70 Degrees With A Chance of Overwhelmed

Every good blogger takes 6 weeks off. That's my new rule. Sorry folks but I got pretty busy with a myriad of house details to settle on, my and Louis' birthday and I completely neglected the blog! If I was a fainting goat I would have...fainted. By the way, in my search for a fainting picture I came across a lot of goats and Marie Osmond when she fainted on Dancing with the Stars (Stars, as in, people you may or may not recognize). I hope she's not offended I went with a goat!

SO- here's what's been going on since I last blogged.

1. After we knocked down all the walls I made the decision to pay the contractors to take over the last bit of demo and it made me sick how quickly they got it done. Best money I ever spent.

2. Walls are up, plumbing is set, old stairs are gone, new stairs are in and electrical is done. The picture below is looking up to where the new staircase was cut from the bottom floor.

3. I ordered an awesome kitchen through Home Depot and even though they made me a deal I couldn't refuse, the shipping time is probably going to screw me and hold everything up.

4. I'm a regular at the antiquing shops and am fixing up as many old pieces as I can.

5. I've selected a TON of finishes for the house- pics below.

6. Louis and I are moving in at the end of May...construction will still be going on until mid-June but we have to vacate our current apartment. I couldn't care less about the mess, no kitchen, no shower, etc. I'm just happy I won't be driving 2 hours everyday to go out there!

7. I now have a 1,000 square foot garden that's fenced in to keep the deer out. I'll be planting all my seedlings in it this weekend.

8. One of my worm bins died. No explanation. They're like the Lost Colony of Roanoke, I'll just never know what happened.

9. I didn't get chickens this year, there's no way I could have kept an eye on them without living there full time. I know for a fact there's a big fox population on the farm. The upside is I have more time to construct a Dynasty-type house with a top notch security system for them for next year.

10. I feel like there should be a 10 to round this out, let's see, we bought a tractor and we sprayed for ticks. That second part is important info for anyone who plans to visit! The tractor is old but it was affordable and we don't need new.

SO- as far as the house goes, I'm going with what I'm calling "Modern French Country".

The Master Bath: it'll be mostly marble and white with chrome accents. I got the floor tiles from Home Depot, it's Carerra marble with small black accents.

I searched for a claw foot tub to renovate but in the end I copped out and ordered a new cast iron reproduction which saved me a lot of time. It's the tub in the image below, I love the telephone style fixtures.

The shower will be all marble and I found the antique piece below to refinish, paint white or a lighter shade of grey and add a marble top, vessel sinks and old farm pump-style faucets.

Here are the basin vessel sinks I found.

And the farmhouse well pump-esque faucets.

 I found this amazing mirror at the Restoration Hardware outlet to go above the master sinks, the silver trim is chipped at one corner so I got it for 60% off! 

The shower will be simple marble foot by foot tiles with this antique shower fixture-

I scrimped on the other main level full bath in order to splurge on the master. The other bathroom will be tiled in the same simple subway white tiles as in the picture of the shower above. It will have a marble floor and like the master bathroom, that floor will be heated. I chose a budget friendly vanity for the shared bath instead of again converting an antique.

The kitchen:
Metal cup pulls for the cabinets, farmhouse apron sink, antique glass cabinet fronts. Here are some pictures that inspired my selections.

Like the picture above, the floors in our kitchen will be hardwood. We're going with a rich brown.

The faucet I chose looks very similar to the one above. I love the bar connecting the levers. 

I decided to hide the dishwasher by covering it with a cabinet panel. Here's what my cabinets look like-

They're Thomasville Maple cabinets with a toasted almond wash. Here's what they look like in the display kitchen.

You can't even tell they have a wash from far away, it's understated. Like the picture above I'm doing a large island (4x6) that will have seating on two sides and pillar legs that match leg accents I placed on either side of the sink and stovetop. I went with an exposed hood above a 5 burner gas stovetop and I got a great deal on a clearance floor model GE Profile in stainless steel from Home Depot.

My new obsession is finding an awesome pantry door a la Southern Living. Check out these very cool ideas!

Love, love, LOVE the idea of using an old farmhouse screen door! My pantry is 5x7 but the doorway itself is only a little over 2 feet...I need to see what I can do with that. 

You can paint chalkboard on anything so that's an easy project.

I'm pretty damn excited to organize and decorate the pantry. After not having one for my entire adult life, I have a lot of pantry-living to do! I'm thinking of beadboarding the wall behind the shelves and using a trim similar to the one above to edge them. 

I have yet to tackle landscaping. It's daunting. So much to do. I'll have time for it once we're out there full time. That's what I say to myself. 

I still have to settle on tile for the half bath. I want it to be rustic farmhouse yet elegant in there so I'm having issues with what that means for the tile floor. This is a classic farmhouse tile floor but I can't decide if it's too busy or boring-

I also need to pull the trigger on buying faucets for the half and shared bath. They'll all look like the image below but it's amazing how many selections are available in that style. 

I'll be at more antique shops and tile places tomorrow, wish me luck! Annnd I'll be blogging daily again!