The Tour - Part 1

The next rooms that I'll show you are the pantry/mudroom and our breakfast nook.  First is the pantry/mudroom, which is (in my opinion) one of the best rooms in the house.  This is the room that greets visitors when they enter our house, and Jordan built both pretty and functional coat and shoe racks by the door. 

There's also a whole wall of cabinets with doors made of chicken wire with blue & white gathered gingham fabric behind them.  This hides all of our food and a bunch of other kitchen paraphenalia.  With exposed beams and dried lavender hanging from the ceiling, this room has a decidedly rustic European look.

 

Next is our breakfast nook, which is right off the kitchen.  I got the cool wood/metal table from Farm Chicks, an annual antiques/craft show held in Spokane each year. 

We've hung a cottage-style plate rack on the wall, and I've filled that with blue & white platters I've picked up here and there, along with a collection of burleighware.  (Thanks Kim!)

The needlepoint work of our home that Jordan's sister made has a place of honor in this room, and it is flanked by curtains made from one of my favorite french-inspired fabrics. (Thanks to Jordan's Mom, who made almost all of the curtains in our home). 

Stay tuned...

Good News... or Bad News?

Good news first.  After almost exactly 5 years of toil, sweat, and tears, we are overjoyed to announce that our house is finished, just about...  Of course there are a few exterior projects to complete, but even that list of projects has gotten quite short.  We are thrilled and have actually taken off two nights in a row in honor of this auspicious occasion.

As promised several months ago, I'll start posting some pics of our home.  First is the kitchen, starting with the view you can see as you walk in the side door from the pantry:

Next the fridge (cleverly made into a cabinet by Jordan),

which is next to the sink:

Here's a close-up of that really cool "Rise -n- Shine" sign painted on an old cutting board - one of my favorite accents in this room.

As you can see, we chose not to have any overhead cabinets (there's plenty of storage in the pantry and dining room), so Jordan threw together this adorable plate rack that is hanging over the beautiful pine chest that my friend Cynthia gave us.

Lastly, we have a couple of french chairs flanking the woodstove.  This is one of the coziest places in the house, especially in cool weather.  It's also a good view of the super cute curtains that Jordan's Mom made for us.

Now for the "bad" news (or maybe we'll just call it the neutral news).  We've been frantically working on our home because we've decided to sell it.  There are so many reasons for our decision, and I'll talk about them more in a later post.  For now, we are enjoying this relatively quiet few weeks in our lives, grateful for our years here.  It could take months/years to sell this very custom and unique house (for this area anyway), and we are planning on enjoying every moment.  We hope you enjoy it, too!

Vacation - Portland and Seattle

We spent the last few days of our trip jumping from city to city on our way home.  Our first stop was Portland, where the kids enjoyed the hotel pool and I scored some great finds at the local IKEA.  We also stopped to see the breathtaking Multnomah Falls.

It was then a short drive to Seattle, where our first stop was the NorthWest Wildlife Trek.  Half of this park is laid out in a traditional zoo design, where Thane was thrilled to see cougars, wolves, bears and beavers.  Annabel, on the other hand, had a completely different favorite - a skunk!  The other half of the park consists of an enclosed acreage where trams shuttle people close to animals native to this region.  We even spied some of Santa's reindeer (aka caribou) munching at a roadside deli.  I guess that we aren't the only ones who like to go on vacation!

The next morning, Jordan and I were thrilled to eat at Pike Place Market,

while the kids were measurably more impressed with our ride on the bayside ferris wheel.  Next we took that large ferry to Bainbridge Island for lunch at a little charcuterie.
Alas, all good times must come to an end.  Thus, it was with heavy hearts (and even heavier body mass!) that we waved goodbye to Seattle and headed east toward home.  We had one more important stop, though.  Old family friends, the Shores, live almost halfway between Seattle and Colville, and we couldn't pass through without visiting.  After a lovely evening with Aunt Michelle (Uncle Kelly was working out of town), we enjoyed our first restful night's sleep since our journey began10 days before.

 

The old saying is true: there is no place like home.  Yes, we are glad to be sleeping in our own beds again, but we will treasure the memories of this time together for years to come.

Vacation - the Redwoods

After a blissful few days at the beach, we headed down the stunning Pacific Coastal Highway to Crescent City, California.  We made this seaside village our base while exploring some of the Redwood forests.  First, we spotted a herd of elk in a meadow just off the highway, where we met a game warden who kindly took the only photo that we have of the four of us on vacation.  As you can see, Thane was a bit camera-shy...

Shortly thereafter, we hiked a 3.5 mile trail through some old growth Redwoods.  Words and pictures cannot begin to accurately convey the sheer size and grandeur of these beauties - and we weren't even seeing the BIG ones!
 
I'm sure that Annabel & Thane will remember at least part of this awe-inspiring visit, but they were markedly less enthusiastic about the view than we were.  Why, you ask?  Well, while Jordan and I got muscle cramps from craning our necks to gaze at the giants surrounding us, the kids were enthralled with a decidedly different part of the forest - the tiny tree snails and clover that riddled the ground below.  Go figure!

After a restorative lunch, we headed out to see a California beach, where the kids were certain that they would discover entirely different classes of shells and sea life.  Shockingly, the beach in California looked much like the ones we saw in Oregon!  They were, however, delighted to visit this beautiful lighthouse.

Lastly, we had just enough time to walk to the end of the local jetty, where we watched massive pelicans fishing, sea lions bobbing in the rolling waves and dolphins jumping for joy.

Vacation - Cannon Beach

It's been a LONG time since we had a family vacation, and after all of the work we've put into finishing the house, we definitely felt like a holiday was long overdue.  So we packed the truck, dragged the kids out of bed (at the ungodly hour of 3:00am - UGH!) and headed west to Cannon Beach, Oregon.  I love the ocean.  Period.  But there is something incredibly majestic about the Oregon coast, where steep hills and cliffs meet the sea.
 
As kids who grew up near the ocean (Alaska and Maine), it seemed so odd to be teaching our landlubber kiddos the mysteries of the tide, tidal pools and all manner of coastal life.

Perhaps the best part of this phase of our vacation was the chance the kids had to play with Daddy, who (for once) didn't have a half million house/farm projects on his hands.  Building sand castles (or hovels, as the case may be),

  and playing tag were big hits on the beach.

Of course, no beach experience would be complete without a trip to the local creamery for a cold, delicious treat.