My husband and I have always wanted to own a large property with a rambler. And better yet, build our dream rambler on said property. So when the opportunity presented itself - we knew we had to jump on it! EVEN if that meant living in a 29ft toy-hauler travel trailer while it was being built. Yes. A travel trailer, with 3 kiddos under the age of 5! (What were we thinking?!)
After 48 hours of being on the market, our home was sold, and the clock started. We had 30 days to get into our new tiny home. With a few modifications, this place was going to be home and we couldn't be more excited for the adventures ahead!
For whatever reason, travel trailers especially if you're buying used, don't have the most modern interior. The interior is dark and I knew if we were going to be confined to a small space for months on end, it needed to be light and bright no matter how dirty my children were going to make it! We primed and painted the cabinets from brown to white, installed a larger stainless steel sink in in the kitchen and bathroom, added marble contact paper to the countertops, and painted the entire interior to a light grey. To top it off, we found some stone stick-on tile for a backsplash in the kitchen and bath. With these few modifications, the trailer actually started feeling like a home. If you need any storage/organizational tips >>> I'm your gal!! I could probably write an entire blog on tiny-house tips alone! (Maybe that'll come next!) #dakertrailer
Like a lot of construction jobs, things come up. You plan, prep, and pray. Then wait. Then plan, prep, and pray again. With more waiting. If I earned a $1 for every time someone told us to "expect the build to take longer" or "to be patient", we'd be rich! While we hired a builder to help us with this job, there were a few areas we were able to take responsibility for. And boy, we were itching to get our hands dirty!! Again, we could totally write a blog series on home building alone. If you have any questions >> I'm your gal! I'd be happy to share tips and resources for you. (We'll start working on another blog just on home building! Stay tuned!) #dakerhomestead
We settled on a 2300 sq ft rambler, and decided to modify the existing layout to create one large open living space. We added a wall between the kitchen and traditional dining room to make it into a front office with french doors. Cory also convinced me to add on a 3rd bay in the garage for more storage and extra work-space for all our fun #HarvestHomesDesign projects! A few months after foundation was poured, our walls were up, roof had been added, and sheetrock was being installed. We were on deck, and we couldn't have been more excited!
Cory got right to painting the exterior siding. We chose a light grey, with a dark grey trim. Inside we wanted to keep it neutral using grey as our base pallet. In the large living space and bathrooms we kept it a light grey with white trim, and in the bedrooms we went with a darker grey to keep those areas nice and cozy. The flooring we went with was a wide plank laminate click-in with rich/warm wood tones. We went with carpet in the bedrooms because... we live in Washington and it's cold. (haha!) And for the bathrooms we didn't have a lot of choices through our builder, but we settled on a vinyl sheet flooring which can be easily upgraded once we have more time for our own projects!
Here's the deal. I'm not a cook. But I like the IDEA of cooking. And to be quite honest, I'm finally in a season of life where I don't have a baby on my hip 24/7 and actually have time to cook a full-blown meal and eat it too! HALLELUJAH. Though I still can't seem to down a full cup of coffee without reheating FIVE times before noon. #Momlife #NeedMoreCoffee
But I digress...
I could not wait to get the kitchen cabinets and countertops installed. We went with a classic white kitchen. Shaker white cabinets with nickle finishes, and for contrast we settled on a charcoal grey grout. Same countertops and backsplash for the bathrooms but with a grey shaker cabinet instead. OH HOW I WISH we had done the backsplash ourselves... the crew that came did not clean up which ended up leaving a black residue/stain on our beautiful quartz. I was devastated. After a few months of waiting and trying different products, we finally were able to get the stain out! Going from the trailer which had NO food prep space, to a kitchen of this size took some getting used to! But I can only imagine the get-together's, mommy-daughter baking days, and holiday meal preps we will enjoy in that kitchen some day!!
We were almost done - and WAY past our original completion date - BUT still just as excited to make this house a home by putting our own finishing touches on it. The next few weeks would be a mad rush to the finish line... and to Hobby Lobby! HA! #HobbyLobby #AmazonHome #Wayfair #Target
As Cory completed our deck off the back (pics 1 & 2 - I just adore the hog-wire fencing - it gives us a full view of the gorgeous foliage in our backyard), and after I took my shopping to a whole new level (Pic 3 - that was FUN!), we put the #dakertrailer up for sale. We pulled everything out of storage which looked so dinky in the garage (pic 4), and started unpacking. Looking back, at what seemed like an eternity at the time, we were finally in our new home!!
In 15 months time our dream home was complete! Well... at least the bones of it! I'm sure we'll be adding and tweaking to our home for years to come. We can't help it! Like this piece we recently inherited - this sweet old church pew had been sitting in Cory's grandparent's home for nearly 60 years. It's said to have come from an old Nazarene church in Burien, WA. It gets #allthehearteyes.
I can't wait to share our home with more friends and family! Our dream is to have a place where all our friends and family will gather and share life. It's been such a blessing to open our home - we hope you'll give us the opportunity to help create a space for you to do the same!