The master bedroom suite is finished!

Our bedroom and closet are finally done which completes the master suite. (You can see the bathroom here.) This has been a major boost to our morale.  We started this house SEVEN years ago and we've come a long way from our original 800 square feet of living space but we still have so far to go. But, THIS IS OUR YEAR, or so we keep telling ourselves. We've got to get it done for so many reasons but especially for our sanity.  For those of you who've ever tried living in a house while you're building it or extensively remodeling it, you know what I'm talking about.  I don't think I'd recommend it if there's any other way possible.

Enough ranting.  

As I mentioned last time, we finally decided on Hickory floors with a satin clear coat and, man, am I loving it!  Other than the bathrooms and mud/laundry room, we'll be putting it throughout the whole house including the kitchen, I think. Is it a mistake to put wood floors in the kitchen? Anyone with some insight or opinions on that, please let me know.  I've had wood floors in a couple of kitchens in past houses but I've heard horror stories about malfunctioning dishwashers ruining wood floors in the kitchen so maybe I should reconsider. So many rabbit trails, back to the bedroom.

We're not minimalists but we're loving the sparseness of the furnishings we put in this room.  Our other bedroom had unintentionally served as a catch all and it felt suffocating. I still need to find some table lamps but I don't want to add anything else, not even art...for now.

In our 18 years of marriage, Jeff and I have never had a real bed with real legs and a real headboard and I felt like it was time. I knew I wanted a wood bed that doesn't require a bed skirt so I picked out a few online and reluctantly showed them to Jeff.  Reluctant because not only are they expensive but I knew exactly what his response would be..."I can build that!" I didn't want him to take on one more thing in his already way too busy schedule but I couldn't spend that kind of money on something and not tell him first. I showed him and he immediately said, "I can build that!" and there was no talking him out of it.

Well, long story short, he built us a bed and I couldn't be happier!  We both loved this bed but I wanted the headboard to be wood instead of upholstered so not only did we save a bunch of money (we spent roughly $500 to build our own) but I got exactly what I wanted.  I might be a little spoiled. 

The closet feels really refreshing too.  We aren't clothes hogs so this 7' by 8' closet is plenty big with room to spare so we built in a vanity with drawers (which he built because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted).

I still need to hunt down better baskets, lights, and an appropriate mirror for the vanity but I'm enjoying it immensely just how it is. 

We've started on the mud/laundry room by tearing out some walls but Jeff cracked a rib a few weeks ago then on Saturday he had three big sneezes and heard a "pop" in that rib and now he's really singing the blues, and moaning a lot, and walking funny so it might be a while before we make anymore headway on it. He spent the past few days resting the best he knows how and I think that was harder on him than the pain he's in so he's back at work today. Oh, to be high strung and full of energy.  

Next time I plan to have an update of my parents little house which is coming along nicely!

Oh, and please let me know what your thoughts are on kitchen flooring.  Thanks!

The master bathroom is done and we're building Guest House!

It has been forever since my last update and the more time that goes by the more overwhelming it seems to update!  I'll try to just cover the highlights to keep it as short as I can.

First up, the master bathroom is finished.  Yeee-Haw!!! It's always super exciting to have a room completely done because that's only happened twice so far, lol!

It's been finished for a while now and I still haven't decorated or put anything over the toilet.  I'm thinking open shelves there for bath towels and as far as decorating goes it need some color but I kind of hate decorating with knick-knacks so I'll just live with it for a while longer like it is while I think about what I want.  

It's practically covered in small white tiles which even though they come in 12" x 12" sheets they're still quite fiddly and I'm pretty sure installing them had Jeff questioning his entire existence. Thankfully, he managed to endure to the end.  I tried to pick some classic designs that I won't hate in five or ten years but I think I'll have to quit Pinterest once the house is finished or the house will never be finished, if you know what I mean!

The shower doors were a steal we found in the returns at Lowe's which saved us 50%!  There wasn't anything wrong with them so we're thrilled to have gotten such a great deal.

Next up is the master bedroom and closet.  The bedroom is finished except for base trim and outlets but it has become our work room for the time being so it's a complete disaster right now.  We finally made a wood floor decision that I couldn't be happier with so I'll fill you in on that later.

The closet is a smallish 8' x 7' and will have a vanity in it with a gray granite counter that has little purple/amethyst color flecks all over it.  Jeff was surprised by my granite selection but I think it's girly which is perfect for a vanity.

We're almost done building all the shelves and drawers for it so hopefully it won't be long before we move into it.

Last, but definitely not least, we are building a guest house for my parents!  Actually, we hired a builder, Jeff Royer, to build it because we don't have time to do it ourselves and my parents are funding the whole project as their kind of retirement home away from home. They'll be keeping their house in town and visiting us more often here and there.

I had so much fun designing this house because it had to be small as it is sitting catty cornered to our house on our property and they had a list of desires that made it pretty challenging, like two bathrooms, a layout to possibly accommodate a baby grand piano, a tall wall of windows with view and all the full sized amenities of home all in under 800 square feet...and it has to be pretty!  I actually love design challenges with lots of boundaries and limitations because it requires so much more creativity to make it work than a blank slate where the sky's the limit.

We've been talking about getting them out here for the past few years and now that's it's actually happening we're all really excited.  They live less than an hour away (in the same house they've lived in for over 40 years) and they could have built a lake house or bought an RV and traveled the country or so many other really cool things, but the fact that they want to spend more time with us than any of those other things is pretty awesome.  They're living proof that people and relationships matter so much more than any other earthly possessions God gives us and it's worth the time and effort to always make the best of those relationships and really enjoy them!

This is such an exciting time for us so I'm going to try to start posting more often to stay on top of things but you can also follow me on Instagram where I post from time to time. Oh, and Jeff started vlogging on Youtube so you can catch up with us there too!  (That's a whole other story in itself!) Talk to you all again soon!