So, here's the state of the farmhouse minutes before we started moving in. You'll see we still have lots to do, and I won't be posting many updates until I start getting these rooms filled with furniture and decorations. Right now they look pretty pitiful.
Here's a look at my favorite purchase of the entire house. I love my stove because it's 48", has 6 burners AND a grill/griddle thingie, heats water in seconds, and is generally awesome. I also love my stove because I was cooking on a 4-burner electric stove, of which only 3 worked and one was cock-eyed, so I really only had 2 burners at the apartment. The difference is dramatic.
We went with the Thermador after much debate. Our top pics were the GE Elite and the Jenn Aire, but in the end, Thermador came back to us with a whopper of a deal (less than 1/2 of retail plus a free dishwasher), so we couldn't turn it down.
Again, our countertops are concrete and now they have the final coat of wax on them and are beautiful. My IVF nurse's husband did them for us and he was so meticulous. Everything was perfect: all the holes were in the right places, everything was exactly perfect, even against a wall that was off-kilter a bit.
What you don't see in this photo is a harvest table that we use as our island. I was worried about that decision, but when I show you a finished photo, you'll love it, I just know it.
And, before I go further, unless I state otherwise, all lighting is from
Schoolhouse Electric in Portland, OR and they were a dream to work with.
This is the mud-room off the kitchen. Love my decision on the floors. Our shoes get kicked off here and that keeps the rest of our floors somewhat clean :)
Past the mud-room is a bathroom. This is a 1928 American Standard sink with a new faucet. Loving it, but will love it more when I get a mirror and the sconces hung in here.
The shower in this bath was hard to show because it is covered over in paint supplies. We still have the painters coming back tomorrow for the rest of the touch-ups.
The walls are concrete, slathered on, so it's a different process than the countertops. I'll explain more about this when the bathroom is finished (paint cans removed) and can show you all the details.
From the living room looking toward the front door.
In the living room looking into the kitchen. The ceiling turned out more beautiful than I expected.
Off the kitchen and main hallway is the laundry room. Those brackets will have open shelving. The wall is solid tile.
At the other end of the hallway is our bedroom. We took that light fixture from our old house because the new owners were going to replace it with a fan.
And, the master bath. Love the color of my walls in here. When I do a room by room report post-decorating, I'll be sure the list the brand and color of each room.
The consoles are from Pottery Barn. You can see we're lacking mirrors, but those + the sconces were hung this week.
Off the foyer is the office/scrapbook room.
Around the corner from that in the middle of the main hallway is the half/bath.
I really wouldn't have had this bathroom except it was already here, otherwise it's just another toilet to clean.
At the top of the stairs is a landing. The first thing on the landing is a bookshelf/magazine rack.
Then on the other side of the chimney is a desk area.
Here's the whole landing.
This is our smallest bedroom where we'll put a twin bed.
Next to it is the guest room, where mom and dad are staying.
And their bathroom.
This is the hall bath upstairs.
My favorite bathroom in the whole house. I love this sink!!! (Kohler available at Lowes.) To the sides of it, we now have two old dressers and they look like they were made for the space.
A very unattractive TV room.
Very empty.....as in we're sitting in lawn chairs to watch TV....waiting on my sectional to arrive.
And, lastly, this is the baby's room. I'm really looking forward to decorating this one.
Last, I used the donut chain border punch to punch strips of the woodgrain paper. I laid the strips in rows on top of the same paper and adhered it to the back of the "3" so the texture would show through.
Now, I saved the best till last because this is my favorite layout I made this month. On my recent trip to St. Louis to visit friend plus teach at CKC, I was given the recommendation from one of the students to go to the City Museum. I'll tell more about this later, but let's suffice it to say, I was not dressed for the occasion or prepared with a charged camera battery, so the photos on this page are the only ones I really got from the day, and they were taken in a photobooth. Loved them! I also had saved the bubbles chipboard to use in a grid and it worked perfectly with Nicole's yellow paint that she let me borrow at the crop last weekend. What a fun time we had.
First, lead him into the chute with some sweet-feed. 
Now he's moving toward the headgate (that yellow thing). 
Now, I've moved around to the opposite side. Greg is using his knife to cut off the old tag.
And is now replacing it with a new one.
A new calf weighs about 100 lbs, so all it takes is one person holding and the other piercing to get the job done. Hey, we even castrated this little one after he got his ear pierced, so I'm sure he didn't mind the earring.
Here's a look at my favorite purchase of the entire house. I love my stove because it's 48", has 6 burners AND a grill/griddle thingie, heats water in seconds, and is generally awesome. I also love my stove because I was cooking on a 4-burner electric stove, of which only 3 worked and one was cock-eyed, so I really only had 2 burners at the apartment. The difference is dramatic.
Again, our countertops are concrete and now they have the final coat of wax on them and are beautiful. My IVF nurse's husband did them for us and he was so meticulous. Everything was perfect: all the holes were in the right places, everything was exactly perfect, even against a wall that was off-kilter a bit.
This is the mud-room off the kitchen. Love my decision on the floors. Our shoes get kicked off here and that keeps the rest of our floors somewhat clean :)
Past the mud-room is a bathroom. This is a 1928 American Standard sink with a new faucet. Loving it, but will love it more when I get a mirror and the sconces hung in here.
The shower in this bath was hard to show because it is covered over in paint supplies. We still have the painters coming back tomorrow for the rest of the touch-ups.
From the living room looking toward the front door.
In the living room looking into the kitchen. The ceiling turned out more beautiful than I expected.
Off the kitchen and main hallway is the laundry room. Those brackets will have open shelving. The wall is solid tile.
And, the master bath. Love the color of my walls in here. When I do a room by room report post-decorating, I'll be sure the list the brand and color of each room.
Off the foyer is the office/scrapbook room.
Around the corner from that in the middle of the main hallway is the half/bath.
Then on the other side of the chimney is a desk area.
Here's the whole landing.
This is our smallest bedroom where we'll put a twin bed.
Next to it is the guest room, where mom and dad are staying.
And their bathroom.
This is the hall bath upstairs.
My favorite bathroom in the whole house. I love this sink!!! (Kohler available at Lowes.) To the sides of it, we now have two old dressers and they look like they were made for the space.
A very unattractive TV room.
Very empty.....as in we're sitting in lawn chairs to watch TV....waiting on my sectional to arrive.
This layout is one of my favorites. I made it using the Linens & Lace add-on. The stamp in the kit is a mini dress-form and the flower is made by K&Co...I loved those things and could've used 5 packages of them. The kit includes a whole pack of the Maya Road wavy envelopes which is great for me because I could use them on every layout from here on out :)
This layout was made using 2 sheets of paper in the main kit plus the flowers in the main. It's my favorite so far, perhaps because I included a funny quote, then I couldn't remember where I had heard it. My memory is lacking these days.
And, last, this layout was made using the Knick Knacks add-on. This is a fun kit to play with. I love the star elements and clouds in this kit. Mixed with the main it definitely brings more "boy" into the kit if that's what you need.
It's a tiny little thing in the right of the big black spot in between those little x's.
