'day as they say. (I actually do not like that saying . . . sooo overused these days and here I am adding to that!)  :/  For the first 16 years or so it was our coffee table.  Glen made legs for it out of twisted steel.  As you will see in a future blog, the livingroom here is way too small for a coffee table this size.  So . . . in another one one of my 'thinking modes' I said "How about making it our kitchen table!  Groans. Sighs.  But, as you can see, it is now our kitchen table with rusted (and varnished) legs to match. :)  I have a great hubby.

A little hard to see, but it now has a tempered glass tabletop over the wood and metal top.  This makes the ends also usable.  You can see from the photo above you really couldn't seat anyone on either end due to the metal bar.

So far the reviews have been good.  'Comfortable' is the word we hear the most and that suits us just fine.

O.K. a teaser . . .

A small part of our very small livingroom.  Not quite done, but the floor is in along with a few pieces of furniture. 

Onward!

Hope to see you soon!

Charleen and Glen

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

WOW!! WE'RE IN . . . AND IT'S COZY.

I guess that can be taken two ways.  One ... it's just small and the other is ... it's just cozy.  :)  While it is a lot smaller than what we have been use to, I have to say that, overall, I'm not missing all the extra space (and the extra cleaning and maintaining).  At 1000 square feet it seems to fit most all of our needs.  My studio space could be a little bigger but then, in all honesty, no matter how big my studio was, it wouldn't be big enough!  :)  Most people coming in for the first time are surprised at how big the space does feel.  The high ceilings and open concept seem to have done their jobs.  I think we do have a few friends who have been in our past homes and are maybe not quite as enamored as we are, but ...

I would have been back sooner but I needed to get serious about my own work and get my studio organized (somewhat) so I could meet a big deadline that I had coming up.  That deadline is now behind me so I can now think about a few other things.  :)  Since a LOT has been accomplished in the last two and a half months I'm not even sure where to start. Let's see. How about the main Bathroom ...  

We'll start with the bad news.  If you remember, we used Pennies for the shower floor.  Well, when done laying all the pennies I went to the store and SPECIFICALLY told the Hardware 'EXPERT' what I was doing and that I needed a waterproof sealer to put over the pennies.  Long story short ... he sold me the wrong product.  What do I know?!  Within a week after installation the whole floor started turning white.  The finish he sold me was NOT waterproof.   Below is Glen having to scrape off the whole finish . . .

                         

You can see the design from the pennies embedded into the scraped off finish below ...  :(

                           

The shower now has a Resin finish over the pennies which is what should have been on there in the first place.  Major work.  Major aggravation.  Major want to pop someone in the nose.  

                                            

You can see the old, small barn door we cleaned, varnished and used between our sinks and the toilet.  It's fun. It just adds that bit of whimsy you so often look for.  

                                              

We opted for what are called 'Farm Sinks' for our bathroom.  Part of the bowl sits below the sink and the other half rests on the counter.  I had a friend ask if this was to give us more room under the sink in the cabinet.  The answer is no as these are nice sized sinks so nothing is gained under the counter.  I was going for 'the look.'  :)

                         

Toilet in the above photo is just to the left of this door.  This is one of our New Barn Doors.  We left all of our Pine the Natural color and just sealed with a clear varnish.  Over time it will yellow with age.  Just behind this painting is the wall for the Shower.

If you remember from a previous post we attached a reclaimed barn door to the wall for our headboard.  We sold our actual bedroom set before we left Wenatchee.  It was a Craftsman Style set but we knew we were going to want to do something a bit more rustic here.  As I type, my son John is outside working on a footboard for the bed ... also out of a reclaimed door.  I'm anxious to see it completed.  :) 

Glens side of the bed.  :)  Note the old rope handlle on the left used to close the door when it was still being used.  

This is my side.  The round paintings on the right were a Baby gift to my Mother when I was born.  They are prints by Bessie Pease Gutman for those of you that are into Antiques. Hmmm... does that make me an Antique too?  :/ 

These are the doors to our closet ... also a reclaimed door which we cut down the middle.  I love how these came out when I varnished them.  They swing back and forth like the old Saloon doors.  A nice plus when you have your hands full.  

Another one of our Barn doors.  This one goes from our Bedroom into the Bathroom.  Down in the left corner is the edge of a large Pine Dresser we have in our bedroom.  

Voila!! Guess what just got done?!  Our Footboard!

I love it!  I think it finishes the Bed off nicely. 

This is the other side of the door from the Bathroom into the back Hallway.  Note the Special K.  When the door is closed you have full access into a Pantry that is built into the wall between the studs.  When open, (as in photo), it covers 3/4 of the Pantry.  It's right around the corner from the Kitchen so very accessible.  Small means utilizing all available (and sometimes, not so available) space! 

On the very left of the photo above you can see some Trim.  That is the doorway to the 'Library' aka the second bathroom.   We've always had a guestroom and/or hallway in which to display older Family photos and tchotchkes.  Now our Guestroom is our 'RV' so no real place for some of these favorite items in there.  So, I eleceted to utilize some of the space in this bathroom.  I mean, what better place to show off your favorites then where you have a captive audience?!  :)

The Wooden boxes on the Wall we found in the Attic of the Garage that was on this property when we bought it.  The Gentlemean in the photo is Great Uncle Charlie (on Glens side).  The story is he was in a card game, there was gun play, and he wound up running across the Border into Canada for some silly reason.  :/  When you look at the photo full on you can see where Glen got his looks. ESPECIALLY the eyes!

We originally had a White Pedestal sink that was suppose to go in this Bathroom but with all the delays and drama for the first 6 months the sink wound up getting cracked somehow while in storage.  We didn't realize it until we went to install it.  Glen never liked the idea of the Pedestal Sink in there to begin with - he thought it should be a deep sink.  (See where I'm going with this?  The sink just 'happened' to get cracked)  And, as luck would have it, Bob just 'happened' to have this Stainless Steel sink he could put in instead.  So, that's what he did, and he built the Cabinet surround while at it.  He really did a nice job and I guess I have to admit, it probably is a lot more practical than the Pedestal sink in there.  I now have a place to wash my Paint brushes and Glen has a decent sink to use for whatever when he comes in from working outside.  Note the Stainless Steel Towel Bar.  I'll tell you more about that later.

                                        

This is the only door (besides the closet) that is not Barn door Style.  There is no room to the left at all and just that short wall that you can see on the right side.  No place for a barn door track.  This is a Bi-fold that Glen built to fit the space.

Has it ever happened that you have an idea and then someone comes along, takes that idea, runs with it, and then does a better job than you did?!  Well, Gina and Bob took the penny idea, and re-did the steps going up to the second floor in their home and I am so envious.  (Of course, they did learn something from our mistakes!  :)   There was carpeting that desperately needed to be replaced so off it came.  Bob had to put all new kick-plates in and new stair treads.  Gina did all the kick-plates with pennies and then they stained the stair treads to match the bannisters.  Below is the fnished product.  I thought it turned out great!  It certainly lightens the stairwell.  One more set of stairs going down to the lower level to go!

I'm going to end for today.  I have photos for the rest of the house but this will never get out if I try and fit it all in tonight.  I will try and get to the rest sometime within this coming week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

CHARLEEN