House On The Hilltop - Part Thirteen

Continued from House On The Hilltop - Part Twelve

{I have a little disclaimer on this post.  I'm trying so hard to follow the advice of my daughter and stick to manual mode on my camera and never use the flash...  so some of these pictures are questionable.  But I figure the only way to learn is to just stick it out!  So please bear with me as I learn.}

 

I thought I'd start out this post with  my grand-daughters!  They spent one morning with us last week and Eldon needed my help quite a bit with installing our custom range hood so I rolled out some paper on the table, gave them crayons and they were happy for ages.  (And yes, they fought over the red stool!)

 

 

One of the things we did this month was install all the exterior lights.  It hadn't been done because I kept dragging my feet on making a decision.  One day Eldon said, "You need to figure out your lights and get them ordered.  I want to install them this week".  Yikes. 

 

 

Part of the problem was that we wired the front and side porches for ceiling fans.  Then one of our neighbors on another hilltop nearby told us, "Whatever you do don't put ceiling fans on your porches.  We lost ours to the wind the first winter we moved in."  We sort of didn't take it to heart until we heard the same thing from another neighbor!  (The Tennessee hills can get some high wind gusts in the winter.)  Therefore, my original selection of fan/lights went the way of the wind.  Above is what I chose - it was a very hasty decision from HomeDepot.com and we LOVE them. 

 

 

I had also been waffling on the chandelier in the dining room.  I saw this one and fell in love with it, the burlap shades match the cathedral walls in the living room exactly.  We bought it, installed it and Jillian (my five year old grand-daughter) said, "You have a light just like my Mommy's".  Wow.  I guess thats why I loved it, because I love everything in her house!  So my daughter and I have the same lights in our dining rooms! 

 

 

The very last lights to be installed were my gooseneck barn lights from Barn Light Electric.  Honestly, I was a nervous wreck about spending the big bucks after the cord fiasco with the kitchen pendant lights that we purchased from them.  But I took the plunge and they are amazing.  They just completely fit the style and look of the house and somehow they tie everything together. 

 

 

Here's a close up.  Don't you love those bulbs?  They are called G40's.  Barn Light Electric recommended them to me when I asked what kind of bulbs to use (they are so visible that regular bulbs just didn't look right).  I ordered mine from Amazon.  I think they are gorgeous.

 

 

Do you remember what this panel looked like not too many months ago?  Well, now everything is where it is supposed to be and we passed our electrical inspection and were moved from temorary electrical service to permanent!   No more extension cords!  This had been a niggling stress in the back of my mind...  you run cable all over the house in the walls and into outlet boxes, you sheet rock over those walls, you finish and paint the walls, wire all your fixtures up and THEN see if it works?  I kept asking Eldon, "what if it doesn't work"?  The good news is that with only a little troubleshooting it all worked!  (NOW, I understand why he was so tedious and spent so many hours on the electrical!)

 

 

I installed the ceramic tile in the bathrooms.  All. by. myself.  So please don't look too closely as you might  definitely will see crooked lines in the spaces between the tiles.  I pretty much plan to never install tile again. 

 

 

When we had our bathroom vanities built I requested that they be sanded but not painted.  I wanted to paint them myself.   Six months ago when I ordered them, I was wanting a very distressed Annie Sloan chalk paint look.  Who would think that in the last six months I would get kind of tired of the distressed look?  So, what I chose instead was a soft yellow color (Weston Flax from Benjamin Moore) and I am so happy with it.  It is very cheerful.  Hardware will be installed after the sink and counter top.

 

 

Stair wall complete, stair stringer up as well as risers installed and painted.  I was surprised at the amount of engineering that the stairs require.  I happened to look at Eldon's sketch of the stairs and was pretty shocked at the math figures and drawings!  He is actually working on the newell, treads, rail and balusters now!  Hopefully that will all be up soon and we won't be living in paranoia everytime our grand-daughters are here (see that space above and to the right where there is no wall and no rails - yikes).

 

Well.... here is the first glimpse of my kitchen cabinets.  I'm not going into details as we are a ways from full completion!  We have some open shelving to install as well as our counter tops and then the cabinet shop guys come back to install doors and hardware.  But this gives you a little glimpse!

 



 

This is the center island (Eldon calls it my command center - but by the looks of it now it appears to have become his work bench!).  The farmhouse sink goes in the middle and dishwasher on the right.  It is basically sitting out in the living room right now.  For some reason the center sink section was not built to fit my farmhouse sink - not sure why, as the cabinet shop had my sink on site.  So...  they are having to rebuild the middle face and we are patiently waiting, as we can't do anything else with the island til that's done.  This is all on my kitchen for now; I plan to do a full post just on my cabinets... hopefully not too far in the future!

 

 

I have to add this picture of my tiny little kitchen window.  Our house plans did not call for a kitchen window since the kitchen is open to the dining room and living room that both have huge windows, but I felt like I needed at least a little one on the back wall.  If we made it too big it would've cut into my space for cabinets, so we chose to make it the same size as the bathroom windows.  It actually balances out the look on the back of the house.  Anyway, when Eldon was making the stool and apron trim for the window I asked if he could make the stool part a little deeper so I could use it for a little shelf.  He did and I think I'm gonna love it!  What would you put on it??  I've got all kinds of ideas and all of them are red, yellow, orange, green, blue.  Can't wait to get some COLOR in this kitchen!

 

 

I'm starting to feel like things are finally coming together (in my mind at least!) and I've been working on some things for my porches.  Trying to furnish 900 square feet of porches is a bit of a stretch for me; especially doing it with what I have, can buy cheap, or what I can sew! 

 

Have a good week! 

 

Continued in House On The Hilltop - Part Fourteen