The Big Reveal – Picture Time!

I never planned on it being so long before I posted pictures.  I really thought I would have time to post before now – Sorry!  We have not moved into our house yet – we have been trying to finish all the “little” things which seem to take a long time!  We did finally sign closing documents on Monday, October 18 so we are really happy to be out of our construction loan.  Without any more talking – on to the best part – pictures! 

Here is our house today – from all the angles!

 

You’ll notice my fridge is on the deck – it doesn’t fit in my kitchen – too big.  I found it on craigslist so I can’t return it but now we are fridge shopping again!  So if you know anyone that needs a fridge?……

We didn’t quite get all the railing stained yet.  Hopefully the weather will get nice again for just one more day so we can finish before winter.  It seems like the stain was a never ending process.  We put two coats of stain on the whole house, then we put chinking between all the logs (if you look really hard you can see it!), and then we put a clear protective coat over all of it.  It was a process and we hope we don’t have to do that ever again (the chinking part – we will probably have to stain again in a couple years!)  BUT, we think it looks great!  I am really happy with the color and how the tree in the front near the entry turned out.  Len cut that tree from the property here because we didn’t have a log tall enough to fit there from the log package.  I think it looks awesome!

Now for the interior!!

Here is the entry and what you see when you walk in the door --

The Kitchen…I love the contrast of the kitchen from the rest of the wood in the house.  It really breaks it up -- and I love the island – The red color really makes it stand out.  I got the idea of doing the island a different color from when we stayed at Jana’s parent’s (John and Jennifer Blickenstaff’s) log house.  I loved their kitchen and copied just a few things!  Hope they don’t mind!!! :)

My awesome farm sink – Mike and Jodi gave us a “one upgrade” coupon for our Christmas gift last year.  This is what I upgraded because of their gift – THANK  YOU!  I love the sink.  It is so big that I think Miranda could take a bath in it.  I am really excited to use it!

The dining room is off the kitchen -- And the Great room with the fireplace is right next to it.  We are so happy with how the fireplace turned out.  If you notice on the pictures of the outside, we still don’t have rock on the chimney between the deck and the roof.  We have the rock for it but we thought that we might be able to place the rock ourselves.  After watching the guys put the rock on the fireplace inside and on the chimney above the roof outside, we are thinking about changing our minds.  It was amazing how long it took them to make all those rocks fit – and they’re professionals!  We think it turned out great and we might just have to hire them again to finish up! 

Here are pictures of the great room looking up at the loft.

The green wall is the only color on the interior walls in the house.  The rest of the walls are painted an antique white for now.  I really like how it turned out.

This picture shows off the stairs a little better. Plus you can see the slate that Leonard put down in the entry way and the front of the stairs going up to the loft.

I sanded every stair after the construction was finished inside.  It created SO MUCH DUST.  The fire alarms were going off like crazy.  After they were sanded, I coated them with polyurethane to protect them.  They look good but I couldn’t get a picture of them without the shine from the poly.  It made a big mess to sand them inside but I am glad that it was finished before we moved in the house!

I didn’t take very good pictures of the doors inside.  We used the doors and trim from Leonard’s grandparents house that still sits on the farm.  Their house was built in 1902 and the doors and trim from that house really add character to ours – maybe the next post I will try to get them in!

Here is the view from the loft --

Here is our master bedroom – not a great picture but you get the idea!  I really like the chandelier.

And here is our master Bathroom

The Vanity – two sinks!!

The tub – my favorite part of the house!  We decided to put rock on it like the fireplace to add just a little character and I love how it turned out!              

And the shower. 

This was the shower that I stayed up until 2:00 one morning to tile while Leonard was chinking and Justin was grouting the tile floors that we had installed two days earlier.  It was while tiling this shower that I said -- “You know… I am a really good nurse.  I should go to work and hire someone else to do this stuff!!!”  I am happy with how it turned out – but I was really tired! 

Here are pictures of the bedrooms upstairs – also not very good pictures but at least you can kinda see them!

The girls room …

Kanyon’s room…

To the left of the picture above you can see the door that leads to the bonus room – which for now will be a kids playroom!

You can’t tell but we made some little cubbies in the wall of the bonus room that will be great spots for toys – plus the room is insulated all the way around it which makes it very quiet to the rest of the house – perfect place for the kids to play! :)

That’s it!  You have been given an official tour of our new house.  We will most likely be sleeping in it by the end of the week!  (Cross your fingers!)  We are so grateful to SO many people that have helped us along our way.  We have felt so blessed by the number of people that have been willing to help us out – Especially Neil and Kay for letting us live with them for the past year and a half.  We never thought we would be with them for that long but we are grateful for the time we have had with them and the for the time we have been able to get to know them and for them to really get to know our children.  I don’t think I would have changed our time with them even if I could have.  Thank You!

What a journey this has been.  The best part is, there is still more to come!  Life is good!

The C.O.

Oh yes!  That is what you think it is!  For those that don’t know – C.O. stands for Certificate of Occupancy.  What does that mean?  We can officially live in our house! 

I am so sorry that I don’t really have any pictures yet.  Things have be insanely crazy and this is going to be an update post so that someday I will remember how crazy our lives have been the last few weeks.  As the previous post, I will try to make a run down day by day.

Monday, September 20 –Did a little chinking in the morning and started laying tile in the afternoon.  We tiled until 2:00 a.m.  We couldn’t have done it without Justin.  He tiled the bathroom upstairs and the laundry while Leonard put slate down in the entry and I tiled the Master bath.  Did I mention we were there until 2:00 A.M!!!  We were ready for bed.

Tuesday – More chinking on the window wall trying to get it ready for the wood floor to be put in.  We wanted to finish the chinking inside before the flooring was brought in.  We didn’t quite finish and had to finish on Wednesday – it was okay because the floor wasn’t in yet either.

Wednesday – cabinet install.  I LOVE my kitchen cabinets they turned out awesome.  The sink is my favorite part – sorry, pictures to follow soon!  They didn’t bring enough laminate for the countertop and they brought the wrong color for the bathrooms. That meant another day of waiting for those to be put in.   That night we (I mean Justin) grouted the tile floors that we had put in while I tiled the master shower and Leonard finished chinking the window wall.  It was another night until 2:00 a.m.

Thursday – Wood floor install – at least they started to install it.  There were four guys there and they didn’t move very fast.  They worked from about 11:00 am until about 5:00 and all they had done was the 4 stairs leading to the log stairs that go up to the loft and the edge along the stairs that go down to the basement.  We were a little disappointed.  Plumber came and installed the water heater.   We cleaned that night to get ready for the rest of the floor to go in.

Friday— Plumber came back and installed all the plumbing – which included my awesome tub! I drove around and tried to get some signatures from the fire district, highway district, and Panhandle Health district saying that they approve our site.  I got the one from Panhandle but the other two didn’t work out.  Then I headed to the airport to fly to Boise for a much needed relaxing 24 hours with Michelle.  We got a massage, facial, pedicure, and manicure – all were very much needed by me!!  We also went on a 5K walk for the St. Luke’s Women’s day Celebration – this was the actual reason I went :)  It felt so good to just pamper myself!!  Thanks again, Michelle!

Saturday – went on the 5K walk and then met my Mom and Dad at Applebee’s to pick up Miranda.  It was really good to see her again.  She seemed more grown up and her vocabulary had expanded.  They say that a 2 year old can learn 5 new words every day.  Mandy and I flew home about 3:30 and made it back to Coeur d’Alene around 5:30.  They had more wood floor installed – everything but the pantry and the 1/2 bath. They also had the carpet pad in place ready to install the carpet.

Sunday—the saga continues – the wood floor guys showed up to finish the wood floor that they didn’t get a chance to finish the day before.  The deck was installed and we cleaned to get ready for the carpet which was coming first thing Monday morning.  How many times can you clean one house?!!!

Monday, September 27 – Carpet install.  Worked on finishing the electrical stuff because the electrical inspector and plumbing inspector are scheduled for the next day.  We had to reinstall all the outlets because we didn’t install tamper resistant ones – and they are needed to meet code.  Frustrating. 

Tuesday – Passed plumbing inspection!  Sheet rocked the garage. County inspector comes and passes the sheet rock and gives us a punch list of what must be done before we pass final inspection.  Electrical inspector comes and gives us a list of what must be done to pass final inspection.  We ask them both to come back on Thursday.

Wednesday – work on lists from inspectors – painted rim joist, finished electrical stuff (changing plug, putting covers on outside outlets, finished electrical panel, stapled wires up, put lights in the mechanical room, garage, and outside the daylight basement.), put toe kicks on deck stairs, added handrails to stair sets, ladder in the window wells, address on the house, installed microwave.

Thursday – passed electrical and final county inspection.  Took paperwork to the county and got our Certificate of Occupancy!!!!

Friday – no rest for the weary – started prepping the house for exterior stain and chinking.

Saturday (Today) – stain

I am tired just typing it all.  So glad that we are almost finished.  If you made it this far, you deserve a picture!  Here is what the house looked like on the day we got our Certificate of Occupancy!

I think the next post will only have pictures!  No more typing!!