The Cabin: Next Steps

The Cabin: Next Steps

Oh goodness you guys. I wrote this post last weekend and totally forgot to publish it! The first full week of Joey’s preschool really messed up my normal routine … and my mind, haha!

Well, I wanted to let you know that as things start to settle down after a busy wedding season (my day job) and the start of a new school year, Andy and I are eager to get back to the cabin soon. I’ve been thinking a lot about what jobs we’ll prioritize while we’re there, so I figured I’d fill you in on what we have left to do. There’s always something, right!!??

The cabin kitchen is obviously still our biggest priority. At this point you’ve seen that we finished most of the cabinets, the countertops, the sink and most of the appliances, woo! But there’s still quite a bit left to do:

Finish the cabinets — you may remember we had to rearrange the cabinets a little bit due to some electrical issues, moving one cabinet to the right of the refrigerator and adding a second, new one next to it. We installed both cabinets but still need to finish them with the door-fronts from Semihandmade and …

Add the countertop to the new cabinets — that set of new cabinets also doesn’t have a countertop yet. We have just enough (hopefully) of the wood butcherblock-like countertop we used in the rest of the kitchen to finish this end as well. Eek, I really do hope we have enough!

Organize the drawers — like our own kitchen, we decided to do almost entirely drawers rather than standard cabinets, because drawers are so much easier to use, to keep tidy, and to see what’s in there — no lost items in the back corners! We stopped at Ikea recently and picked up some drawer organizers for silverware, etc., so I’m excited to start putting away all the kitchen things I’ve been collecting over the last few weeks.

Figure out the window situation — there’s an old window in the kitchen that was hiding behind the cabinets. We’ve honestly been a little too scared to open it up yet to see what we’re really dealing with! The guys who are handling our bathroom renovation are actually going to take care of this project for us.

Add floating shelves — we knew early on that we did not want upper cabinets, since they add a ton of visual weight to a tiny little kitchen and we don’t think we need *that* much storage for a vacation home/rental. But we do want some wall shelves, for sure. We still need to figure out exactly where we want them to go and get them installed, preferably before we do the next step which is …

Tiling — this is by far the biggest job left to do and it’s a really big job. Because the walls of the kitchen are log, we will need to float plywood sheets on top of the logs and then tile directly on the plywood instead of doing any sort of drywall like you’d do in a “normal” kitchen.

Outside the kitchen we have plenty of projects to keep us busy, too:

Paint the fireplace — we’ve picked a color, a deep navy to match the kitchen cabinets from Seminhandmade, so this will be a relatively easy project to do the next time we’re in town. I’m really excited to get this done. We’re also going to remove the mantle and mount the TV. And we desperately need to replace the fireplace screen.

Add a fun mural to the downstairs bedroom wall — I’m reallyyyy excited about this project we’ve been dreaming up for months and want to get it done already. And no, I’m not telling you what we’re doing… you’ll have to wait and see!!!

Organize the laundry room — our laundry room is a tiny little space that’s ugly as all get out and not efficient at all. It’s right next to the front door and one of the first things you see when you walk in (eye roll), so I need it to look way better than it does now, while also packing as much function as possible. Ooh, the ultimate tricky situation. Oh and whatever we do has to be super easy, super cheap and super cute. No problem, right?

Renovate the bathroom — now, this is a HUUUUUGE project that we are definitely NOT doing ourselves. We’re working with a contractor who was originally aiming to start in August, but due to delays with the tile, and then delays when they got bogged down with other projects, it’s been pushed back to the winter, which is actually better for us because it doesn’t impact our time there. As things get closer we’ll talk way more about the plan details, but basically the entire room is moving around. The toilet is moving to where the shower is now. The shower is moving to where the bedroom closet is now. Even an exterior door is moving! Yeah, it’s a big job and it’s going to be soooooo goooooood!

I’m sure I’m forgetting a whole bunch of things, but there is obviously still PLENTY to keep us busy for a while! Since we can’t really drive/stay up there during the harsh winter months from mid-November to around March/April, we’re definitely hoping to get up north a few more times while we can this fall.