Almost A Year

Next month we will have been in our house a year already.

Does time go faster as we age?  

I am beginning to believe so.

And yet, the year has been full of life.

When I think of all that was packed into this past year

I wonder how it could have possibly happened in that short period of time!

As you know, we moved into an unfinished house

and it probably will come as no surprise to you to find out

that it is still unfinished!

BUT we are making progress.

Actually, Warren got a lot more accomplished this year on the house 

than what I had hoped for.

He always amazes me.

This was soon after moving in

I will share with you a couple of projects that were completed.

When the house was being built I had them frame in three built in "bookshelf-cabinet" areas.

One for our entertainment area (TV and components)

One for a bookshelf with closed shelves for photo albums and scrapbooks and

One for a china hutch..

My idea behind this is that I wanted a simple European farmhouse look.  

Plaster walls, little embellishment,  matt finishes on the wood with a look of patina from use...

With that being said, we couldn't stay on budget and have an authentic looking European farmhouse!

So...what's a person to do?  

Add the word "modern".  

"Modern European Farmhouse"!!!

As much as I would have loved the thick exterior stone walls with a huge stone fireplace, 

real plaster walls, hand scrapped beams....and the list goes on.... 

that just wasn't going to happen.

 And that's okay.

I am loving our home's "modern" touches.

Here you can see the fireplace unfinished too.

We decided we didn't want a wood stove or propane fireplace

but I still wanted a "fireplace".

We decided on a lineal electric built-in.

We, on the whole, are very happy with it 

BUT I will point out that when we went to install it

I was beyond disappointed for this reason:

For months I had researched electric fireplaces 

because I didn't want one that was anymore fake than it had to be :)

I also wanted as wide a one as I could fit in the space 

(and Warren would agree to)

We decided on the 60" Touchstone.

Well, people, the only difference between the 50" and the 60" 

is that the black glass surround is 5" bigger on each side of the 60"!!

That's right, for $150 more I got more black glass!

The flame viewing area is the same.

My bad.  

I should have read more carefully.

Otherwise, we are happy with the looks of the flame and the fireplace itself.

It took me a while to get over it though....

Here a solid slab of absolute black honed granite has been put around the fireplace. 

We had professionals do that!

AND a bigger TV!

Fnished for now!

I am sorry this picture is so light.  Too much light coming through the windows.

I added wallpaper in black and white behind the TV so it wasn't so stark 

next to the tv and to add some pattern.

Warren made a simple (he said the most simple I had ever had him make!)

waterfall, knotty alder mantle. 

The doors in the built in cabinet are made out of real wood bead board that came out of my aunt and uncles old house.  (that they had actually gotten it out of another old building in town years ago)

I love that!

The wood is a knotty pine which I limed and waxed.

The knobs are from Anthropologie.

This bookshelf is on the other side of the living room.

All though these doors are smaller you can see them a little bit better here.

This is (of course) the dining room built-in.

I had the framer leave off the sheetrock in the back because 

one of my design customers had given me

the old bead board that had come off of the ceiling in one of her old porches.

(their home was a generational farmhouse)

It was dirty white from age and when I started sanding it to clean it up a bit

the beautiful green started coming through.

I love the color and I love knowing where it came from.

I had these old European grain sacks that Kellie and I had found 

while we were out and about one day.

I decided this was the perfect place to use one rather than have wood doors.

It's a good thing because there wasn't enough of the wood to make these doors too!

Anyway, these are really just a few of the projects we have been doing around here.

I think I hesitate to post because I am so bad with the camera

and besides,

I would rather just have you come visit!