The rain shower is our favorite! The shower head is 10" in diameter and feels so relaxing. If we had to pick just one shower head to keep in the shower, it would be the rain shower.
Body Sprays
The shower includes four adjustable body sprayers on Gary's side of the shower. Debi doesn't mind that they are on Gary's side because she can still take advantage of the sprayers from her side of the shower. The body sprays can be adjusted to hit all the right spots.
Debi's side of the shower
Debi's side of the shower includes a hand-held shower head that is useful for rinsing out the tub, or washing down the shower walls. (You can see the hand-held shower head resting on the bench that Gary built to make it easier for Debi to shave her legs.) Gary made the shower head on Debi's side of the shower shorter than normal to be more comfortable for her petite 5'2" frame.
Gary's Side of the Shower
Gary made the main shower head on his side of the shower the perfect height for him.
The Soaking Tub
Many people advised us to order a whirlpool bathtub for our master bathroom, but we prefer a deep soaking tub. We are pleased with our choice. It is very relaxing to sit in a deep tub and just soak in the warm water.
The whole walk-in shower feels like a spa! We never run out of hot water either because Gary installed a tankless water heater in the log cabin.
How fun! This just happens to be the 100th blog post and it's the happiest one yet! Today (November 1st ) is Debi's birthday and she received the best birthday present from Gary (and the county building inspector). The log home was permitted for "occupancy". This means the county deems our home safe and complete enough to move in! So, that's what we did over the Halloween weekend--move our things up to the new log home. It will seem like Christmas when we finally find the things that we haven't seen in five years. Debi is wondering if she will ever find her bread maker. We had one at our old house in Baldy Mesa, and it's been in storage ever since we moved to the Oak Hills house in 2005. We still haven't found it, but we will slowly move the boxes up from the storage unit and see what we have. In the meantime, we were able to sleep in our log bed this weekend.
The master bathroom is still not complete, and the county required that we take out an additional building permit just for the bathroom in order to move in this weekend. We had to pay $95 for the permit, but we figure that a nice hotel room is about $100, and it was worth it to us to be able to move in as soon as possible. Gary will finish the master bathroom shower and toilet during the next few weeks. We are hoping that it will be completed by Thanksgiving.
We've included some interior pictures showing how the "house" is becoming a "home".
Handmade Quilt
Debi's mom made a quilt especially for our log home. She made it in 2009, but we weren't in the log home yet. We saved the quilt to use for the first time this weekend.
Close-up of the Quilt
Debi's mother, Doris Greenwood, made this quilt from an original design made by her cousin, Heidi Durtschi Peterson. Debi's great grandmother, Clara Durtschi, immigrated from Switzerland and spent many years in the Teton Valley of eastern Idaho (near the Wyoming border). The Teton Valley mountains have an interesting story behind their name--you will have to figure it out for yourself, but it has something to do with "teats".
Our Log Bed
Our master bedroom is so cozy--complete with a log bed and bedside lamps that look like they stepped right out of the 1800's.
The Big Screen TV
It's not all old-fashioned decor in the log cabin! Nothing like a good football game on a big screen TV to make you really feel at home. This particular game was Notre Dame versus Oklahoma. At this point in the game, Notre Dame looked strong, but they lost the game in the last few seconds.
Master Bathroom Sink Faucets
We finally were able to get the bathroom sink faucets that we wanted. They look like little miniature pumps.
Close-up of Faucet
This picture showsa close-up of the faucet with the water running! The faucets look really amazing in person and add a lot of charm to the bathroom.
Piano in the Living Room
It is nice to have the piano in a different room from the TV. Gary built a large wooden pocket door between the two rooms to act as a sound barrier. Debi can be playing the piano and not disturb Gary when he is watching TV.
We are thrilled to be living in our new home. It still has many finishing touches to add: Flooring; rock around the wood stove; rock above the master bathroom sinks; rock around the exterior front door; rock around the log pillars; slate in the master bathroom shower; slate around the master bedroom fireplace; slate and rock around the kitchen pantry; pantry door installed; trim around all the interior doors; baseboard in all the rooms; kitchen cupboards; new kitchen island; new refrigerator; new oven; new microwave; new dishwasher; new stove top....the list goes on and on, but all that takes time and money--mostly money--so it will be several years before our dream home is complete. In the meantime, we are enjoying the warmth, comfort, and space of our log cabin!
Gary installed our new wood-burning stove today. It wasn't supposed to come in until next week, but the fireplace store got their shipment in a week early, so he went and picked it up and had it installed by the time Debi got home from school. We had our first fire in it tonight. You can barely see the flames in this picture, but there is a real fire in it!Someday we will have rock on that concrete board behind the wood stove.
Master Bedroom Gas Fireplace
Our master bedroom has a gas fireplace on the wall. We will use it mostly for a romantic atmosphere, but it does put out enough heat to keep our small bedroom toasty. The white thermostat on the wall (left side of this photo) can be set so that it comes on automatically when the room reaches a preset temperature. We will have slate installed all around the fireplace--one of these days!
Two Fires at Once!
Gary took this photo to show both fires at the same time--one in our master bedroom, and the other in our great room.
Our New Doorbell
Gary installed the doorbell earlier this week. It has a pine cone emblem on it. The "theme" for our log cabin is pine trees and pine cones, so when we saw this doorbell at Cabela's last summer, we just had to have it!
When we get the final permit signed off, and get permission to move in, we will complete the things that weren't required for the final inspection--things such as adding rock to the entry way of the front door, rock inside the front entry way, and some kind of flooring!
This week Gary installed the kitchen sink in the island. We are cooking in the trailer full time now. Hopefully, we will pass our final inspection soon because we've moved the stove, fridge, and two tall cupboards up to the cabin and it's more difficult to cook all our meals in the small trailer kitchen.
A View of the Kitchen Island
Here's what the island looks like as you stand in the dining room. We have moved up the old stove, microwave, refrigerator, and two standing cupboards in order to be ready for the final inspection.
The Kitchen Island as Viewed from the Great Room
As you stand in the great room, this is the view of the kitchen. We have picked out a glass pantry door that will be stained to match the logs--we just need to order it. You can see the shelves in the corner pantry. It will be nice to have space for the food and cooking utensils. We have one more tall white standing cupboard to bring up. When we can afford it, we will have kitchen cupboards installed. There will also be rock installed around the pantry door where you see the concrete board.
Rosemary Landscaping
The rosemary that was planted earlier this spring is coming up with lots of pretty purple flowers. On the bottom level, we have planted periwinkle which also has a shade of light purple flowers.
Landscaping
The rocks and flowering plants are starting to make it feel more like home!
Gary built a corner unit for our TV and all the components. He custom built it for the TV we have now--a 60" screen. If we ever want a bigger TV, we may be out of luck!
Built-in bookshelf
Gary built a bookshelf just to the right of the corner TV unit. This will primarily be for CDs, DVDs, VHS movies (yes, we still have some of those!), and a few books.We aren't required to have the shelves installed for the final inspection, so those will come later.
Kitchen Island
Gary builtthis temporary kitchen island just so we would have something to "pass code" on the final inspection. It's made of cheap pine, stained to match the logs, but since our logs are pine, it actually works! The island is smaller than the permanent one we will eventually have, but it is still plenty big for the two of us. The island will have the kitchen sink installed just prior to the final inspection since we are currently using the sink in our shop kitchen.
After debating about the benefits of granite and butcher block, we decided to go with a butcher block counter top on the permanent island. The cost of granite is just too high for our budget. (The temporary island just has a plywood top, however.)
Can you see the dark walls of the kitchen? We are planning to put painted cabinets in the kitchen rather than wooden cabinets. The accent color of our whole cabin is "hunter green", so we thought it would make a nice touch to paint the kitchen cabinets green. In the meantime (while we wait for Gary to build the cabinets) we will look at hunter green walls so we can decide if we really like that color for cabinets or not.
Kitchen Island
This is a view from the side of the island. We placed four oil lamps--one on each corner of the island--so that you could get an idea of its size. It measures 6'x10', but the permanent island will be a little larger.
Today we had stamped concrete poured on the north and west sides of the house. We can now walk from the front door (on the east) around to the north, and then to the west side (backyard) without touching dirt!
North side of house
This is the north side of the cabin. Gary placed some slate next to the stamped concrete (on the left) to show the colors we hope to use when we stain the concrete, which will be sometime in the future.
West side of house
The sidewalk on the west side will be extended about another six feet--sometime in the future. This will make a nice place to sit on a log bench (carved by Stacey Mitchell--the guy who carved our front door) and watch the setting sun in the western sky. Gary made six-foot overhangs, so we could even enjoy a rainstorm or a snowstorm outside without getting wet!
Over the Labor Day weekend, Gary installed the slate on the top of the master bathroom vanity and on the wall to form a 12" backsplash. Today he sealed the slate. Once the sealer is dry, he will grout and seal the edges. Then he will install the doors and drawers and permanently mount the sinks and faucets. (For the picture, we just placed the sinks in the vanity so we could get an idea of what they will look like once the vanity is complete.)
View of sinks and backsplash
In this photo you can see the concrete board above the backsplash. This will eventually have "cultured stone" (fancy term for "fake rock") on it. There will also be two mirrors and nice lighting--someday!
Side of the vanity
This is the side of the master bathroom vanity. Gary installed slate here so that it will blend in with the walk-in shower, which is just to the left side. You can see the small slate tile on the floor of the shower. You can also see one of the hickory doors on the vanity.
Gary and Debi met on July 31, 1998 and were married four months later on November 27, 1998 in the Oakland Temple.
We had both been married before. Debi was widowed in February 1998 when her husband, Mike Ramsey, died unexpectedly from a heart attack. Gary was divorced and living in Auburn, California. We met because Debi wanted to sell Mike's guns and her sister's husband (Scott) knew that Gary had owned a gun shop in Washington years before. Gary and Scott came down from Sacramento to look at the guns to see what they were worth. Both Gary and Debi felt something special right away and were engaged a week later! (When you know it's right, why wait?)
Now some "little unknown facts" about us...Debi collects "Cinderella" books from other cultures, anything from Disney's "101 Dalmatians", and Christmas nativities from around the world.
Gary collects oil lamps and has over 20 different types. He served in the United States Navy for ten years and was stationed on three different submarines. He can actually say he has lived underwater!
Rain shower
Body Sprays
Debi's side of the shower
Gary's Side of the Shower
The Soaking Tub
