Cottage Style Home Part II...Including a Keeping Room and Stone Trim for the Bathtub

Welcome to 'part II' of our tour of my friend, Laurie's brand new custom home. They did so much of the detail work themselves and chose such beautiful colors, stains, surfaces and treatments, that I couldn't resist sharing them with you. This is a view from the side of their new home. The grass had not yet been put in here but you can see all the pretty gables from here. It looks just like a storybook cottage to me. :o)

One of the things Laurie especially wanted, that I had never heard of, was a 'keeping' room off to the side of the huge kitchen / dining area.  This is going to be a nice cozy place for the adults to visit in while the teens and children hang out in the livingroom.  It will be a great place to 'have tea'. ( Can't wait!) Laurie loves having tea with her only daughter, and her friends.  It will have a gorgeous antique roll-top desk, a sofa, and a round old oak table in it.

Isn't the stained cement floor lovely?

I love this fireplace. It's gas-powered--just turn on the switch and Voila!

Can you imagine waking up to this view every morning? This is the masterbedroom. I can tell you those windows are tall because I stood on a huge five-gallon paint drum and scraped paint off of them. Laurie had a huge crew of friends who were able to drop by and scrape or clean. It would have been a bad job by herself for sure!  This paint color is one of my favorite in the whole house!

This mirror was the most beautiful one in the house! It's a work of art by itself. And I think the granite counter tops are perfect!  Laurie had unpacked most of the bathroom when I went over the other day. And what do you think she used the empty spaces at the bottom for? Beautiful rolled earthtone bath towels. Isn't that a great idea?

 Laurie's husband applied this paneling to the side of the tub. I was so impressed with his work. It wasn't as hard as you might think. But the stone edge was something Laurie couldn't wait to show me. She picked and arranged each piece of the rough stone for the edge. The marble tub edge is just so attractive to me!  I watched Scott work while I cleaned their huge bathroom window. It was etched with a squiggly pattern for privacy but made for a fun job when it came time to get the paint spray off. They did have all the windows covered, but sometimes stuff still got through.

 This was another super feature of their new home--so many beautiful built in shelves in the closets! And with windows too!

 Of course, there are two stories to this lovely home. This is the view of the back side of the livingroom.  Their heirloom piano and a fabulous piece of art go between these two huge bookshelves. The adjustable shelves hadn't been put in yet because she ran out of brass tabs.

 

Here's the first landing and on our right is a spacious and wide closet with lots of shelves from top to bottom. Very handy! And the floor here is all very carefully stained wood. I'll have to show you a photo later when it's all varnished. It looks like a farm house floor. It really is spectacular. My photo doesn't do it justice.

Laurie's house has such pretty gables--several of them. They make the game room look much more interesting because of the resulting angles.  This is the hallway leading to the game room. 

 

Laurie and her husband have two teenage boys and two younger children, 12, and 8. This will be a great place for them to hang out with their friends don't you think?  Here's another good look at the flooring they installed. It really is incredible!  This floor hasn't been sealed yet.

 Here the wood floor has been sealed. I love this floor!  This family has worked so many hours on the floors!

Here's the kids' upstairs bathroom. Actually, they have two. One for the boys and one for their daughter (whose room doubles as a guest room).

 

Yesterday, I forgot to include the dining room which over looks the backyard. You should see the beautiful long table that goes here. It's stunning!

You can see a good view of the dining area in this photo. Ruth is mopping floors and Jacob, my son, is standing  next to Laurie. Laurie was his debate coach the last three years.   The keeping room is off in the background to the right of the dining room.

And before we go I just had to show you the exquisite detailing on ALL the doors in this house. It makes this house feel so homey and even a little 'aged'.  This was the look Laurie was looking for--like a big old house from bygone days. 

  When she gets all moved in, I'll do another tour.    As it is, the office/library that I helped organize, the huge hallway, and the lovely paint colors of her daughter and son's rooms (not shown), are all not pictured. Some of them were not finished when I took this set of pictures.

Can you see the pale pink of these walls? It's almost peachy pink...perfect for a little girl!

 

Well, have a great weekend, take time to worship the Lord, and take a little time to rest too. I'll see you on Monday with some before and after photos of my new sewingroom/office. I've got a brand new huge U-shaped worktable and desk! It's a gift from Laurie. They didn't need it after they got their new office which has built in shelves (tons of them) and a built in desk.  Tim put it together today and I have had a really fun time organizing all my fabric, crafts and sewing projects of which I have many. Yipes!  But for now, it's the weekend and time to relax.  See you Monday!

Happy Homemaking!