A tour of the house we are building.

Well, we are almost done with the inside and I've started unpacking stuff and trying to decorate. Many of you have inquired about it's progress, and I didn't have a computer with a working floppy drive for a long time so I couldn't update my journal. I did today though, since I have DD's computer now.

If you are interested in seeing it as it is today, please take a peek. I didn't take any outside pictures yet though. The yard is a total wipe out. I hope the link works.

http://davesgarden.com/j/vbc/JoanJ/13006/

Wow, already?? I know it doesn't seem like ALREADY to you, but FINALLY. :)

About curtains with palm trees....What about getting plain curtains and stencilling on palm trees, or having someone else stencil them for you. Oh! Or maybe using those inkjet iron-on transfers?

Thanks Kimberley, I'll check into that. There are shower curtains that match the rugs and wastebasket I got, and I'm thinking of cutting them down too, but the palm trees are too big for the window I think, and they would get lost in the curtains.

Maybe you could find a small graphic of one you like and make a bottom border on the panels with the palm trees printed on them? Could you scan one of the palms, reduce it to a good size, and print it onto transfers?

Joan, this is wonderful! And not so long ago, those beautiful rooms were just a distant dream! Congratulations, and enjoy the decorating phase -- one step at a time. Thank you for the link to your gallery of photos!

Joan it is beautiful! I can hardly wait to see pictures of it when it is finished.

Ah, another nightowl emerges from her tree. Hi, mom!

joan the house looks wonderful-I bet your loving it!
I have a whirlpool tub and i love it!!
Everything looks so nice and new and BIG!
ENJOY your new home! :)

FInally! It is pretty! Now's my turn ! :o)

Beautiful home Joan...Glad it's over for you. My favorite - the cat in the dining room :-)

Joan your house looks wonderful.

Stellapathic has alot of vintage fabric & a think drapes. Maybe you check with her where you can find something along those lines.

This message was edited Monday, Apr 7th 5:47 PM

No wonder Jerri wanted to move back in - I sure would. Your kitchen is awesome; not only do you have a window over the sink, but that counter is so nice with its stools and how it opens up to the dining room. I can just imagine everyone hanging around there talking while supper's being made. How nice. :)

Thank you all so much! We really do like the house. We all went through periods when we actually hated it while we were building it. We moved into this house mid October, and it was pretty crude living. The sheetrocking was just done, and the taping, texturing, and painting was starting. We had no flooring, and no doors. We did have one bathroom roughly plumbed in and we hung a blanket over the door. LOL! We had only our beds moved in, and we lived out of cardboard boxes with several changes of clothes. Everything else was packed away. The one really smart thing we did was put a deep sink and stove in the basement, so I could cook the basics anyway. That area of the basement will be my canning room, so I can come in from the garden and right to the basement to take care of the veggies without messing up/heating up the kitchen. I think back now and it all seems like a nightmare. After a whole winter of doing nothing but work on this house when we weren't in school or work, it all seems worth it now. We all got home at roughly 6 PM and we sanded, stained and varnished ALL the woodwork in this house. Windows, trim boards, doors...That took us 6 weeks alone. Then after we got that done, it started to come together quickly. I am so thankful that we are almost done with the major stuff inside, because now we can concentrate on finishing up the screened porch, decks and landscaping! I'm excited about that.

Thank you all so much for sharing this with me, and I'm making notes of your suggestions about the things you picked up on in my journal that I was having problems with. I'll check them all out, and I'm very open to suggestions. I'm almost to the burnout point, so I can use all the ideas I can get.

Kimberley, the open area between the kitchen, dining room, and living room has become a gathering place and we do share lots of things as we are going about our early eveing business. Me in the kitchen, kids at the table in the dining room, and DH doing what he does best in the living room, (channel surfing, LOL). DH doesn't miss a beat though, as he gets his 2 cents in whenever he can.

Mini, I can't wait to see and hear about your house building. My only advise is try not to get discouraged. It happens, but it's very worth it when it's done.

Vic, you picked up on the cat, huh? LOL! That's my baby, and I love him as much as I love my kids. He's somewhere around 15 years old. We got him when our neighbors moved away and he refused to stay with them and kept coming back. I think it was meant to be, since he is very definitely a part of our family. That's my Bummy! Got his name from when he first came to us. I was working in the garden and he was meowing in the bushes. I started talking to him.."your family moved away and you don't want to go do you?..What a Bummer!" So, he became Bummy to us.

I'll continue to post updates to my journal now that I have a working computer again. I will be starting the landscaping phase as soon as it quits this stupid snow, rain, freeze thing.

Again, thank you for sharing this experience with me. Comments and input from my friends mean so much and make it all worth while.

Hugs,
Joan

Oh thanks for the tour Joan. It's lovely and see that both kitty and DH are well and truly comfortable in their new home!! :-) Hey, I've been in my house almost two year's now and still need drapes in a couple of the rooms. Be happy - you deserve it!!

Joan,

It looks fabulous!! I've been waiting to see all the new updated pictures and can't believe it's almost completely done.

I have a decorating idea for your laundry room...I saw it done on one of the decorating shows last year. Since you want to incorporate some Sunflowers, here is an idea.

You could either paint/stencil a picket fence(or use real fencing) along the bottom of one wall and then put the sunflowers coming from behind the fence and through the fence. You could also paint some birdhouses, birds and butterflies above the fence and a few scattered around the other walls too. A small shelf could hold an old type watering can with artificial sunlowers in it and a few garden items. You can take it from here and just have some fun with it.

We have been in our new home for 5 years and I am still decorating different rooms as I get some ideas of what I really want in them.

Enjoy your new home and when the weather warms up alittle...get outside and play in the dirt!!! lol

Donna

Margaret, yes the cat and DH have both adapted well. LOL!

Donna, I love your idea for the laundry room. I'm going to scope out the available wall space and see what I can come up with. Thanks!

Your welcome :-)

Donna

Joan, Looking so good. I know the doing was very rough, but you all have a lovely home to show for it. I will be checking what plants you need for landscaping when the snow is finished with both of us.

Thak you Marcia. I hope to be able to start working outside this weekend. It's been very warm here suddenly. It got into the high 70s today!!! Wow, what a treat! Now if only Mother Nature will hold that thought for a few more days. I haven't made much progress with my landscaping plans. I am just not good at that. I hope that once I get to working around the house, I'll get a better feel for what should be done. I have determined that I have lots more shade now, which is a good thing. I didn't have much before. I've also determined that I hate the way the east side of the house looks, because of the window placement. So, I've been searching for a vining plant that grows tall fast! There's a small corner on the south side of the house, and on the east side of the deck that I'm thinking about planting to some smaller shrubs. I need to be able to get in there to wash windows though. Other than that, I've not come up with anything real wonderful. We want to pour the sidewalks and the rest of the driveway soon, so that might help me make some plans too.

We'll keep in touch, 'kay? Thanks for the offer. You have helped me out so much since I discovered horticulture 2 years ago, and I've learned alot, but still have a ways to go.

Hugs,
Joan