My heart is so full as I look at the last few posts from our experience of building this home. All of the long days, the nights we got home at 3:00am, the countless trips to lowes and menards, The midnight trips to cowboy jacks for dinner on our way home from the house, the miles and miles chevy ran around outside while we worked. It all adds up to this; a home. And we couldn’t be more thankful for everything that led us here. And we sure as HECK couldn’t have done it with all of the help from our loving family members who busted their butts for us too! We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!!!
We have been in the home for a little over a month now, and all of the laughs and good memories we have in here so far are making it feel more and more like a home every day. But let me back track a little bit. As most of you know, our lease ended in our apartment on November 30th, 2015. Our house was totally unlivable at this time, so for the first 3 weeks in December, we lived in Tony’s sister’s camper that we parked right in the driveway. While I must say, it was the nicest camper I have ever stayed in in my entire life– I was SO happy to move out of that thing!! (someone please explain to me how people live in tiny homes?!) And then, for the first week or so we lived in our home, we just had our mattress on the floor of a spare bedroom because the carpet in our Master wasn’t finished. Our clothes were left in bags and boxes since we didn’t have a closet. We were still showering at the gym because the plumbing wasn’t done. I’d bring my clothes to my parent’s house to wash them. The living room was full of all our belongings in boxes since we had no other finished space to put it. Workers were in and out every day finishing the plumbing, electric, inspections & heating while I’m trying to do my photography work from a makeshift home office. It was pretty crazy as I think back on it. But honestly we were just so happy to be in there, despite all of the missing pieces! Not only were we hustling because we just wanted it to be done so bad, but I planned a small new years get together thinking that would be ‘no problem! The house will totally be done by then– right Tony?! What a great way to break it in!’
Well, fast forward to New Years Eve. (Mind you, we had been working non stop the last week– okay, 6 months– trying to get everything done. Tony took off work every single day since Christmas so we could finish all of the important finishing touches.) It was 6:00pm. Our friends were supposed to come at 7. He asks me if he can to go Menards to grab the last few things he needed to finish the open shelving in the kitchen (the last BIG visual thing that needed to be done). Since I was really anxious to see those hung and I could count on my friends being fashionably late, I told him to go! So he literally got the shelves hung just in time for me to fill them with white pottery before the first guest walked through the door! That was the first night our home was finished and full of life and laughter, and I was just so happy that it all came together in the end.
Well, now that you know how the story ends, Let’s rewind back to what seems like years ago, when this place was nothing but studs and insulation!
Quick update on the outside // October 20th
October 25th: Putting up the Cedar Shakes!! These shakes are a really warm amber color right when you get them, but we can already see a few months after having them up that they are slowly starting to turn gray with age, which is what we ultimately want!
October 30th// Putting up the Sofits and Facia
Alright, now back to the inside! Rewind to October 20th // It always gets ugly before it gets pretty: Insulation!
October 31st// Front and Back Decks! We knocked both of them out in one day. Three cheers for awesome parents. And look at all of that MUD we were dealing with!! 
November 2nd// Now for the drywall! So happy that we decided last minute to hire this huge project out. We were exhausted & on a strict timeline. They did it twice as fast and we saved a whole lot of stress!
Office:
Master Bedroom:
My studio:
Let’s just take a minute to enjoy our view of the sunsets.
November 8th// Tiling the showers
November 15th // Salvaging wood from my Great Grandma’s fallen barn. So happy we got to use this in a lot of unique places in our home! 
November 15th// Mud & tape. We also hired this out. We definitely consider this an art and left it to the pros! 
November 17th // SHIPLAP SHIPLAP SHIPLAP. 🙂 Thank you, Joanna Gains. That’s all I have to say about that. These are just plain old 1×8 pine boards from menards. We painted them once with Sherwin Williams Ovation white paint from Lowes. I just did one coat because I wanted the knots and some of the grain to show through.
The first place we installed the shiplap is in the vaults over both our front and back deck.
November 22nd // Painting weekend. Let me tell ya….. I would be so happy if I never have to paint an entire house again. 😉 This was a JOB. Again, Thank you to our family for helping us! I would still be painting (and crying) if it wasn’t for you. We primed and painted the whole house in 3 days I think? Insanity is a good word to describe that weekend.
They are the best.
Below are all of our kitchen cabinets! Yahoo!
We had a little running joke around here that everything was white. If anyone had a question about what color we were doing something, the obvious answer was basically ‘if kate had anything to do with it, it will be white.’ (white cabinets, white walls, white doors, white siding, white trim, etc.) So I shocked everyone when I painted an entire wall black in my office. It’s my chalk wall and our nephews (and I) LOVE IT. 
Let’s all take a moment to give a shoutout to Tony’s mom, Kris, for literally keeping us alive with all of her tasty crockpot meals.
November 23rd // Tony installing the kitchen cabinets!
Chevy’s favorite spot was on top of this box. I swear, he thinks he is a cat.
November 25th // Flooring, doors, trim.
November 28th// Moving out of our apartment!!! Yup, that is a cart from the grocery store next door. No shame.
Crown molding:
December 1st // Carpet goes in! I personally thought I hated carpet. I wanted to run wood throughout the whole floor, but tony and I both agreed that carpet was more cozy in the bedrooms. So when I found this berber carpet, I knew it was the one! I’m really happy with it and know it will wear great throughout the years!
December 1st // First snow at our house! 
December 2nd// The last of the flooring up in the studio.
December 7th // My papa made us a bunch of really really cool lights for the house! It was so fun to see them come to life when the electrician installed them!! 
My shiplap dreams are coming to life:
December 9th // Chevy just wanted to help us make our butcher block countertop
Master Closet:
December 17th// The mantle. This is one of the places where we used wood from my Great Grandma’s barn! One of my favorite parts of the house.
December 18th// We hung the wagon wheel chandelier that my daddy made for our wedding! Love love love.
And here are the lights from my papa! (don’t mind the black chords… i just hadn’t painted them white yet!)
And here he is making the one for my studio!
December 31st// filling up wood cubbies with wood! Tony and I had a vision for this, but couldn’t find an example of it anywhere, so we had to design it by ourselves from scratch and we are so happy with how it turned out!
I designed and tony built this range hood. Also built from wood from my great grandma’s barn. This picture was taken on new years eve. This is when tony was at menards going to get the hardware for the open shelving! As you can see, the snacks are all laid out ready for company to come over!! haha!!
Shower doors were installed Dec 30th!
The last sprint before everyone came over! This picture was taken at 7:04. People were supposed to be coming over at 7:00. Thank goodness for fashionably late friends. (love you guys)
And somehow, it all turned out perfectly and soon after our house was full of life and laughter. 🙂
As far as the “decor” goes, this is a work in progress (and always will be!)! But here is a little sneak peek of how it looks all finished!!I love the industrial handrail. The beautiful painting was done by my grandma. Bench made by grandpa. They are the best. 
This is such a unique piece that I love. I wanted to have vessel sinks in the two main bathrooms off the kitchen and family room. So that meant we could put the sink on top of anything! It was Tony’s idea to take an old sewing machine table and put a sink on top and we were searching high and low to find one that would fit in the 32 inch space we had. Well, we went over to my grandma’s one day and told her our idea… and low and behold, she had one that we could use!!! (Just like my mom always says: Always shop mom and bop’s house before you buy it at the store!!”) It’s my favorite bathroom in the house. Just perfect.
Tony built this light. The pulley is from my grandma and grandpa’s barn. They used to hook the horses up to it to pull the hay up into the loft!! The wood is also from the barn. The button “B” was made by me and my grandma. The frame made by grandpa.
This. This is my absolute favorite part of the house. Barn doors created from the doors from the original garage structure on my grandparents farm.
Our other bathroom sink! We got this cabinet off of craigslist for 50 bucks. It was a dark wood and the hardware on it was some kind of scary gold mythical creature. A wise man once said ‘all you need is a little white paint and a whole lot of optimism’. Okay, maybe I made that up, but its true.
Ahhhh, my studio.
Master Bathroom:
… until next time!
