A New Beginning or Pouring out my heart about building your own house!

Yes it's me, posting again.  

Last weekend, while Dave and I were visiting southern Indiana for a little mini-get away, I brought up the very first post on this house blog, and read it to him. 
Then I read a couple more posts. 
As the saying goes, we've come a long way baby!  
And we actually enjoyed reading the posts!  

When looking back, I can't even believe we built this house.  Except for the fact that I still remember starting to resent the time it was taking.  Honestly, it was not how I wanted to spend my life.  And that's how I was beginning to feel. In the beginning it seemed like a grand idea.

• You save A LOT OF MONEY doing things yourself. 
• You spend  A LOT OF TIME doing things yourself!  

I kept thinking... praying... begging... for time to slow down.  I was almost feeling panicky (is that a word?) about it.  I was beginning to feel that my 50's were being wasted on painting trim, walls, doors, etc.  Not to mention insulating, helping lay floor, helping re-do rafters, sub-flooring, helping run wire, climbing into the attic, screwing bolts into trusses, helping with all kinds of construction. 
I get construction!  
I know how to use power tools! 
House plans make sense to me now!  sometimes...

I remember saying, "I JUST WANT TO BE A GIRL!"

And here are two very true and important things I can tell you about construction. 

• It WILL go over the time deadline.
• It WILL go over budget!

We broke ground in September of 2010.  We were the general contractors. 

By the time the contractors finished with pouring the basement, which was supposed to begin in July, and the framers finished framing, it was November.  And snow came the day after the roof was laid!  And it didn't stop snowing all winter.  So basically, we didn't start work again until the following Spring.  Behind already!

Back in the day, when I was writing this blog, trying to record progress, life was so CRAZY busy, it became one more chore to do in a long list of chores. When you build a house....build your own house....life goes on.  Celebrations happen.  Birthdays, Holidays, bridal showers, baby showers, bachelorette parties!, weddings, caregiving (I didn't realize I was a caregiver until it ended) funerals, entertaining, sickness, surgeries, etc.  We had it all!

I NEEDED A BREAK!  

WE NEEDED A BREAK!

We actually finished the upstairs in April of 2018. 

And we didn't move a stitch of furniture up there until several months later! 

We were DONE!  

Fast forward to now!  2019  
I LOVE THIS PLACE! 
I love living in a house that I LOVE!  
Dave is very creative and making all kinds of fun changes, that has increased my love for this place!  
And I want to share them with you.
When I look around I see a lot of things I want to share. 
I want to continue to record this journey.
So I am.

I have also started an Instagram account for the house. 
thehouseonhilltopfarm
And for those that do not have IG, I plan to record the same thing here, as long as my computer holds out.  I'm still as tech savvy as I've always been, which is not at all!  I'll stumble through.

But right now, I see some hydrangeas that I best get out and cut before they fade totally away, and I don't have any dried for fall arrangements!

Cindy

Upstairs Bathroom

I'm finally finding time to do some of the things I want to do.  Such as download pictures and blog! The upstairs to our home is finished!

This is the upstairs bathroom.  And I have to say, I LOVE the upstairs of our house. 

Almost better than the main level!  Yikes!

So, this mirror was a mirror that a friend was going to get rid of in a sale and I either bought it off of her or traded her something, I forget.  Dave painted it white and roughed it up, and it fit perfectly.

The towel hooks...I brought those from our other house and I don't remember where I bought them.  Back in those days...probably a garage sale!

  The European sink vanity came from Menard's.  It's a small bathroom so it fit in perfectly.  Dave changed the knobs on it.  We have changed a lot of knobs in our house and those came from a store in Olney, Illinois called D. Lawless Hardware.  If you would like to change the look of dressers and cabinets, you need to shop at this place.  Click here to shop.  ( I don't get anything for recommending this place, they don't even know me! ) We've ordered from them several times and have been very pleased.

 I suppose I should have put the toilet lid down for the picture, but this is real life folks.  They are rarely down.  And I don't know why that laundry basket looks dirty in the picture.  It isn't.  I did buy it at a garage sale years ago.

 It's a small bathroom in between two bedrooms.  The window is dressed with plantation shutters from Lowe's.  Seriously, who talks like that?  I have never in my life talked about "dressed windows!"

 We have used these light fixtures, way before they were cool to use.  So it's old. I have always loved old light fixtures.  And we've bought a lot of them at garage sales or auctions.  We put this one over the shower.

Honestly, we have put secure towel bars in every bathroom for the last 20 years.  

 I LOVE this floor.  It's called Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) and this is EXACTLY what I wanted for my kitchen.  We looked for it everywhere.  I have LVT in my kitchen but it isn't this scuffed up looking grey and white.  When we did our kitchen it was in ALL of the magazines, but we could not find it in our town or any town nearby.  So, by the time we did the upstairs bathroom, everyone had what I was looking for, so I used it.  The one great thing about LVT is it looks like wood, or tile, but it is waterproof.  There are two different kinds you can get.  One is a floating kind, which is what we have, and  you lay it around your tub or kitchen cabinets.  The glue down kind, which we have NEVER used, you can lay it all first, then put your cabinets on it. But you have to glue it down. So there is your LVT lesson.  I love it for kitchens and bathrooms.  We got ours at a local store in town called McCool's flooring.

We put a closet behind the door because we had the room.  Not sure that was in the original plan.  You can never have enough closet space.

 Dave made the shelves himself.  He has actually made all of the shelves in our closets and pantries.

 So that's it for the bathroom.  It's small and there really isn't anywhere you can stand and get the whole view.  You'll just have to stop by and see it!

Next up....upstairs bedrooms with the furniture in them.

Cindy

Bedroom upstairs

 So now I'm at the top of the stairs.  

 We have these corner protectors all over the house.  People seem to love them. 

 And this is the foyer.  I'm sure I got these lights at a garage sale somewhere.  They look like outdoor lights and I just love them in the foyer.  Makes me feel like I'm outside when I'm in!

I'm thinking about putting a little bookshelf here.

 

Its' funny how you have everything planned out in your head where you are going to put stuff, then it never looks as good when you actually do it!

Step into the back bedroom!

 Someone mentioned that they would put chandeliers up everywhere in the house.  I love chandys and would love the put them up, but we actually use the ceiling fans a lot.  We did a lot of practical and less maintenance type stuff on this house whenever possible.

  I thought I would stand in each corner of the room and take a picture, since I can't get the whole room in one picture.

 I think the bed will go between these two windows.

 That's it!  Back out to the foyer.

 Bathroom is next

Cindy

The Stairway to the 2nd level

I have to say, I think the upstairs is my favorite!

And it's FINISHED!!!

So let's start here....

at the bottom of the unfinished steps.

 And walk on up...

 But wait...

 check out

 these gorgeous steps!

 And these little hand rail brackets are were a special online order.

 And these lights remind me of old schoolhouse lights.

 They light the way up the stairs.

 And I think I'll stop here for the day.

I'm trying to do smaller posts.

Stay tuned for the upstairs...you're gonna love it!

Cindy

Painting and Flooring upstairs or Will I ever be done painting trim!

Time for a house update!

Past time, actually...

We are working on the upper level, which is just two bedrooms and a bath.

And for our purposes, I doubt it will be used much.

I started painting trim for the upstairs back in November.

The way we do it is like this.... 

Dave measures and cuts the pieces of trim he needs and lays out what will fit on the horses.

He also puts these little trim pieces on nails because they are easier to paint and dry like this.  I can get all sides without them sticking to the wood.  

This house has a lot of trim.  We have trim around all of the windows, doors, and crown molding.

And corners

As you can see in the background of these pictures, we have a bit of a mess.  There are a lot of materials and tools needed to build, and when you are working in two rooms, it gets a bit crowded with those materials and tools.  We've put cardboard down to protect the hardwood floors.  I'll do a proper TahDah post on the bedrooms when all of the stuff is out of those rooms.

We have lights and ceiling fans!

 I'm pretty sure I'm done painting trim.  And it's all hung.

We've also been busy with the bathroom.  

Looking for flooring took a little bit of time.

 When we first started building this house we looked for a flooring called Luxury Vinyl Tile.  It was a fairly new product and there wasn't a lot of choices in our town.  We discovered it from some friends who were building.  We put hardwood down in most of the house, but in the kitchen and bathrooms we wanted something that could withstand water and a lot of wear and tear.

 Now there are a LOT of choices!

 And of course the farmhouse look  is so popular right now.  I actually wanted a gray for my kitchen but at the time they didn't have it.  They do now.

 But we had to make sure what we bought for the bathroom was going to look ok next to the hardwood that it butts up against in the foyer.

Those were a couple of samples Dave brought home, but he wanted me to go to the store with him to make sure there wasn't something I liked better.

 LVT also comes in pieces that look like tile.  It's very versatile, VERY easy to clean, and wears well.  I could sell it!  (lol)

We have since finished the bathroom and in my next post I will show you all the details!

Cindy