Libler and Son, or is that Libler and Mom?; Part III

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Well, here is the final blog post on our little house in Hudson.  First I should tell you a little more about this project. Hudson is a small town of 500 to 600 people (really I have no idea how close I am, but it is small anyway), the economy is repressed since the local sawmill closed a few years ago.  We were taking a risk building a new house here, but I know what a wonderful little town it is, and I know that others recognize this too.  It is hard for a town to attract buyers when a good house rarely comes on the market.  I truly believed that if we built it they would come.  This being said, we had to be very careful with the budget and do pretty much all the work by ourselves.  There is just nothing like a good challenge! I drew up the plans myself, and believe me, I drew and drew and drew before  I settled on what we built.  We had to keep it fairly small, and felt we couldn't afford to put a basement in it.  If I would have built this house for myself it would have been quite different, but we had to always remember the budget! 

 I personally am not a big fan of open concept, I know that is unheard of these days but I like my kitchen to be a kitchen and not open to the whole house.  There were times that I had to put my own opinion aside and remember that I was creating this house for someone else not for me.  Other times I just said "Too bad, it's my project and this is what I want to do!"  Case in point, the lime green laundry room.  The whole house is blues and browns and I love the colour scheme, but I just felt that it needed a spark of colour. The green is quite a bit brighter than it shows in this picture and although I got mixed reviews, I love it.  The first coat was really intense so I mixed some white paint into it.  It was still pretty bright.  My Mom and Budd felt that I ruined the colour by toning it down, and others thought it was too bright, but many said they liked it, so I will go with that.  The little big of white you can see in the lower right hand corner is the back door, which leads onto a little deck that wraps around to the front of the house to enjoy that beautiful view I showed you last time.  On the right side of the room there is more than enough room to put a freezer.

So I guess I am showing you the house from back to front, next is the kitchen.  I bought unfinished cabinets because I wanted to paint them.  The colour turquoise was really calling me.  At one point I decided against it because it is a pretty personal taste.  I was going to paint them white, but the day I went to buy the paint, my Sister-in-law came with me, I told her I was really having a hard time letting go of the turquoise and she encouraged me to go for it.  After all, that is why I took this on, so I could have creative freedom.  That was all I needed, I went for it. 

 I started painting the cupboards and after I had a few done, while I loved the colour I suddenly felt like it might be a little too much.  That's when I decided to paint the lower cabinets brown,  I am so happy with my decision, and I got a lot of compliments on these colours.  With the exception of Manuel, he asked me why I was painting the cabinets all different colours.  I told him I wasn't, I was painting them two colours.  "Well why are you painting them two colours?" he asked.  "Because I can." was my answer!

We used ceramic on the floor of the laundry room, kitchen, and entrance.

Here is a pic of the drawer pulls I used, I love these!

Kitchen light fixture.  Funny little story about this, when Budd hung it he put it as close to the ceiling as possible.  He kept telling me it was too low, and I kept saying it was fine.  One day my Mom was there and as Budd walked under the light she said she thought he was going to bump his head.  Argh!   That was all I needed!  He didn't bump his head and the light stayed.  Months later when we were showing the house, the client was very tall, over 6'3 I believe, he could walk under the light and not bump his head, so everything was just fine.  I believe that means I won!  Well, doesn't it? ;)

On to the living room.  We painted it a nice calm and neutral colour, and put in 2 big windows to take advantage of the fabulous view. We used a really nice laminate on the floor.

Living room light fixture, light on...

light off. Isn't it cute?

This is pic to show you the colour of the Master bedroom, just a simple room, two windows and two closets.   I didn't add any photos but there are two more bedrooms, one sort of the colour of the lower cabinets, and the other a medium/dark blue.

Here is a shot of the chandelier in the Master.  I love chandeliers and got this one for an excellent price.  I traded out the ugly plastic danglies, for crystal ones off an old chandelier that somebody gave me.

Right next door is the bathroom.  I get so many comments on the bathroom.  We started with 16" porcelain tile.  Anything that is smaller than that, I cut myself. I wanted a little pattern around the top so I cut all the little pieces, and added just a touch of dark brown mosaic tile that I cut apart to make the best use of it.  For the vanity I refinished an old dresser and finished it with several coats of outdoor polyurethane.   I'm not sure if I have better pictures of the vanity.  I took out the drawers, and cut out the dividers between them.  I then dismantled the drawers and just kept the fronts, which I attached all together with the dividers.  I added hinges to one side and it became a door that looks like three drawers. We added a couple of floating shelves to the wall for more storage.

I love this bathroom, I couldn't get pictures that do it justice, so just amp it up in your imagination :)

I love these little light fixtures, got them on sale!

Little corner for the toilet, the walls are so washable!

This is the closet space to the left of the entrance door.  The closet on the left is totally shelves, top to bottom, and the closet on the left is for hanging coats, and for footwear.  I knew that with no basement somebody would need a lot of storage.  I tried to be as practical as possible.  This wallpaper really pulled the whole colour scheme together.

 A shot from the road, just a simple little bungalow with a fabulous view!  I personally, have a dislike for vinyl siding, but this was one of those situations where I had to put my own preferences aside and go with practical.

Very roomy and tidy crawl space, we laid down some old carpet like a sidewalk to protect the poly when somebody needs to go down there.  Such a great place for storage, almost as good as a basement.  People, you must check out the crawlspace before purchasing a home, this is what it should look like!  No spiders or creepy crawlies.  Insulated and vapour barrier.

I loved this project, and would do it all over again, but I would make it one foot wider, yup, that's it.  Well I probably would  put a basement in it and then keep it instead of selling it :)

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