HOUSE TOUR KICK-OFF {exterior}

Last I showed you (in early May?), the house had only a small amount of  stone completed and the OSB sheeting was still visible on the dormer and gable. 

This is what it looks like as of today: with finished stone, stained vertical cedar siding, and blinds. It's not finished yet. But almost!

For the gable and dormer, we kicked around ideas of shake, stucco, or vertical vinyl siding. 

In the end, Andrew found a guy to sell us cedar between 25-95 cents a linear foot, depending on the width. This price is 1/3 of what most people sell the stuff for. So we pounced. All in all, it cost us around $200. 

First, Andrew nailed the 1x10 cedar pieces across the entire front.

Then, he added the 1x4's along the outside edge and the 1x2's along the seams to create a genuine board and batten.

In this picture, you can see he's taped the gable off in preparation for staining. 

Cedar stains really dark, so it took us awhile to find a stain that dried close to the color of our front door.  Here are Andrew and Josh applying it to the dormer with a spray gun and brush. You can see the contrast between the raw wood and what has already been stained. 

The same, but from the street...

When they finished, we all stood back and looked at it in silence. Holy Hannah, was it DaRk! 

But then, in no time at all, the stain sank into the wood, dried, and lightened to the perfect color. I was so relieved. 

From the front...

All that is left now, is the white trim and shutters. I drew them in to help you visualize. 

I'm so thoughtful.

And in case you care, here is what the vinyl on the sides and back of the house looks like. The stucco guys did a great job of matching the colors to it. 

So there you have it. The outside. Next up, I plan to walk you through the inside...despite all of the unfinished details and unpacked boxes. I decided if I wait until it's perfect, you'll never get to see the interior! And I could really use your advice on decorating in here! 

Ta-ta for now,

Rachel

WAITING

I am sitting on a blanket waiting for fireworks to begin. As the show is not scheduled for another 3 hours, I thought I'd take advantage of this rare bit of free time and post something on this blog!

Lately, any documentation of my life has been through the use of instagram and my little phone camera. Here are some of those pics illustrating the last month of our lives.

MY APOLOGIES

During my month's absence, I received a few features and awards that I never responded to or gave thanks for. I thought I'd apologize and (hopefully) gain some forgiveness for my poor bloggy etiquette.

1.) What an honor to be featured twice by this fabulous blog! Once for my paper mache hive and a second time for paper snowflakes. Thanks!

2.) The JS Chronicles blog left a comment about nominating Our Small Town Idaho Life for a Kreativ Blogger Award. Unfortunately, by the time I tried to get back to them, the blog had been made private (oops). So as I'm not sure what the rules are for receiving such an honor, I'll just say thank you, thank you! 

3.) And then The Blissful Bee was kind enough to present my blog with the Liebster Award. From what I understand, "Liebster" is German for dear, beloved, or favorite. They are generally given to younger blogs with fewer than 200 followers. What an honor to be recognized! Now, I am asked to pass on the favor to a few favorites of my own.

These are several favorite blogs I've already mentioned before: 

• The Koivisto Perhe- Documenting the life of an LDS Kansas girl living in Finland with her Finnish husband. 
• Letters from Coco- A blog as lovely and sweet as its writer, Nicole. Her faith in God is refreshing.
• Playing House- A look into the life a mother of three little ones in a way that is poignant, real, and so fun.

And a new one I've been enjoying lately:

• Jenny B- This girl has got such an eye for STYLE. I love her pictures, her crafts, her food, and I want to eat her baby girl's preciousness.

That's all for today, folks. If you haven't already, go check 'em out.

HOW TO BUILD A (cheaper) BOARD & BATTEN WAINSCOT

Wow. It feels like forever since I blogged. Sorry about the long absence, but moving has been--and continues to be--a crazy, all consuming task. I know I owe you a tour, but everything is still a wreck! And posting a tour seems like such a long, daunting task right now. I think I need to ease my way back into this blogging thing.

So, here's a tutorial on the board and batten wainscoting...using old pictures already edited on my computer. 

We always loved this look, but felt it was more costly than we wanted for all that extra wood. Then we found a cheaper way that requires a lot less, but looks just as nice. 

We installed it in the front room, entryway, and the master bedroom. I'll use the front room to demonstrate the process. 

Here is the sitting room with bare drywall and mud. If you notice, there is no texture yet. 

When we did apply the texture, we only hit the areas of the walls above where the wainscot would be. The bottom section was left smooth. This would create a contrast between the two and mimic the look of flat wood panels (after being painted).

1.) Using a nail gun, 1x6 baseboards were installed along the bottom of the walls. 

2.) Next, 1x4 battens were set  vertically on top of the baseboards and nailed into place about 20 inches apart. 

3.) 1x4's were then attached in a horizontal line above, parallel to the baseboards to build shadow boxes.

4.) The shadow boxes were capped with 1x2's that created a shelf-like look at the top.

Here is a closer look at the 1x2 wood at the top.

Finally, a piece of decorative molding was installed just below the "shelf" of 1x2's with a pin nailer. 

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Then there came the exhilarating (not!) task of filling in every blasted nail hole with putty, sanding them down, and caulking every blasted seam in prep for paint. 

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My only advice at this point is to enlist every family member, friend, neighbor, pool guy, mail man, etc., you can find to help with this. If you have as much trim as we do, you'll be glad you did.

Using a sprayer, semi-gloss white paint completely transformed the look. Even without using any flat paneling, the wall in each shadow box appeared smooth and seamless with the battens. 

I wish I had a picture of Andrew when he was finished with this. White brows and lashes just aren't his best look.

If I didn't witness the process myself, I never would have assumed the bottom section was actually the wall rather than wood.

I love the finished, contrast-y look of the painted, textured wall above the clean, white glossiness.

Not using the real wood paneling saved us an estimated $800-$1,000 through the entire house.

Just for fun, here's a before of the entryway...

...and an after! 

You should see it now with the wood floors! Aghhh...and you will! Soon!

Until then,

Rachel

P.S. I was featured by Remodelaholic for this post! I am also linking up here. 

CATCH UP

I know it's been a long time. Between the end of a school year, moving out of our home of nearly 5 years, and moving into a house practically still under construction...blogging has been low on the priority list. I am typing this from my phone while I wait for Andrew in the Home Depot parking lot.

I promise that once our life (and Internet connection) settles back to normal I'll have so many fun things to share with you: painting tips, cedar siding, bamboo blinds, our leaky skylight fiasco, wood pallet ceiling diy, concrete countertops diy, wood floors, and the building of some new wood furniture! But here's a sneak peek of the gorgeous kitchen I spent all day wiping down. I LOVE our kitchen. I promise photos with a real camera in the near future.