A Very, Very, Very Fine House

So most people who read this blog know that back in 2010 we purchased a log home on five acres, in Georgia.  If you've never read this blog before, or aren't on my Facebook page, we bought a log home on five acres in Georgia a little over two years ago.  Now we're all up to speed, and can continue what will probably be a very boring post.

Some facts about this house:

1. I never saw it before deciding to purchase it.  Jamie viewed three houses when he came to Georgia for his interview with Southern and fell in love with it.  If he loved it, I knew I would.  Some people call this brave, I call it "Get me the hell out of New Mexico and put me in a single wide trailer....I would still be happy."  Thankfully a log home is better than a single wide trailer, so I was happy with it.

2. When I saw it the day before we closed, I was already ripping out walls in my mind.  There were certain aspects of it that made NO sense, but thankfully I am married to quite the handy-man and knew if I dreamed it, he would build it, and build it well.

3. We've spent the last two years making some major improvements, so right now I live in what I call a "perpetual contruction zone."  We've torn out all the carpeting and replaced it with a vinyl wood look thing, which is very temporary.  We are planning on hardwood floors, but we need to get all the footprint stuff done so that all walls and doors and stuff are where they are going to be before we put the final flooring in.  We've taken a whole section, which used to be a hallway and pantry and turned it into a large laundry room/closet thing.  We've done some paint too.  And we've put up a couple new walls in the process.  We've just done a whole lot in the little time we've been here,because when you are talking home improvement what you plan to do and what actually ends up happening are two different scenarios.  (Like having to redo a whole floor joist when you are just trying to put up a new wall and find a HUGE crack in a supporting floor type thing that sucks like 6 hours of time to fix....stuff like that)

4. We have approximately 2600 square feet spread among 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.  I really only count 2 of them as actual bathrooms because the one in the upstairs hallway is the stupiest bathroom area I've ever seen.  I have no idea what the builder was thinking, but I am thinking there was some sort of sale in Middle Earth on bathroom fixtures, because only a hobbit could actually shower in there.  Not kidding. The shower head reaches about mid-neck on me and the one and only time a child attempted a shower in there (2 years and four inches in the past) we had water pouring though the floor and onto our bookshelves downstairs. Its like a coat closet with a toilet and I like to pretend it doesn't exist.

5. I'm afraid to invite people over because I worry they'll think we are losers who don't finish what we start.  Our plans are grand, and they will be seen to completion, but we have a priority list that keeps what we are doing in check.  It goes Health and Safety first, Function next, Beauty last.  So this means that since the laundry room is now *functional* it will not get top priority for alloted funds when the bathroom gets flooded and the old disgusting vanity, made from pressed wood, swells up to three times its normal size and reeks of mildew.  We're putting out fires as we find them, and then focusing on the beauty dead last, but eventually we'll stop having to replace drainfields or whole sections of flooring and things will be pretty. Until then, our focus is on safe.

6. With our planned remodeling, we'll be adding on a couple totally new sections to our house, including a dining room that will pull the living room and kitchen together into an open space, and a master suite over our garage that will include a Mom and Dad room, a baby suite and a bathroom.  Should add on approximately 1000ish square feet.  We will not be DIYing this entire project as the time element makes that impossible.  We will be hiring out the tearing off of the roof and adding the framing and whatnot for the new spots, but will be doing the finish work ourselves.  (Like how I try to convince you, the reader, that I'm actively involved in all this?  Ha.  I'm usually doing something with a baby, while bossing people around during these activities, but it's still truly helpful.)

Okay, so the point of this post, is that I am having a little bit of a block on an area in the house.  The fifth bedroom is actually downstairs (the other four are upstairs) and we used this room as an office.  It's in the corner of the house and has two log walls, both have windows that look out to different points on our property.  It will never be used as a bedroom.  The traditional walls back into the hallway and the bathroom.  So the other side of this room is the hallway and that hallway feels like a cave when you walk through it.  I find it very oppresive.  I got to thinking the other day this wall is completely unnecessary.  I asked Jamie and he concured, it's not load bearing and since this is an office type space, there's no need for it to be closed in. Removing the wall would change the feel of the downstairs by leaps and bounds and it would really be an improvement visually.  But there's a problem.  Let me see if I can show you....

This is the log wall, butted up against the traditional drywall in the hallway, right next to the exit for the side porch area:

 See the wall?  To the right is the wall we put up against the stairs and have finished with with wood planking, wall to the left, traditional drywall.

This is what I see standing in the doorway of my kitchen looking down into the hallway.  The office is the door you are looking into (Please excuse the mess in there.  I spent the first couple hours of my morning doing more Clothing Switchout crap.  There will be clothes everywhere for another couple weeks.  It's a really long process)

Another shot, getting the bathroom wall into the picture. So this wall will also be wood planking, with a pocket door sliding, but if we do what we are are thinking about doing that wall with the little black framed picture will not be there.  You will look and see no walls, no door, just a huge open area. (And I know, you're totally jealous of the pretty flowery wall border up there.  You too can have this incredible touch to your home.  I believe it's still carried at "Make Your House Look Like Ass 'R Us")

 

Okay, so the conundrum.  Where the logs are, there is a notch cut into them so that the drywall panels fit in there.  So if we just took off the sheetrock stuff, and put up wood paneling, there would be no issue, but if we totally REMOVE the wall, there will be these notches in the logs where the wall used to be.  It will not look cohesive, sooo....we need a something there.  Like maybe a small bookshelf, something to hide the notches.  I really have been wracking my brain and can't really think of what would look good there.  I am hoping my friends out there in Facebook land can help me out with this.  I even though about a small little divider wall that would fit into the notches and be like a place to hang hats/coats, cubbies for shoes on one side, books on the other?  I just don't know what this would end up looking like.  I'm at a total loss....Any ideas out there...

 

And in yarny news, guess what's getting a border right NOW? 

 

 

It may be bright and not "My Colors" but boy do I LOVE it.  It's soft, and cuddly and Noah keeps saying "You makin my wanky??"  So cute!!