We Can Do That Too

Maple Syrup Season

2015-03-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

Did you know it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup? For several years we have tapped 6 trees and boiled the syrup in our back yard. Last year we made nearly 2 gallons of syrup. This gives us enough syrup to give away to a few family members and last us all year. I have never been a big syrup fan, but there's nothing better than syrup that you made yourself. I even cook with it. One of our favorite meals is maple glazed pork chops and green beans with bacon and maple syrup. Yum!

Upside Down

2015-03-08T08:38:00.001-04:00

Things have been bit upside down here. From stomach bugs to crummy winter weather, school delays or early dismissals, to a side project we are working on for Girl Scouts.....I have totally lost any sense of routine and organization......Normal? I'm sure.....

Since we changed the clocks last night to *Spring Forward* I'm sure I will be out of whack for the next week too.....

Belated Valentine

2015-02-15T12:00:00.002-05:00

I planned on sharing this on Friday but the Friday the 13th Plague struck our 10-year-old and we are just getting back on our feet today.

We are not Valentine's Day haters but we don't go all out for Valentine's Day either. We know that it is tough to buy for each other and in our house spending money on each other really isn't a gift. If one of us truly needs something, we just buy it when we need it. It works for us....

We always do something special for our daughter because it is important to show love as a family an she is so easy to make happy.

This year I did try to throw together an *it's the thought that counts* gift. It was as much something for me as it was for anyone else because I have been slowly working on a gallery wall and I wanted something new to add to it.

So...as usual....I am seeing *penny art* on Pinterest. I decided to just gather pennies with dates from our birth years and frame them. Easy peasy. One search through the pile of change my husband leaves on the dresser gave e exactly what I needed. The pennies were very tarnished and I read that putting them in vinegar and salt for a few HOURS would shine them right up. I didn't want them to be perfectly shiny but by the time I put them in salt and vinegar and came back with the camera to take pictures, they were well on their way to shiny. Oh well..

I had an unused 3-section frame in my frame collection already and some various leftover cardstock from my scrapbooking days. I liked the dark gray the best so I trimmed it to fit the frame and started thinking about how to center and fasten the pennies. Finally after getting a headache with the tape measure I just decided to eyeball it. I removed the glass and glued the pennies to the cardstock using the frame as a guide. The first attempt was a big FAIL! I used way to much glue and it all squished out leaving no way to reposition the penny without making a bigger mess. The second time I just used a dot of glue and I had more wiggle room. The pennies aren't perfect but they are good enough for me!

Tada!!

I will add this to my not so perfect gallery wall of photos that hang in our stairway. It is slowly growing into the vision that I have!

Throw Back Thursday

2015-02-12T12:32:00.000-05:00

Four years ago.....

We've come a long way....

Love / Hate Jewelry Organization

2015-02-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

When I was a little girl one of my favorite things to do was play in my grandmother's jewelry box. Although my memory has faded, I see it in my mind as one of those dresser top, black enameled boxes with a mirror in the back. For some reason it was just magical.

For years I dreamed of having my own jewelry box, but I wanted the big upright kind. Finally I made the leap and found one that I liked. I love it. I hate it.

It fits nicely in our master closet. I love our master closet! Our closet is more like a little room between our master bedroom and master bath and I don't feel like I'm walking through the closet to get to either space (floor plan below). I don't see clothes unless I go around the corner and go into the actually closet. (It would drive me crazy to look at clothes hanging there all the time.) I tucked the jewelry box in the lower left corner of the closet where it is sort of more like a little hall way between the bedroom and bath. It nicely compartmentalizes most of my jewelry and looks good closed.

Here's the part I hate. I'm not disciplined enough to keep it organized and the compartments are just not adequate. Although I do it out of necessity, I hate all of my jewelry being mixed in together and some pieces have gotten scratched and even broken. On a busy morning it's no fun trying to remember if my favorite silver earrings are in the top drawer or bottom drawer or laying on the dresser because I didn't bother putting them away because I hate the little jewelry compartments.

It also has these handy hidden doors in the side. The problem,....98% of my necklaces don't fit, even when doubled over. When I tried to make it work I ended up with a tangled mess.

I finally realized after covering my dresser and vanity with jewelry that I am more of a visual person and I need everything laid out in front of me. I love ledge shelves and I got the idea to put hooks in the bottom of one to hang my necklaces from. I wanted to put some artwork in my closet too, so this solved both problems.

It's the simple things....but it is so nice to walk in my closet and see my necklaces hanging nicely. There is plenty of space and I can even put 2 or 3 necklaces on a hook without them getting tangled.

My next plan is to find the perfect way to organize my earrings. (Pinterest...Pinterest....Pinterest!!)

Wear Red Day!

2015-02-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

It's National Wear Red Day!!

Our Wear Red selfie!

From the *Go Red For Women* website:

Heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of women. Each year, 1 in 3 women die of heart disease and stroke. But we can change that because 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented with education and lifestyle changes.

National Wear Red Day® — the first Friday each February — is our special day to bring attention to this staggering fact. We encourage everyone to wear red, raise their voices, know their cardiovascular risk and take action to live longer, healthier lives.

Since the first National Wear Red Day in 2003, we've made tremendous strides in the fight against heart disease and stroke in women. Through research and education to healthy lifestyle changes, we’re proud that:
• Nearly 90% have made at least one healthy behavior change.
• More than one-third has lost weight.
• More than 50% have increased their exercise.
• 6 out of 10 have changed their diets.
• More than 40% have checked their cholesterol levels.
• One third has talked with their doctors about developing heart health plans.
• Today, nearly 300 fewer women die from heart disease and stroke each day
• Death in women has decreased by more than 30 percent over the past 10 years.

Get involved. Go Red by telling other women that 1 in 3 women die of heart disease and stroke, yet it is 80% preventable. Make a change.

Snow

2015-02-05T14:52:00.003-05:00

Over the past week we have gotten about 18 inches of snow and there is more to come over the next few days. We are going to have to find another place to pile our snow!

Rosie's Room

2015-02-04T07:51:00.002-05:00

Rosie's room is the first room in the house to be totally finished in regards to built-ins and trim work! We thought we'd better get to it soon because before we know it she'll be in college. I joke that I'm already planning on making the room my office, but she still has 9 years to go before college so I have to wait awhile!

I happened to snap these photos on a day where Rose was making a fort with her loft bed. She has since decided she is too big for the slide and that is gone now. (Supporting my thought that before we know it she will be in college!) She also wants new bedding....something a little more grown up and less flowery. I'm wondering when she'll want to update the wall colors that she picked out when she was only 6.....

I love this wall of built-ins. We plan to make a cushion for the window seat ourselves as soon as we decide on fabric. It could be anything from Minecraft to well...probably Minecraft...

She has a nice little desk in the corner.

Minecraft headquarters!

The wall of doors! Even though there is great closet space that I'm sure she will outgrow it!

It's all in the details. We love Craftsman houses and this is our special touch.

We are lucky enough to have a playroom in our basement so we are able to keep Rosie's room basically clutter free. I actually think it needs finishing touches to fill some of those blank spots, but I like it to happen as we go rather than putting a bunch of stuff in there to sort of stage the room. I also see changes and updates as she gets older. I can't wait to paint over that glitter paint.....

Holiday Tree

2015-02-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

Before the holidays I was trying to figure out what to do with the Christmas cards that I was receiving in the mail. I have displayed them all sorts of ways over the years -- on a shelf, on a ribbon, on a card wreath, in a basket. I think I was browsing through Pinterest when all sorts of ideas suddenly came together. With a $9.00 vase, some hemp string, lights and beads that I already had, and tree branches from our woods....this is what I came up with.

Then, feeling creative after the holidays were over I already started thinking about how I could keep this little tree around a little longer. It actually provided some nice ambient lighting to warm up a dark space in our house.

I gathered up some paint chips in various shapes and shades of red and pink and dug out a heart-shaped hole punch from my scrapbooking days. I just made random punches and hung the cards up with the same hemp string left over from Christmas.

Another Pinterest success!! The possibilities are endless. I could do paint chips again in greens for St. Patrick's Day. or pastels for Easter, but I'm going to try to switch it up and I don't want to be too greedy at the paint store. I've seen so many paint chip crafts that I wonder if they see a spike in paint chip samples disappearing? I don't think it will make headlines....but....

The VERY Neglected Blog

2015-02-02T11:50:00.001-05:00

I am at a crossroads. I have always loved blogs and the idea of blogging. I am one of those horrible people with 8 million photos in my facebook albums because it is my way of ~~over~~sharing. I have tried to blog twice, but like music lessons or workout plans they have gone by the wayside. I have also had a few very intense years of work that finally came to an end in December of 2014.

Then there is my big question....What should my blog be? What do I want to blog about? Some days it is DIY, some days it is something I copied from Pinterest, and others I see myself being motivational -- posting the perfect inspirational quote.

Speaking of perfect....a quote I use A LOT....when talking to others:

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." Voltaire

(forgive me if it is misquoted....it is quoted every way possible on the internet)

This blog is far from perfect. It won't be slick and cool like some of those professional blogs I love. But it will be mine even if I am the only person that reads it. But the thought that *this could be on a blog* keeps playing in my head. So today it is time to do something about it!

Recipe Wall Art

2012-04-29T19:44:00.002-04:00

I am absolutely in love with the Recipe Wall Art available from Articipe at Etsy.

With Mother's Day and a couple of important family birthdays I was thinking this would be a neat gift for some special ladies in my life. Since I don't have time to get something ordered by Mother's Day and I'm secretly wishing I was a talented graphic artist, I threw this together. The colors are a bit vivid, but I was just trying to see if I could do it before I tweaked the colors. Plus I'm currently obsessed with Fiesta Ware and these colors would match my kitchen perfectly!!

I'm trying to decide...lace border? I like the white border from Articipe but I'm trying not to exactly copy them!! They are also much better at filling the space than I am. So this is more *my* version.

Or how about a fun splatter?

I could play with font and Photoshop all day...I really could!! If you are looking for a spot to get fonts like this go to Dafont.com.

Life

2012-04-29T19:28:00.001-04:00

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. ~John Lennon

DIY Art Cable

2012-02-12T18:21:00.002-05:00

One of the latest trends that I really like is hanging artwork from an art cable. Pottery Barn has some really nice choices like the Flower Art Cable but I found myself feeling stubborn about paying $39 (plus shipping).

I started Googling and looking through Pinterest and realized I could probably DIY something that would work well enough. This is what we came up with!

I found the wire and hooks at Amazon.com (we do not live near any *craft stores* and I hate shopping so I buy a lot online). I wanted something thicker and sturdier looking than the Pottery Barn wire and this wire was rated to hold 50 pounds...PLENTY for this job. I don't think we'll see very much sagging here. I shopped around online trying to decide on the perfect knob or hook and finally asked Sean to see if he could find something on his next trip to Lowe's. He liked these knobs because he thought they matched the hooks.

Sean found the studs in the wall that made the most sense visually which ended up making our art wire 6 feet 8 inches long (shorter than Pottery Barn's version, but we couldn't fit 10 feet in the space we had.). He simply wrapped the wire securely around the knobs and we were all set!

I'm really happy with how our project turned out. I can honestly say when we were done I was already trying to figure out where I could put another one!

Parts list:

OOK 50174 Framers Hanging Wire Supports Up to 50 Pounds $5.15 at Amazon.com (I could have probably gotten this cheaper at Lowe's but I was already ordering from Amazon and I was feeling impatient. Lowe's would be a special trip or an extra stop.

Clip It Up Clips 25-Pack $8.79 at Amazon.com (again...I could have shopped around for these too. But I have 25 vs. the 10 that come with the Pottery Barn wire, so I can make more art wires if I want.)

8-Count 8-32 x 1-1/2" Zinc-Plated Flat-Head Hanger Bolts $0.98 for 8...so again...I have supplies for another project.

Brainerd 1-3/16" Polished Chrome Round Cabinet Knob $3.47

So the total cost for our version was under $20 and we have spare parts left over to make more.

(Sorry if the parts list is displaying wonky. It looks just fine in the preview but the formatting is all wrong in the actual post. I give up....)

Blank Spaces

2012-01-28T18:21:00.002-05:00

As I was puttering around the kitchen today a thought came to mind about a design feature that our builder and ~~kitchen designer~~ the woman who ordered our cabinets questioned. (The architect actually designed the layout of the kitchen quite well and we just made a few modifications to the plan. The woman at the cabinet place may think of herself as a designer, but she really did nothing for us and did not do any planning or foresee any potential issues that we ended up having later. In my mind something a skilled kitchen designer should take care of. More on that later...)

Anyway...back to the design issue. I wanted to put all drawers in our kitchen except under the sink where drawers weren't possible. I did not want any lazy susans in the corners though. This raised eyebrows with our builder and cabinet woman and all they saw was wasted space. All I could see was impractical space that was hard to access and ended up being useless to me. We lived in a house with a lazy susan and I had a tendency to overfill it and it seemed difficult to me to access its contents through the standard sized opening. (The best thing about it...we had a timid cat that used it as a place to hide when company came.) I've learned through the years that I need to have simple systems that work for me. Nothing fancy schmancy.

Here is the architect's version. It is very beautiful and I'm sure very functional. As much as I like the drawer pulls, I've also learned over the years that I have a tendency to open drawers with one hand and over time twist the drawers as a result. It's a personal preference, but I also do not like the mix of knobs and pulls. The lazy susan here looks like one where the door spins with the unit which is better to me than the kind with a door that pulls open and then the unit inside spins. Often those end up with just one handle or knob on the side that opens and that visually drives me crazy.

Here is our version. We chose longer, deeper drawers with one long pull. No lazy susan!!! The drawer space is amazing and I'm quite happy with it. We did buy Omega cabinets that have very nice drawer slides but we actually lived in the house for over a month before we had the pulls so drawers would occasionally twist from us grabbing the side to open them up. I'm glad we went with our experiences and selected a pull we could grab with one hand.

Although there are doors under the sink we also decided we liked how it looked by placing those pulls horizontally instead of vertically. I had seen this in another kitchen while looking around for pull ideas and thought..of course! It actually works quite well, honestly better than if we had placed them vertically.

One *minor* hiccup....The cabinet lady assured Sean despite his concerns and repeated questioning that *everything was fine* with the slide in stove. Everything was *almost fine* except for there is very little clearance between the stove and the drawers. The stove (sorry for the bad picture example) flares just a touch at the top and we were unable to open and close the top drawer on either side. The cabinet lady should have thought of spacers. Thankfully Sean was able to shave off the slightest bit of the drawer corner to make them work and you couldn't tell unless you knew the story.

So to sum it all up, as I was puttering around, I realized I am not missing that space, the drawers are very functional and I'll have even more space once we get our pantry shelves installed. I'm so glad I didn't get talked into something I didn't want. I've asked different folks what they think of lazy susans and the reviews are mixed. I think it's definitely a personal preference and when you are designing a kitchen it's important to know what you like.

Concrete Countertop - Round 1

2012-01-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

I've always loved the look of concrete countertops and we even toyed with the idea of doing our kitchen countertops in concrete. In the end we opted not too, but we had a pantry that needed a countertop and we really didn't want to bust the budget on it.

Sean did a lot of research but the DIY experience posted here on Kelly Moore's blog was the one that we could identify with and referred to the most.

On the original plans the pantry was the laundry room, but I wanted the laundry room upstairs and thought this space would be great as a pantry.

First Sean made a template to help later when making the forms, the sink placement, etc.

As our luck would have it we had higher than normal temperatures the weekend we wanted to pour the countertop so we were up early in the morning to get started before things got too warm.

Halfway through filling the form we threw in some rebar for good measure.

Then vibrated out the bubbles.....

We let it sit a day before taking the forms off.

Backsplashes...

And finally, sealed with the sink installed.

I'd say this contertop cost us less than $100 and we really like it. Right now it is buried under a pile of odds and ends just waiting for us to get our pantry shelves installed and organized.

We were so pleased with how this countertop turned out that we decided to do Rosie's bathroom in concrete too. More to come on that in another post because it turned out a bit differently for us the second time around!

Pantry color: Sherwin Williams Holiday Turquoise from the 1950s Suburban Modern Collection

Photos

2012-01-16T21:19:00.000-05:00

Upstairs Hall / Study...whatever you want to call it...

2012-01-14T16:41:00.000-05:00

One of the things I liked about the floorplans for our house was that the upstairs hall area was more like a living area rather than a long narrow hall leading to the bedrooms. It is not a big space but it gets plenty of natural light.

Here is the version from the Healthy Home Plans site:

Here is our version in its developing stages:

Yep...no trim here either. But this is the perfect spot for our beloved secretary desk that has been kept in 2 separate pieces in two separate houses for the past four years since our temporary house did not have high enough ceilings for it. We've also been pulling our favorite books out of storage to fill the shelves. We eliminated the short wall that maybe was meant to define what the architect had labeled as the *children's study* thinking that it would flow better. I just didn't envision this space as a children's study either.We are happy with the change and think it really opens up the space. We need to get some pictures on the wall and fill the space to make it look lived in, but we are getting there. I'm not a decorator, so things just have to happen naturally over time.

I've been scouring the internet to try to find an electronic copy of this view. I do have a print copy but it is buried in the heaps of boxes I need to unpack and I just can't put my hands on it. Where we have a railing (very rough and temporary for code purposes only) the architect had walls to the ceiling with a little desk and art glass in the wall overlooking the staircase. We really wanted to open up the whole space so we eliminated the walls in the stairwell all the way down through to the basement. Eventually we are going to add a windowseat on the landing where the plant stand is now.

The little step-down before heading down the stairs is actually a nice little detail that we like. It leads to our daughter's room and just provides a little architectural detail without being too obvious. It's just something we like without really having to know why.

(The walls and ceiling are Hubbard Squash from Sherwin Williams.)

The Basement

2012-01-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

I've always hated basements. For the most part I've lived in old houses with basements that well...were dirt floors, stone walls, and not a place to go. I've had friends with basements that were usually the place where the old furniture went, they smelled like a basement, and usually weren't finished. If you've ever watched *That 70's Show* you know what I mean. Unfinished walls or floors...dusty...*basementy*...

I also know people that go home and have the *formal* living space upstairs so they go down to the basement to watch tv and relax at night. I've never been able to figure out why? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I knew it wasn't for me. So initially we didn't plan on finishing the basement right away, but thankfully we had a change of heart. We knew it would be hard to get back to if we didn't do it now. The only promise....that it would truly be a FINISHED basement. It is still a work in progress...but we've gotten a lot done on the playroom side of the basement.

We have gone from this:

To this:

We put in a subfloor with an insulated backing because we were concerned that the floor would be cold otherwise. I do think it makes a difference and I'm glad Sean did some research there. We decided to use Pergo flooring mostly because it works in basements and we wanted something that could take abuse. We're pleased with how it turned out, especially since we weren't necessarily fans of this type of flooring.

It still needs a little work and some girlie touches on the playroom side. I'd like to maybe add a chalkboard, some wall decals and maybe an artwork *clothesline*. The basement is one open room and the architect designed it structurally so that we didn't have any odd posts in the middle, so there was no good stopping point to change colors. Sean painted the entire room Rookwood Terra Cotta from the Sherwin Williams Victorian Collection. As you will see as we go along -- we love painted ceilings. We are currently setting up a pool table in the other end of the basement and can't wait to share that progress when we get further along.

The best part:

We thought like kids and finished the space under the stairs for a little hideout for Rose. Sure it would have been a great space to stash Christmas decorations, but this was way more fun. Here she is on a night she decided to camp out under the stairs. Way fun!!

Fine Art

2012-01-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Years before we became parents, we used to plan our vacations around house museums -- the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut, Falling Water, Biltmore Estate, the mansions of the Hudson River Valley (Wilderstein is a favorite)....

I remember visiting Henry Clay Frick's mansion, Clayton in Pittsburgh and one of the highlights of the tour was their extensive art collection. As I remember it, we were shown a Monet which was amazing, but hanging right next to it with equal honor was a painting done by one of the Frick children (Childs Frick). I think the tour guide made as big of a fuss over Childs' painting as she did the Monet. I always remembered that and although I know I will never have a real Monet hanging in my house, I will always hang my own child's artwork as if it were! Even though they were very rich and had museum pieces in their house it was very evident that children lived and played there. I loved that.

I have started a mini gallery above the folding table in my laundry room. I buy inexpensive canvases when I think of it or when I see them on sale. We each received an original Rosie as birthday gifts this year and I will treasure them forever. I will keep expanding my collection of fine art as long as I have wall space!

Rosie with Aurora and the Prince
An Abstract of a King watching a Pink video
A Wood Thrush
Me Watering the Garden (with a witch and a bird in the sky)
Footprints!

I am also a huge fan of the Lil Davinci frames for displaying (and storing!) artwork. (The company Dynamic Frames has no idea who I am. I like their product all on my own...)

Just a Year Ago...

2012-01-09T20:11:00.000-05:00

Just a year ago, despite fighting endless snow, we were completely thrilled to see a house taking shape. The first floor exterior walls were just beginning to go up and I *thought* then I could imagine how it would all turn out.

And then.....our first Thanksgiving in a very sunny house. Exactly what we planned for but couldn't even imagine -- how warm and cozy it would feel. Our staircase is not finished yet -- Sean plans to do that himself with a railing design of his own. For now we have what we call the contractor special in order to meet code. We also have not installed trim around the windows since we are doing that ourselves too. We even plan to use wood from trees cut down (only where necessary for the house) or ones that had fallen. We had some sawn into boards and it is being kiln-dried right now.

We chose natural cherry cabinets but really liked the look of white countertops (ours are Caesarstone) and the stainless steel appliances. We have since replaced our mismatched island stools too!

I couldn't get the same angles of the kitchen from the Healthy Home Plans site, but you can still see the changes that we made in the photos below.

Our house is in the middle of a wooded lot unlike the original that had close neighbors, so we were able to eliminate the cupboards and wall hood over the stove in order to have more windows. Since I am only 5' 1" tall I tend to find upper cabinets to be useless. We also eliminated the upper cabinets on the left side of the sink. (I hope to have some sort of open shelving there eventually.) I wasn't sure if I liked the shelving at the end of the island so I decided to eliminate that also with the thought that I could add it later if I wanted to. I find that now we tend to pull up a stool there for extra seating so I'm glad we did leave it out.

We thought the light fixtures over the island were too heavy for our personal style so we opted for smaller cobalt blue glass fixtures. We liked the farm sink design and fell in love with a sapphire colored sink to add color and break up the whiteness of the countertops. It was one of the first things we bought for the house and it sat in the box in our living room for months for lack of a better place to store it safely!

**Idea home photos courtesy of Healthy Home Plans. Feel free to email me or comment with questions about products that we used instead.

From the ground up....

2012-01-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!
Click on the slide show below to see our house being built over the past year (and more!)....

Saying Goodbye

2011-12-31T17:04:00.001-05:00

In October 2007....It was final...we sold our dream house, sold many of our possessions (who needs 2 parlor sets?), and moved from a beautiful Victorian to a little 1100 square foot house that Sean's grandparents lived in for 50 years. It was to be our *temporary* home....I would later learn that my idea of *temporary* was a little shorter than reality.

Our first dream house.

Do you see the 3-year-old peeking over the upstairs porch?

Rose spending one last time on the porch outside of her bedroom.

Saying goodbye to a backyard that we loved and played in together.

A Step in the Right Direction

2011-12-31T16:32:00.002-05:00

July 4, 2006. A determined 2-year-old leads the way up an old farm road that would eventually end up being part of our 1/2 mile driveway. We say that Rose picked out the site for our house....and she really did.

(Fast forward through months and months and months of paperwork, doing a subdivision, surveying, and pure insanity, township meetings, and then we had a parcel to work with.)

Cottage Living 2006 Idea Home

2011-12-31T12:59:00.000-05:00

Our inspiration --- Cottage Living Magazine's 2006 Idea Home*

The plans are available at:

http://www.healthyhomeplans.com/home_plans/home_plan_detail.php?plan_id=171

(*Cottage Living Magazine -- no longer in publication, Michaela Mahady, and Healthy Homeplans have no idea who we are. We just liked their house enough to build it.)

Photo courtesy of Healthy Home Plans.

Little House in the Big Woods

2011-12-31T12:51:00.000-05:00

Over 4 years ago we sold our dream house, many of our possessions, and put the much of the rest in storage to start a crazy new adventure. We began laying the groundwork to build our new dream house in the woods.

From picking the build site, to figuring out what ended up being a 1/2 mile driveway (with a bridge!!), to finally deciding on the house itself and then the actual house build....I hope to share our adventures with you!