Updates!

Can’t believe it has been nearly one month since my last blog! It has been so busy since we moved in! But so much has been accomplished since we moved in; but still a ways to go! Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos of the progress and I cannot recall every single project we have completed as there have been so many projects! But I’ll do my best to provide as many updates as possible! There have been some nights, mostly work nights during the week, that I kept going until 2 or 3 am because I was just in the mood to keep going to get work done! 

In fact, the night before last I worked on projects until 5 am and took a nap until around 7 am and got up for work! That night I unboxed about 5 more boxes of kitchen items and put everything away! I installed two more mini blinds in the two downstairs bedrooms. I installed curtain rods and my bear valances on every window in the house (11 windows)! What a difference it makes! Feels so much more like home! I still need to install the last one onto my basement window after the window’s trim has been completed! I also unpacked a few more boxes as well! Huge progress! 

Well, here are the latest updates! 

A couple of weeks ago, Hubby hung the intarsia wood eagle that my son made for us a few years ago! 

Yesterday I finally found my Libby glasses! I had been looking for them! 

We purchased this pantry cabinet last week! 

We purchased a new couch and loveseat, which will be delivered when it arrives at the furniture store early August! Can’t wait for them to arrive! 

Downstairs, and Hubby’s bathroom! 

Temporary shelves in the downstairs bathroom closet.

New shower caddy!

New medicine cabinet over the toilet! 

New vanity mirror!

Large downstairs bedroom: I was finally able to set up the bed and move furniture into place that will remain in the room. After this, I was able to unbox all wall decor and spread it out on the bed. Once all wall decor has been hung, it will reduce that clutter! LOL! 

This is what this room looked like just prior to setting up the furniture, including the bed. And prior to this, when we first moved in, we couldn’t even get inside the room! It was packed full with furniture and boxes right up to the door! It was a major accomplishment to get to the point where I could actually get inside the room! 

Closet in large downstairs bedroom: 

Yesterday I filled the pine hutch in the large bedroom with decor! 

I also unboxed my curio decor! Lots and lots of bubble wrap involved! Crazy!

Empty boxes after unpacking curio decor! Six more boxes unpacked! Yay!

Small downstairs bedroom, my office. 

My hutch now has decor in it! For now, I just placed everything inside and will need to re-organize later! 

Same with my curio. Yesterday, I just placed everything inside so it still needs to be re-organized. 

More photos of my office!

Closet in office. 

Heading back out to the great room from the bedrooms!

Stair landing area. My plants seem happy here! 

Upstairs bathroom, which is my bathroom! 

Glass corner shelves have been added! 

My shower head was defective so the manufacturer sent a new one. The hand held device kept falling when placed up into the main shower head. I installed this yesterday as well!

New medicine cabinet above the toilet! 

New vanity mirror! 

Temporary shelves in the bathroom closet! 

Hubby made this moose panel for the railing! It also includes a loon! Hubby and I installed all of the railings on the stairs and balcony area a few weeks ago! 

Master bedroom!

Master bedroom closet!

Basement stairs have been “walled in” and now have a railing! 

Basement. 

Trash barrels can’t be left outside as bears and other wildlife are known to get into trash if left outside. Until we build a bear-resistant trash receptacle outside, the trash barrels will need to remain here. 

I have unpacked over 100 boxes so far! I think we counted around 200 boxes during our move! A little more than half way there! 

This area was also packed full when we first moved in! I can actually get around there now! The refrigerator and freezer we will be moved to the other side of the basement once our contractor completes all remaining work! That will certainly free up space here! 

Just outside the basement. Can’t wait for our contractor to complete the final finish work! He might be fine this Friday! Tomorrow! Then I’ll be able to set this area up too! 

I have claimed this area under the stairs for my collections! All of my boxes are here! I will need lighting installed and a door added. I hope to be get a quote soon for the lighting and some other additional electrical work from my nephew, who’s a master electrician! 

Basement utility/bath room! 

Tonight I installed the toilet paper holder! It has a nice little tray on it! Once I install a paper towel holder, we can use the tray for phones or other items as needed! 

My washer and dryer hold lots of laundry! I can do just about two loads of laundry at a time! Love these! My favorite washer and dryer ever! 

Farmers porch has somewhat been set up! I have more deck furniture in storage. But I need to limit what I bring here because our entire house is scheduled to be treated on August 18th. With log homes, you have to treat the entire exterior with a sealant. Two coats will be applied to the logs/house and one coat will be applied to the decking, decking rails and posts. The company will first gently pressure wash the exterior of the entire building, then they will lightly sand all logs and after this, they will apply caulking at all joints between the logs and around windows and doors where the window and door trim meet the logs. Once all prep work is done, an oil based stain will be applied to everything and then a second coat will be applied to just the log. They only place one coat on the decking because if you apply two coats, when it rains, it would be slippery. 

So, by August 18th, everything on the decks will need to be moved elsewhere. So I am holding off on placing anything else out there until after the log home treatment plan is complete. 

This area under the farmers porch was a huge mess! Scrap lumber was just randomly thrown into huge piles underneath the farmers porch! 

Here it is now! I went through the pile and stacked everything more neatly! Since there were such variations in sizes, shapes and wood types, it was difficult to get it any neater looking than this. But it will now be a bit easier to sort through when we are ready to remove it all to determine what we’ll keep for small projects. Also, a few weeks ago we added a new USA flag to the farmers porch! 

Our two 4-wheelers and side-by-side 4-wheeler are currently down the road at my son’s house about 1.5 miles away. We have room for one of the 4-wheelers now, where the Gorilla wagon is currently! Once the stacked pile of lumber is gone, we can bring the other 4-wheeler here and store it there! We might keep the side-by-side at my son’s house. But it has a plow that we can use in the winter. So we might bring it here for the winter. We’ll have to keep it under the deck just outside the basement walkout area. 

This area is almost cleaned out too! 

When I stacked the scrap lumber, I placed small pieces of scrap lumber into boxes. There is definitely nothing worth saving there! We’ll be able to pick up the boxes to discard at the dump. At least they’re now all gathered up into boxes instead of scattered all over the place! 

My son got rid of these other likes of scrap lumber for us! He loaded it all into his truck bed and brought it all to the dump! They charged us around $150 to get rid of it all! But glad it’s gone! 

Here it is now! 

We also still have some really good lumber that is extra lumber we not need. Some well keep for small projects but the rest will be sold at some point. It’s definitely worth some money if we sell it while it’s still good lumber, before it gets ruined outside, over time. Once our contractor finalized all work tomorrow, we will restock everything more nearly and combine it all into one pile instead of two, and keep it all covered with tarps. There are extra logs that the log home kit came with in case needed. Most were not needed. There is also extra log siding that was used for the basement walkout and other areas like where the log house meets up with the foundation. Also extra posts, finish lumber, and deck lumber that were extras but not needed. 

We are also waiting for a quote from our site guy to do some cosmetic site work, such as adding grass, gravel, driveway ledge pack, mulch, etc. we hope to have that work done July or August. He will also clean up the field beyond out leach field! That will look awesome! The field will extend to the tree line below so it will all be open! We can plant fruit trees, gardens, etc if we want! In the meantime, Hubby did a little cleanup so it’s easier to walk down there with the dogs! He also cut some trails through the woods heading towards the river. I am using them for walking the dogs but once we can cut a trail all of the way to the river, we can drive the 4-wheelers down there! Can’t wait! 

Today I also hung up my hummingbird feeders! No activity yet but hoping within a few days to see some hummingbirds! I have seen a couple of hummingbirds prior to this. One flew up to the farmers porch a few days ago, as if to ask me why there are no feeders out there, LOL!! So they are around and should find the feeders soon! Sometimes it takes a bit for them to understand and trust newly placed feeders! 

Last weekend we bought a new metal fire pit and brought it to our property along the river. We brought my table and 4 chairs, deck box with seat cushions, USA banner, and some extra beach chairs down to our property on the river last weekend! Unfortunately I forgot to take photos so I will need to remember to do this next time I am down there! Will be in a future blog!