behind the scenes: building a log home.

Some of you may or may not know, but I thought I would take some time to fill you in about this "little" project that is encompassing ALL of our life.  

We are building a log home.  

This "little" project is a new journey for me and is definitely a time-consuming project.  When I met Peyton five years ago, his dream was to always build his own log home on a piece of property close to his parents.  Five years later when we reconnect and meet-up, this dream was in the beginning stages and had started taking action.  A couple of months later, we are married, and this becomes our dream and I couldn't be more excited.  

Through our dating and engagement period, the house was being framed in by a general contractor.  After everything was roughed in, it was handed back to us to finish out. For those of you that have never built a home before, let me take you on a little crash course before we get to the nitty-gritty of all this.  

+ The money stuff and logistics (buying land, permits, getting approved for a construction loan, etc.) *this is all important stuff...I'm just not getting deep into this as it is a loooonnnggg process.
+ Prepare land, pour foundation, Inspection
+ Rough framing (for us it was the logs, interior walls, and roof)
+ Rough plumbing, electrical, HVAC, inspections, inspections, inspections
+ Insulation
+ Staining, polyurethaning the outside/inside of the home

Most of the above building was completed by our general contractor and his subcontractors (electricians, HVAC, etc).  Once they finished all of that, we began finishing the house out on our own...and with the help of Peyton's wonderful father!

+ Inside walls (all of walls are made from wood that was worked on at his father's sawmill)
+ Staining, staining, more staining
+ Applying polyurethane
+ Laying wood floors
+ Door casings
+ Final trim
+ Installation of cabinets and countertops (made by a wonderful cabinet maker named Alan Tingen)
+ Installation of lights, bathroom fixtures, etc.
+ Finishing of the floors (sanded and polyurethane application)
+ Porches, Railings, Doors, etc.
+ Cleaning and Final Inspection to get certificate of occupancy
+ Move in and final approval from bank

We are close to getting the certificate of occupancy and the ability to move in, but a couple of things are holding us up.  We are at the point where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that is so refreshing. Most of our holiday weekend (actually every weekend for the past 6 months) was spent working on our home.  We finished laying the floors this weekend and we may or may not have jumped up and down in the hallway.

Let me take you on a little tour and tell you what our new "normal" looks like.

#1. This is our living room/great room. Notice it's dark out, so it's either early in the morning or late at night. We try to work in the mornings before we leave for work (5:00-7:00am) and in the evenings (6:30pm-12:00am).  Thankfully, we have working lights, so it makes our work a little bit easier! In the early stages, we were moving shop lights on the regular. Currently, all of our saws, air nailers, and random tools are in here being used to finish out the door casings and hanging final trim. 

 #2.Trust me, we do have floors, but the kitchen is the area with the most foot traffic, so we have it covered in cardboard.  Our air vents are drying on the floor (we spray painted them black) and there is one of many ladders.  The back door is the entrance to our laundry room/mud room. Our persimmon cabinets were handmade by a man named Alan Tingen.  He took the wood we gave him and made it into one of the most beautiful parts of our kitchen.

#3. Our master bedroom is my favorite place in our entire home. It has such a romantic feeling and I really cannot wait to sleep in it! It will be such a fun room to decorate and to spend time in. Our walls are covered in wormy maple wood (not pictured) and the floors are made of cherry. The two colors just fit so well together and give the room a softer feel compared to the rest of our home.  

#4. Our temporary bathroom door=blue painters tape.  We had the bathroom floors finished this past week so our plumber can come in and make his final touches.  No one is able to walk on the floors until they dry, so this is the best that we can do until we get the doors hung.  The walls are done in juniper (a more water tolerant wood) and we have a BEAUTIFUL walk in shower. 

#5. Our loft is a large open area that leads to two bedrooms (one on either side) and a full bathroom.  The rails just went up this week, so it looks so different than it has in the past 6 months!  We are debating on whether or not we stain the rails the same color as the beams or if we just put a clear coat on them.  What do you think?

#6. A handsome handy-man in work clothes...oh, I mean an upstairs bedroom!

Sorry ladies...that's my husband...and he is off the market!   Anyways, he happened to be staining in one of our upstairs bedrooms when I was taking the pictures. This is the larger of the two rooms and will most likely serve as the guest room.  The room is done completely out of poplar so we have nicknamed it "the poplar room".  The other upstairs room has been nicknamed "the persimmon room".  

So, as you can see, there has been a lot done and is still a lot to be done. Our social life is non-existent until this house is finished and we are anxiously awaiting the day that we can move in and officially call this our first and forever home.  We have created so many memories in this space and are some that we will never forget.  

I hope you enjoyed this "rough" little tour of our log home.  I can't wait to show you more pictures when we get it decorated!