Barn door coffee table

You might remember when Brad and I found this old barn door at an antique store last year that we just couldn't pass up.  We tossed several ideas around as far as what to use it for but the easiest and most practical was to make it into a coffee table.  We thought we would find something that could serve as the base but after looking for quite a while at antique and junk stores we didn't find anything.  So we decided to have Stan, the man who made our stair railing, make a base for it.  

It seemed really big at first but now I'm getting used to it and like it a lot.

Some of the things we found that could have been used as the base would have definitely competed with the actual door but this simple design compliments it well.  And he just used leftover material from our railing.

The door is NOT perfect and even has a couple of somewhat dangerous details. This piece of metal could hurt someone.  We may need to offer all guests a Tetanus shot as they enter our home.

And this sticks out just far enough to get someone's leg as they round the corner.  That someone will probably be Brad....  Luckily the one at the other end of the table is almost completely rotted off.  I'm guessing this end was the top of the door since it's basically still in perfect condition.

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It's challenging to decorate because of the two raised panels but I'll deal with that just to know that no one else has the exact same coffee table as us.  

I do wish I knew the story behind it.  The lady we bought it from told us she rescued it from a pile that was about to be burned.  So I guess it's true that one man's junk is another man's treasure. 

I'm so behind!

I'm way behind on here!  The house is almost finished and once it is, I'll take photos of everything.  But for now, here are some updated ones.....

Everyone takes forever to do their part.  You would think the economy is booming because no one needs work.  The man who built our stair and porch rail took FORever it seemed like.  But he finally finished and we love it.  I was afraid it was going to look like a cattle gate but I don't think it does now that it's in place.

The kitchen is almost finished.  Once we got the zinc top for the island, it made all the difference.  Woodunique near Hot Springs made it and we had to meet them in Little Rock to pick it up.  Brad and I carried it in and I swear it weighed about 10,000 pounds.  But it was also worth the wait.  It looks as good as I imagined it would!  This is something I really wanted and Brad wasn't sure about but he really likes it too.  

There really has been a lot of change and I plan on posting more pics in the next couple weeks.  I want to have everything on this blog so that we can look back and see how the process went.

First fire

The fireplace is finally finished and we waited two days before trying it out.  It was in the 70's here today, but that didn't stop us.  

The mantle is about 7 feet long and I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate it.  I don't want it to look cluttered and it needs to compliment the stag.   And reality is I have bigger things to be concerned with at the moment than that. (STILL no vent hood!!)

You can't tell in the top picture because it's so dark but the top, middle rock is shaped like Arkansas.  We love it!  The brick layers did it without asking which we thought was funny because Brad and I had talked about trying to find an AR shaped rock to use either on the fireplace or somewhere around the front door. 

I wasn't the one who wanted the fireplace but the pyro in me sat and watched the fire all night!  This thing might get used way more than I first thought!

Big changes

I think we've had the most productive week yet this week.  The biggest news is that our countertops came in and we have sinks!  With running water!!

I know this looks like "just a sink" but that's the point!  We've only had bathroom sinks for the last two months.  

Laundry room sink.  Both the sink and faucet are from Ikea.

It's the Numerar sink and I love the washboard in it and also how deep it is. 

This side of the laundry room is actually finished.  You can see in the reflection of the dryer that the cabinets on the sink side don't have doors.  The cabinet guys were drilling holes for all of the handles and drilled in the wrong place on all of the doors in here.  We were SO close to having a room finished.

Speaking of sinks and being close to having a room finished....we finally got the powder room sink installed after having it sit in boxes since the week we moved in.

And it's the wrong sink.  

I would have just kept it if I liked it at all.  But I don't like the curve at the front.  So now we have to wait 6 weeks for the right one.

The appliances came yesterday.  We got everything from Shay's here in Mountain Home.

The fridge is large and in charge!  I had hoped that it wouldn't look so big once it arrived but it does.  Oh well, it was still the best deal so that makes me happy.

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to read the manual for this thing cover to cover.  But once I figure it out, I think I'm going to really like it.  I love the double drawers!

And here's the range.  I can't use it yet because the vent hood isn't installed and who knows when it will be.  I won't go into all the trouble the vent hood has caused because I want to pretend building a house is fun.    I'll just say the builder and I don't see eye to eye on this......

So since we finally had sinks and I could actually do dishes I decided to cook dinner tonight!  Brad had been talking about lasagna for a week so that's what we had.  

Obviously, I could have used these small appliances all along but I didn't have a way to do dishes so I couldn't have washed anything.  The thought of washing dishes in a dishpan in the bathtub disgusts me so bad that I'd rather do without a home cooked meal than do that.

I do believe this is the first time in my life that I was excited to do dishes!  I'm pretty sure that I won't take my sinks for granted for quite some time.

The fireplace was also installed this week.  I would have been fine with gas logs but Brad wouldn't have it.  So it has a gas starter but will burn wood.  We'll see if we actually use it.  The brick layers are supposed to here next week to put the rock on and I think the mantle will be here too.  It actually came in last week but somehow got lost and our builders never got it.

We've had our eye on the Iron Stag from Restoration Hardware for a while.  We went to the store while we were in Dallas last week and I asked about it again. I knew it was online only but was glad I asked.  It happened to be on sale and they gave us free shipping!  

I thought it was going to be a while before it shipped but it arrived today!  We LOVE it!

And if all of this wasn't enough, Brad found the two lampshades that I've been looking for since the first week we moved in!!   I had decided that they'd fallen off the moving truck.  

A GRAY house!!!

Things are starting to happen around here again.  It's been SO SLOW and frustrating the last couple weeks.  The house is still so far from being finished, yet no one shows up to do anything.  

Luckily, I got away from it all last week and didn't have to think about the state of affairs at Coppercreek.  I was in Little Rock and Dallas for seven days and while I was gone, some things actually got finished!

When I left, it was still the house of many colors....

Still only partially painted.  And the gas tank was only partially buried.

But when I got home, the brick was painted!

It's finally a gray house!  FINALLY!  

  

The gas tank is still not buried which is why all the red dirt is still visible in this pic.

We told the painters that we wanted the garage doors painted but we thought they forgot.  Turns out, they painted them the color of the trim.  We wanted them painted gray.  I guess that little detail wasn't communicated properly.  

I would like to point out that both trucks AND the tractor are in the garage while my car sits outside.  :(

The electrician also came back and put our front porch light up.  I love it!  You can't tell in this picture very well, but the floor up by the door is still not finished.  Paul said it would be 2-3 weeks before the wood came in for that.  Now that we are a year into this project, I know that means we shouldn't expect it until a couple days before Christmas.

Finally, something to talk about

We've been in the house a month now and are still living without "normal" amenities.  You can't even believe how aggravating it is to live without a kitchen sink.  But Monday we started getting our kitchen cabinets and today almost all of the others!    I hope the appliances come soon!  

Kitchen from the sunroom looking at where the refrigerator will be.

Even though its far from being finished, I already love it!  The gray turned out PERFECT!!  We used Fulbright Cabinet Shop in Mount Pleasant and they did a fantastic job.  I didn't plan on having him build the vent hood cover initially, but it was more inexpensive to go that route and now I'm happy we did.  I like the plain look of it with the shaker style cabinets we went with.

It will still be a couple of weeks before we get the countertops and even longer for the island.  But it finally resembles a kitchen so I'm happy!

The pantry.  We should get the countertops for these tomorrow.  There will be a hutch-type shelf on the left for food and open top shelves on the right.  I wanted open shelves instead of top cabinets in the kitchen but Brad said no so we compromised and are putting them in here.

The laundry room.  They're not that exciting but I'm doing open upper shelves in here too and it looks good in my head!  The countertop for this room came in broken so we'll have to wait for that as well.

Island in the master closet. I really like how this turned out.  All of the cabinets need drawer pulls/handles but this piece is kind of screaming for them!  But I think all of our clothes will fit in it just fine. There are drawers on both sides and a shoe shelf for Brad on the other side.  The closet has looked oddly large but this makes it look perfect!  There will be electrical outlets on both ends and we'll probably have to put a glass top on it for protection.  

We have had the dryer hooked up to our gas grill gas tank all month so it was exciting to get the real gas tank today. However its going to be a while before they get it hooked up to the dryer for some reason.

I've been really bored with the little progress that's been made since we've lived here.  But the brick layers are finally gone (even though they still have some steps to do) and the rock looks great.  I'll try to get a picture of that soon.  Also, you can see in the picture of the gas tank that part of the house is painted and part of it isn't.  It looks crazy right now, but we're waiting for the 30 days to pass so the painters can paint the brick.

Ready or not, here we are...

The house is so far from being finished but we moved in the basement a couple weeks ago anyway.  It is not the most ideal living situation, to say the least, but we're trying to make the best of it.  

This sign was so unexpected and brought a big smile to my face when we pulled in on moving day.  Our friend Jennifer was in MH visiting her family and was so nice to make this for us!  And then she and Tom came over for pizza a couple nights after that.  They live in Providence, RI and its been way too long since we've seen them so we really enjoyed visiting with them!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next two years that they'll move here after they finish residency.

I promised Brad that I wouldn't keep the sign because I have a bad habit of giving things like this sentimental value and keeping them forever.  I took it down and told myself to toss it, but then I noticed it was the perfect size to put on the fridge in the garage.  So that's where its at for now!