Not even a week after we got the pictures of the installed cabinetry, trim, and railing we got even more pictures showing things tidied up and with counter tops installed.  I think our salesperson, Courtenay read my mind, showing me exactly what I’d been wondering about.

Hello, sunny laundry room.  I am seriously counting down the days until you an I get very well acquainted.

Countertops installed!  We didn’t want to pay the significant cost of a stone countertop at this point in our lives, so I picked the best looking laminate I could find.  And I think my faux Cararra marble looks pretty decent in these pictures!

Pantry shelves installed!

A close-up of the hardware.

I am seriously loving that kitchen.

All of our interior doors, ready to go! (The back ones are a charcoal grey, and the front one matches the island and will go on the pantry.)

Stacks of flooring!  Can’t wait to see it!

(Pictures from Warman Homes)

We visited the house once the drywall was complete and I was itching to see what it would look like with cabinetry.  I’d been especially picky about the kitchen, and I was nervous, hoping it would be what I wanted it to be.  I didn’t have to wait long.  A few weeks later we got pictures of the carpentry progress:

Our railing was installed (perfect!) and the window and door trim was up and painted!

Our laundry room cabinets were in place!  Looking good!  I’m already imagining the open shelves we’ll put above…

The ensuite vanity looked perfect, and I was glad to see the scale of the hardware on the cabinets.

But the pictures that elicited squeals of delight:  That pretty ole’ kitchen:

Oh yes.

That is what I had pictured in my head.  I can’t wait to cook in there.  But also, I never want to get that place dirty.  Ha ha.  Dilemma.

(Pictures from Warman Homes)

After receiving the first set of progress pictures on our house we were thrilled with how quickly our house had been closed in.  A few weeks later we received more pictures of the speedy progress.  Here are a few:

(Siding is up!)

(Nice to see that overhang and imagine sitting on our veranda one day!)

(Future kitchen… can you imagine it?)

(Dining room in front of the french doors and the living room under the 11’ ceilings - all drywalled!)

Stay tuned for more updates…

(Pictures from Warman Homes)

We’ve known a few people who’ve built houses.  They usually post pictures on Facebook: “Hey!  The hole is dug!” and a long while later: “It’s framed!” and months later they post a status about waiting and waiting as they’re completion date is moved AGAIN.  Now, not everyone has this experience, but we’ve known a few.  But we’re building an RTM (which I wrote about yesterday, here.) Our experience was a little different:

 I remember Sean and I were driving somewhere and discussing our house.  ”I wonder if they were able to start our house yet?  Didn’t they say they were supposed to start it last week?”  Then in the middle of our conversation we got an email from our salesperson, Courtenay with pictures of the progress.  

As we waited for the pictures to download we imagined a stick frame.

Um.  Wait.  What?

Yup.  They started our house:

There it was -  our pretty farm house - framed, closed in, windows, doors, before we knew it.  Crazy.

(The back of the house)

(Our side mudroom entrance)

So freaking exciting!!

(Pictures from Warman Homes)

Our farmhouse dream is finally coming true this year.  (You can read about it here, here, and here, for a start.)  Pretty amazing.  As I talk about our building experience people can get a bit confused, though, so I’m gonna’ fill you in on what I know about building an RTM.

 Almost the whole way along we’ve planned on moving a house onto the farm, as opposed to building on site.  There are generally three types of new pre-built homes you can move (As I understand from our 7, or so, years of researching this.)  The home is constructed completely at a factory or yard site, then moved to its location:

• Manufactured or Mobile Home - this is the term generally used (we found) for what most people call a trailer.  This is your long, narrow, one-piece building.  But don’t immediately assume we’re talking white-trash trailer park.  We looked at some that could cost almost as much as our house.  You can get pretty much whatever you want within the 16, 18, or 20-foot wide options, and you can even get them with full drywall or put them on basements.  They are generally built so that they can be easily moved again, though.  We considered this in the early years as a temporary plan until we had more money.

  (A manufactured home from Grandeur Housing in Manitoba)

• RTM Home - stands for “Ready To Move”.  An RTM is essentially a one-piece pre-built home that can be moved by trucks and trailers.  There’s a lot more flexibility on the dimensions, and customization.  And an RTM is a house, not a trailer.  (And there are a lot of construction differences between a mobile home and RTM that I won’t even pretend to understand.)  We are building an RTM because it combines our two desires of a real house with the most efficient moving costs.

  (An RTM Home being moved onto a basement foundation by Nelson Homes from Alberta)

  (Fully-built RTM home being transported by Neufeld Building Movers for Warman Homes.)(Fully-built RTM home being transported by Neufeld Building Movers for Warman Homes.)                    
• Modular Home - Modular homes are also houses, but come in several pieces.  (Actually there are also some condo/apartment buildings that are being built in modular form now, too.)  One home we considered for a while came in a front and back piece (both of which come completely finished inside) that were attached on site then the roof was built on top.  This required a crane for assembling, however, and that put the moving costs out of budget for us.(Diagram of how a modular home is assembled from Grandeur Housing in Manitoba.)(A modular home being assembled by Grandeur Housing)

Here’s why we decided to go the RTM route:

• Though our farm is pretty close to the city, and a site build by a conventional builder may have been doable, in rural areas it can be a pain to find a reliable builder who’s willing to come out and build on site.
• An RTM is usually an incredibly efficient way to build a home.  The builder keeps all the trades on staff and they come every day to the same factory site to work on a number of houses at a time.  This obviously seriously improves the time frame and can also improve the quality when there is this consistency.  We’ve had people working on our house every single day since construction began.
• Supplies are ordered in bulk and kept in a controlled environment, making the construction more cost effective.  
• The houses (made by a good builder) are built well - they are made strong to handle the move, and they’re built quickly (so they aren’t sitting vulnerable to rain, wind or snow in an unfinished state).
• A good RTM builder can completely customize your home.
• The costs stay pretty controlled with an RTM builder, meaning that it will stay on budget.

Now there are obviously some shoddy RTM builders (we ran across a few) and also some non-RTM builders who can do a lot of these same things - but for us an RTM made the most sense.

We looked at a LOT of floor plans and a LOT of builders and our research essentially brought us down to two builders whom we felt were the most professional, efficient, and experienced:

• Warman Homes (North of Saskatoon), and
• Nelson Homes (out of High River and Lloydminster, Alberta).

(You’ll also see from the pictures above another builder, Grandeur Housing, who we seriously considered when we looked at a modular home several years ago.  Everything we saw from them was really good, but we never got far enough along to visit their facility or work with their staff, so I can’t say definitively that I would recommend them.  But if you’re looking into builders, I would definitely say they’re worth a close look.)

We worked closely with Nelson for a while, looking at building with them.  We drove out to High River to visit a show home version of a house Sean loved.  I would unequivocally recommend them - super professional and quality building.  I was actually pretty sad when we decided we weren’t building with them.

But Warman Homes made me feel not so sad.  They too, are experienced (they built Sean’s parents’ house nearly 20 years ago!), super professional, and great quality.  Our experience with them has been amazing.  In the end we found a house that exceeded what I thought we could have that fit comfortably within our budget.  Plus Sean’s family experience working with them, plus a long warranty plan, plus the nearness to the farm (only a couple hours to drive and visit our house!)… we decided this was the way to go.

People assume that you need to have a “package plan” with an RTM - a set floor plan and a set design scheme.  But we actually customized our floor plan based on someone else’s customization that we really liked.  Then we smushed together the floor plan from that house and the exterior from another house, and changed a few more things, and… Ta Da!  Our house!  Besides that, a good builder will have a decent range of finishes to choose from.  And in some areas (like lighting, hardware, etc.) I asked for the supplier names so I could look up even more options online.  My salesperson, Courtenay was awesome; getting excited about our plans and being OK with my super-specific vision for every single detail.

If you’re not super specific and don’t even know where to start they can help you with that too, and you can certainly select from pre-set plans.  But for me, the level of customization we were able to achieve is so exciting - I really feel like we’re getting our dream house.

As soon as they started building we began receiving updates and pictures from Courtenay every few weeks (which I’ll begin to show you tomorrow!)  Plus we’ve driven up to see the house in process.  We cannot believe how quickly and beautifully it’s taking shape.

When the house is delivered I will certainly be posting about it with plenty of pictures!  Our house will arrive by a truck and be placed onto a basement and foundation that we’ve had constructed by contractors here.  The movers will secure the house to the foundation, and then also come back to touch up paint and repair any nicks or scrapes from the move.  Warman has a pretty good follow-up plan, which is something to look for in an RTM builder.

So there’s my plug for RTM’s.  Let me know if you have questions!

OK… and one sneak peek of our house in the building process:

(Photo from Warman Homes of OUR HOUSE [!!!!] being built in their yard in February)

Merry Christmas to us!  We ordered our house last week!

(You can read my most recent house dreaming update - about the land survey in the summer - right here.  It also includes links to other pertinent posts.)

I don’t think I’ve written about this before, but our house dreaming took a twist in November.  For about a year and a half Sean and I had settled on a house that we planned to build. (Over the 6-7 years of house dreaming we changed our minds a few times depending on costs, logistics, needs, etc.)  We were quite settled on this house plan - a great country farm house.  Sean had especially loved it and after a bit of convincing (and some floor plan adjustment sessions of my own) I loved it.  We’d even visited the builder last fall to view a show home version of it.  We were super confident in the builder (Nelson Homes in Alberta, if you care to know.  I glowingly recommend them - super profesh, and experienced, and nice.) (<- Yes, that is “profesh” - my abbreviation of “professional”.  I’m a dork, and I’m not changing it).  But this past fall there was a bit of a price increase on the house (which is totally normal) and Sean began to get antsy about the price and thought we should maybe check out some closer builders.

*sigh.*  I was not so into changing plans at this point.  And the builders he wanted to see had nothing online that particularly appealed to me.  But whatevs.  That meant a road trip, and Fuddruckers for lunch, so… OK.  (Who can argue with the pump cheese?)

One builder we visited particularly impressed us - Warman Homes.  (Which, by the way, is the same builder that built my in-law’s home nearly 20 years ago.)  We walked through at least a dozen homes being built on their site (on a freezing Sasky winter day with two toddlers… not ideal) and came back with a handful of serious contenders.  One in particular swept me off my feet, and I was delighted to discover it was in our price range.  After a bunch of (super profesh, helpful and friendly) correspondence with our salesperson, Courtenay, and an one more visit sans kiddos, we were fully 100% smitten and changed our plans.  The house was a customization of another house plan, and after some customization on our part I was thrilled.  The house is full of things that I never thought we could have in our home.  (Two words, people: transom windows.)  (OK, two more: walk-in pantry.)

And so, a couple days after Christmas we drove back and paid our down payment and submitted our order.  I don’t know if this will ever feel real until we move in.

What’s up next? 

• In about a month we’ll receive the technical drawings for the house which I will pour over (and over and over) to make sure things are just how we want them.
• I will plan the finishes and look of the house.  My challenge: create the best design aesthetic that suits my family within the builder options for a low, low price.  And let’s just face it, I’m going to be a total snob about it.  Wish me luck. ;)
• We’ll have to (and by “we”, I mean “Sean”) set up the basement dig and build, utility hook-ups, etc. etc.  
• Hopefully I’ll keep up with sharing the progress with you, particularly the design ideas.
• Our house should arrive mid-June!  So. freeeeaking. excited.

I’ve been writing about my plans for a coffee table makeover (part 1, part 2) to make a coffee table similar to one of these…

(1-Jayson Home $1595, 2-Joss & Main (sale ended), 3-Lucca & Co. $19,800, 4-Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams $996, 5-West Elm $365)

…from this lovely old 80’s beast of brass’n’glass:

Yesterday I wrote about gathering the barn wood for the top.  After that whole episode I took the boards back to my dad’s garage, and let them dry out a little bit while I pondered what to do.  I, of course,  did my thorough research online and found that people who reused old wood were kind of on a spectrum.  This spectrum looks something like this:

The people on the left side use words like “patina” and “shabby chic”, as well as “splinters” and “lead poisoning”, while the people on the right say things like “safety”, and “perfection”, as well as “sacrilege” and “high on varnish fumes”.

Needless to say I found myself somewhere in the middle.  I knew the wood needed to be clean and safe, but I wanted to maintain it’s weathered look as much as possible.

I opted for: 

• A good scrubbing (I mixed Borax with hot water and used a plastic bristled scrub bush to wash the boards)
• A long dry
• A light sanding by hand to take off any feathered, splintered or loose pieces - not enough to change the colour significantly.
• And two coats of Varathane clear finish 

I chose the finish because it looked a.) easy, and b.) like it wouldn’t change the look of the wood too much.  (And it worked!)

After the wood had sufficiently dried and been lightly sanded I laid out the boards and lined them up roughly how I’d like them to sit on the coffee table.  I wanted to display the most beautiful woodgrain, the uniqueness of each board and avoid any major divots, cracks or knots on the top of the table.  We figured out the length (so that there would be a slight overhang on each side) and my dad cut the boards.  I then coated them in the Varathane finish.

This couldn’t have been easier.  I felt like I was decoupaging.  I just squirted some on, and brushed it on with a paintbrush.  It seeped nicely into any cracks and spread smoothly.  AND it cleaned up with water!  (No.  This post is not sponsored if you were beginning to wonder.)

As you can see it did darken the look of the wood a bit (and did not look as yellowy as it does in these pictures), but it dried in a satin finish (not too glossy) and I think it deepened the look of the grain, which is nice.  It basically maintained the same colour tones - just a bit darker.  Overall I was pretty happy with the finish.  I did one coat, let it cure for a few days, and then did another after the table was assembled.

While the finish was drying on the first coat I got to the frame.  I lugged that heavy brass bad boy outside (well, OK, my Dad did.  But whatever.  I could have, if he wasn’t all gentlemanly and stuff.)

The frame is a nice weight and solid, so it was perfect for this project.  To get the look I was going for I was originally thinking I’d just spray the base black.  However after Sherry over at Young House Love went through her love affair with Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze, I knew that would be the way to go - black with a subtle warm metallic undertone that would have a bit more complexity to the colour.  

I thought it worked super well - looking like aged metal, as opposed to something painted black. (Still not a sponsored post.) ;)

Once that was dry (after a few days) we built the top.

The simplest plan (which my dad came up with, because he wanted this to be a “You can do it too!” DIY.  Little did he know I was going to scare you all away from using reclaimed wood yesterday…) was to cut a piece of plywood to the size of the opening on the top of the coffee table (he had this done at the hardware store with a piece of their scrap… because you can do that too!).

We then marked where the notches on the corners of the table frame were

Aaaand sliced them off.  This piece of plywood would now sink perfectly into the top of the table frame.

(P.S. My dad is doing this in the picture, but I did the other three corners.  Yep.  I used that big old cutting power tool.  And I didn’t even pee my pants.  Not even a little bit.  But more on my fear of power tools another day…)

We then chose an appropriate length of screw and drove it into the table at 3-4 spots along each board from the bottom side:

And then I painted it… not that you’ll ever see that part. (I just used some leftover paint from our front door.)

The table top could now be plopped right into the top of the table frame and it sits there without budging.  It’s a little on the heavy side, but like I said, the frame is a beefy old chap, so it’s not a problem.

So… back to when my dad cut the boards.  This left us with a raw edge of wood that had not been weathered by seasons of snow and rain and sun and dirt:

Now, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a painter (as in: artist painter, not wall painter.) So I was pretty sure I could have (*gulp* stay with me here) faux-finished (Ptooey!  I can’t believe I just said that word!) the edges.  But then I saw a tutorial here for aging wood using ingredients found in your pantry (or my parent’s pantry.  Whatever.  When I work there I have a garage and free babysitting…) I really wanted to give it a shot.

You just put a little steel wool in some white vinegar and leave it for 24 hours.  Then you come back AAAAND…. it looks exactly the same!!!  But you trust all those smart chemist geeks out there and assume SOMETHING has happened.

Then you coat the raw wood with black tea, followed by some of the steel-wooly-vinegar. And THENNNN…. nothing happens again!!!  So you walk away for about an hour mumbling something about “Gee, Chemistry, I really hope you pull through for me this time.”

And good old chemistry.  It does. (Though you can’t see it too well in this picture.)

For some reason the finish was a little blotchy for me (I think the liquids were just absorbed better in some spots), but it still looked 99% better.  So I added one last coat of Varathane aaaand….

VOILA!

(Stay tuned until tomorrow to see what I’m “Voila-ing”.)

Sorry dudes…  But isn’t this post long enough?!

I hinted last week about a wonderful development in the life of my family.

I’d written a while back about our journey towards building a house on the farm.  For years it’s been a dream of ours (me and Sean), and we’ve had one huge hang-up: the Rural Municipality council was not allowing us to build.

Well, over the last few months because of some changes in the bylaws and with the council, the hard work of my father-in-law, and the grace of God some things changed.  And last week the phone call came from the RM planner.  We have the go-ahead to proceed with subdividing the land and will be able to build.  Praise God!!

I can’t even express all of the feelings I have now.  It’s like a quiet bubbling of rejoicing in my heart.

This is just the first step of many… but the ability to take this step is exhilarating (as first steps always are!)  Just a few of the things to do now are:

• Subdivide the land
• Gather house prices and assess our mortgage capability
• Map out where the house will go on the land
• Get utilities brought in, and possibly digging a basement
• Sell our condo
• Order our house
• And probably a million details in between…

So the process has only just begun… BUT IT’S BEGUN!!

Hooray!

(Enjoy some of my favourite interior pictures today - many I’ve posted before, sorry - from my house inspiration files.  You might also want to check out my “20 Things” series.  Just click on the tag at the bottom of the linked post to see more.)