kitchen 18 months later

I've been living in the house now for a bit over a year and a half. The kitchen counters are holding up incredibly well. They are made of antique wood from the barn floor. I oil them about once a month or less with mineral oil and keep standing water from pooling up on them. It's less of a hassle than I imagined and it has the added benefit of keeping the counters clean and free of junk. I use cutting boards for chopping and oil them when I do the counters. There is a pantry with a sliding door on the far side of the fridge and between that and the "multiuse chamber" above the oven, I have plenty of food storage space. The rest is all open storage on shelves under the counters. Garbage and recycling are in a pullout under the sink. I still need to finish the door trim.

lowest impact xmas tree

All you need is a saw, a soup can and 2 nails. I picked a tree that was starting to shade out my blueberry bushes. Hung it from the ceiling beam and nailed a can onto the bottom for water. It's wired from the second floor balcony.

moon and stars

I finally hooked up my grandpa's 50's Sputnik chandelier in the main room. It hangs from the walkway to the raised porch. I'm waiting on getting the star shaped bulbs that were made for it, they still make them but they're pricey. Anyone know of a cheap source?

snowflake

Al and I cut some drainage channels into the shower floor to hopefully keep the shower water from making it's way down the hall. The slab is pretty much flat so I may eventually have to rent a floor grinder to pitch the whole surface toward the drain a bit. It's not been much of a problem so far even without the new channels. I put a towel across the hall side and just squeegee the water toward the drain when I'm done. I can cut more channels if I need to as well.

view from shower

Here's the view from the shower tonight and on the first day of spring this year. So that twice a year the sun sets directly down the hall... like Stonehenge. I'll try and post the same view soon, but during daylight hours. I finally painted the main room sliders the same shade as the walls, which helps make them disappear.

downstairs toilet

I'm about done with the downstairs bath suite. I reused the planks from a bench to make the shelves. For the ceiling I used up the rest of the scrap corrugated roofing that I had laying around. Only thing left to install is the GFI outlet above the toilet.

indoor shower

Just in time for fall, I'm finally able to take a shower indoors. I stuccoed the wall that has the fixtures on it and covered the other 2 walls in galvanized metal roofing panels. There's a 4x4 ft. skylight above it that makes it seem like an outdoor shower. I still need to cut channels into the concrete floor to help drain water but I'm able to take quick "navy showers" for now.
Above the oven I added a matching "multi-use chamber" from Viking. I couldn't say no to the 50 dollar price, it retails for $1150! It's meant to hide your cheap and ugly microwave, but since I don't own one, it's a pretty fancy bread box.