Bohobeachyindustrialwhite Farmhouse?

The man with next to no social media platforms found out about the blog. That’s right, the cat is out of the bag and Dan Kohlen now knows about The House in Canoe. He only uses Pinterest and sometimes Snapchat and he was smart enough to open a link to a picture of our kitchen from my Pinterest! I don’t know why I was waiting so long to tell him, it’s not like this is some significant blog that anyone actually reads! That is besides the point though, I’m here to note some of the things people have been saying about our house (mainly kitchen) after they walk in the front door or see pictures.

I keep envisioning our house being more of a Farmhouse with a little bit of a modern twist. I’m sure with time I will accomplish this, but right now our walls and most of our rooms are fairly empty. With budgeting for the wedding and moving from a house that was about three (if not more) times smaller than this house, I haven’t been able to justify spending money on anything decor related. Once the wedding is over, I will hopefully be able to get a few furniture projects done and maybe start implementing my vision into each room.

I posted the pictures from my Kitchen Progress post on Facebook and people are still going on about how beautiful our kitchen is coming along. People have described it as, “industrial, white, clean and bright.” People walking in the front door have called it, “beachy, chalet feeling, cabin feeling.” I think a lot of the “cabin” feel probably comes from the white Fir tongue and groove vaulted ceiling in our main living area. My style has also been commented on as, “boho, and country.”

I feel as tho my white, industrial, beachy, boho cabin house needs to figure out one style and flow with it in every room. *excuse me while I go shove our buffalo plaid pillows and blanket into the closet until Christmas.*

I’ve been spending any free time I can on Pinterest to try and find some inspo for when I can start spending more money on things for the house. Check out my Perfect Home board for my interior and exterior inspiration.

Kitchen Progress

It’s a good feeling to finally have temporary occupancy. We were living here for a month without it due to the fact our range hood had been back ordered five weeks.

Once it arrived, Dan built a custom wood cover. It is the absolute focal point of our kitchen! I am in love with this space so far. All that’s missing is a pretty tile back splash which will be a winter project. I’m thinking something neutral in colour, but maybe a fun pattern! If not, white subway tile never fails. We will also be installing some sort of cap or crown moulding on the uppers later on.

I was surprised with a beautiful backyard bridal shower a couple weekends ago. The lovely ladies in my life absolutely spoiled me with gifts. I was able to fill all of my cupboards in the kitchen and in our walk in pantry!! Dan had a “nothing on the counter” rule, but once I filled the counter in our pantry I slowly started to unpack a few cute gifts on to the kitchen counter… so far no complaints.

We went with an LG gas range, an LG fridge and a Bosch dishwasher. All stainless steel. We ordered our kitchen from IKEA during their kitchen event and got enough money back in gift cards to purchase four barstools, cushions and the four round mirrors in our bathrooms. Our counter tops also match the bathroom counters. Next house we will do some sort of rock or concrete, but I am very happy with the look of this particular laminate. Hiding on the other side of the island is 6 drawers and 2 big pull outs for recycling because I’m alllll about recycling.

• Island Pendants – C66702MBCL Blop Series by Matteo (I fell in love with a few from this serious, crazy yet classic clear glass shapes)
• Stairwell Pendant – Flynn Oversized Recycled Glass Pendant by Pottery Barn (my favourite light in the whole house)
• Kitchen Cabinets & Fronts – Bodyn by IKEA (off white, but not super creamy)
• Kitchen Sink- Havsen apron front double bowl by IKEA (cute, good size, scratches easily)
• Bar Stools – Ingolf by IKEA (I assembled myself and no one has died yet)
• Bar Stool Cushions – Admete by IKEA in natural (I think)

All of our cupboard and drawer hardware came from an antique shop in Armstrong, which ties in with the ones in our bathrooms from the same place. The prices could not be beat.. ranging from $3 to $6 a knob and she gave us a discount for purchasing so many!

We spend a lot of time in the kitchen and even when people are over we all seem to gravitate towards the island, so it was important for us to have a large one! I would like to find an old table to refinish in the same stain as our range hood this winter. But for now our chandelier hangs over nothing! More pictures to come when this space is complete. For now we are focusing on this list of things to get us to final occupancy (siding, sidewalks, garage door, gutters, etc.) So much to do!!

Wedding Stress

It was A week. Emphasis on the ‘A’. It’s finally hit me that I am getting married next month. This thought makes me anxious, sweaty and nauseous all at once. Someone help! Is this normal?

I am not nervous about getting married, I am marrying the man of my absolute dreams. I am nervous for the actual wedding day. I can tell myself over and over again that it’s just one day and no matter what happens or what goes wrong.. at the end of the day I will be a Kohlen, but let’s face it.. I’m still stressing. It just feels like there are a million little things to be done and not enough time in the day to do them.

To add to the stress of planning, our DJ bailed on us last month and we met the replacement she found for us. I had a bad feeling the whole time and decided to go with my gut. We canceled and luckily I was able to line up someone else who isn’t over priced this week. I feel there is going to be a battle to get my deposit back from the original DJ.. so please wish me luck!

We went out for a visit to our venue last night. Everything is looking so beautiful and green. There was a full rainbow right over there ceremony area, I am taking this as a sign that everything is going to work out.

Master Bathroom Progress

We have been in the house for just shy of a month. The interior finishing is really coming together. It’s been so nice being able to cook dinner together again and eat at more normal times. I think dan enjoys working in his slippers and “comfy” pants.

I haven’t hung any pictures on the walls and our spare rooms are still empty. The basement suite bathroom is jammed with all of our storage items that need to be unpacked. We want to sell our kitchen table, so our eating area is empty. Our master bathroom is feeling pretty nice though!

You can see the tip of the hardwood which is where our bedroom starts. We will eventually build sliding barn doors to separate the ensuite from the master bedroom. They will meet at that point!

Not shown in the picture is our giant Kalia brand rain water shower head which is part of their Rustik collection. Having no shower door is quite entertaining, the dogs have figured this out and I am often greeted by two labs stepping into the shower to drink the drain water. Our stand alone tub was very budget friendly, but still looks very sleek. It’s the Sax by Maxx. Our bathtub and sink faucets are matching. We asked our sales rep for something that had a classic farmhouse feel and she nailed it. They are the Cassidy single handle by Delta. I would have loved to go with a gold finish, but for resale purposes I was too worried it might be a trend that dies too quick – so chrome it is!

The mirror has since been hung. I bought four of IKEA’s Sandane round mirrors, but in this bathroom we could only fit one! Our main bathroom has one centred above each sink. I am keeping my eyes open for either one long mirror or two smaller rectangular mirrors with a black trim to hang in our master bathroom instead.

We went with chrome towel bars in both bathrooms because we spent all day driving around Kelowna and could only fine ONE SINGLE matte black bar. The chrome ties in nicely with the faucets and the black light fixture ties in with the black knobs. The bathroom is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Pale Oak which is the same as our master bedroom.

Dan is currently working on the wood cover for our range hood fan (in his comfy pants and slippers) and I’m going to start getting ready for our first wedding of the season! Please cross your fingers that the expected thunder storms hold off until the outdoor ceremony is over!

Master Bedroom Progress

Since we have moved in, I have decided to focus on one room at a time to try and decorate. As I mentioned in my last post, this house is seriously at least double, if not triple the size of our old house. We don’t have a lot of home items yet, but I’m waiting until after the wedding to make any purchases.

Our master bedroom and ensuite are my favourite rooms in the house. The bedroom is almost complete, I just need to make or find a headboard, some sort of tall boy dresser, small bedside tables and some sort of table for under the TV.

• Bed: IKEA Puderviva Linen Duvet in Natural
• French door curtains: IKEA Lil Lace Curtains
• Rug: Homesense fab find!
• Light: Canarm Calan Pendant

We have lots of little unique details through out the house as well. One of my favourite parts of the room is the door hardware! We put a “crystal” knob on our master bedroom door. It’s so cute!

The hardest part has been training the dogs to stay off the bed and out of the bedroom, but they are slowly learning. I was this space to feel bright and clean at all times. That’s how I sleep easy.

Taylor

Move In Day

Thursday, June 7, 2018 – our official move in date. That’s right, after 8 short (but very long) months, we have officially moved in!

We originally planned to move in on the Friday, but Dan was off work early on Thursday and decided we were moving. I am not a very impulsive person, so it was hard for me to leave my parents house (for the third and last time) knowing I never really got to enjoy my last night there. Waking up in our new house with the sunshine peaking through the windows was well worth the move.

It’s been almost a week and we still haven’t fully unpacked. I’ve been mainly focusing on the bedroom and ensuite first. I’ve decided to tackle one room at a time. The biggest struggle has been filling the rooms. This house is 3 times the size of our last house, but I’m sure over time I will find pieces to complete each room.

Our dogs Kinder and Kona are slowly adjusting as well. Our yard is a big unfenced mud pit right now, so we have to take them out on a leash.. which neither of them enjoy. They are starting to realize the room under the stairs is their safe space though. We bought new dog beds and gave them a blanket and fur rug that smell like the last house to keep them comfortable.

We will be hanging drywall in our garage this weekend.. we originally planned on using corrugated metal, but have decided to just drywall it and get it over with. Soon we will be tackling, siding, soffits and a driveway. Our driveway is a disaster right now and I’m a terrible driver – 9/10 times I am backing into the bank while trying to back out.

It’s so nice to be in, but there is no time for relaxation yet. I am tired and could probably nap for 5 days. Here are some pretty peonies I bought until I’m ready to post room progress pictures!

Mostly Work, Some Play

We are so close to moving in to the house! Next week is our goal, but there is still lots to be done. We took two weekends in a row off for some well deserved (maybe not wanted, but needed) relaxation.

On May long weekend we went house boating with my family and some family friends. We live on Shuwap lake, which is houseboat capital of Canada. A lot of the times houseboat trips are a big party, but for the most part Dan and I did a lot of sleeping and trying to recuperate from being so burnt out with work and the house and everything else we have going on. I also had the opportunity to work on my tan, which will never compare to Dan’s. Trooper performed on the lake on Saturday. There was over 2000 boats on the lake. It was a once in a life time experience, but an absolute shit show afterwards when all of the boats tried to head home at once. Pictures don’t even do justice to how many boats were there.

Once we got home it was back to late nights at the house. Dan (as always) has been working his butt off to get things done. He installed the hardwood floor in the basement and all of the baseboard trim.

Last weekend Dan and his twin Mark played in the 90th annual Spalding Cup Golf Tournament which takes place at the Salmon Arm Golf Club. They have played in this tournament countless times against players from all over BC. The last two years they have placed second, but this year they managed to come in first place- a long time coming win which was well deserved. I remember telling the boys last year that this year would be their year and it was!! Here is a cropped picture I stole from the Salmon Arm Golf Club’s Facebook. Their smiles say it all! The Kohlen boys will finally have their name on the trophy.

We followed the boys on the last three holes, it was a great Sunday evening.

While Dan was golfing our appliances and sofa were delivered to the house! We purchased all LG appliances including a gas stove, fridge and washer / dryer. We also bought a Boch dishwasher. The upstairs is somewhat in shambles, but after the electrician, plumber and painters come back we will do one big clean and start moving everything in.

More updates when everything is in place! I can’t wait to move in!

Wedding Venue Sneak Peek

With all of the building chaos, the wedding planning always seems to take the back burner. People always ask me how the planning is going and honestly it feels like it’s not. I also thought I had just over four months until the wedding… turns out it’s only three. I don’t know how I’m allowed to work in an accounting department!

This past weekend after I realized we only had three months to go, Dan and I took a trip to Vernon and purchased our wedding bands. Mine matches the band to my engagement ring (I found and am saving for a more ‘Pinteresty’ band for our one year anniversary). Dan’s band is also white gold but is going to have a custom hammer job.

We also popped out to the wedding venue in Grindrod. We planned on having the ceremony and reception on my mom’s cousins property. We are now using their property for camping and the property beside it for the wedding. Both properties are riverfront and used to grow corn. There is a grassy spot large enough for our hexagon tents and the second property has some old barns from a former dairy farm. The house in the property was featured in a home and garden magazine in 1952 and I’m assuming the barns are just as old. They stopped milking there in the 1980’s. I am so excited to use the barns for photos!

The bottom photo is looking from the barns onto the grass where our tents will be. The fields to the left will be filled with corn come August. Looking even further is where a few family members from out of town will be camping. We have hired a coach bus to take all of our guests back to Salmon Arm.

On our way back to town from Vernon we stopped at an antique shop in Armstrong. We were looking for metal heat register vents, but ended up leaving with knobs and pulls for our kitchen! We also have carpet on our stairs and Dan has installed most of our kitchen. Blog posts to come!

April Tiled Showers Brings May…?

Another month almost over. Once again, April flew by. We are busy, we are stressed, but it’s the best time of our life…. speaking from my point of view, I’m not sure how Dan feels because I barely see him.

The house has seen a lot of progress in the past couple weeks. Our upstairs hardwood is complete, thanks to Dan. Our bathrooms are tiled, thanks to Brad the tile guy. Our tin roof on our roof skirt is complete. And the kitchen is coming together piece by piece. We will also have carpet on our stairs come Monday!

The finish line seems so close, but there is so much work to do, especially with our goal to be in by May.

Here are some pictures. I’m obsessed with our master bathroom/ closet tile. It’s porcelain, but it looks like marble. We opted out of a tile floor in our shower because if it happens to leak it would not be covered under warranty. We have purchased our sinks, bathtub and faucets (they are beautiful). Just waiting on the white custom cabinets, which are a few weeks out and for our shower glass. We are also going to make sliding barn doors which will meet where the hardwood meets the tile.

Dan quit is job and has been focusing on our house and helping his Dad finish his build as well. He works long days, but it sure is paying off. I’ve said it many times before, but he truly is the hardest worker I know. None of this would be possible without his work ethics.

Tonight we are heading to Dan’s parents for a family dinner. His sister and her family are visiting from Calgary. A well deserved night off for Dan.

We are also almost at the four month mark for our wedding. I seriously have to start planning. First on the list is to drag Dan down to Vernon to choose out our wedding bands! I often wonder if I would enjoy the planning more if there wasn’t a house involved at the same time. Every once and awhile I stop and actually count down the days until our wedding and I constantly wonder where the time has gone. I am looking forward to the end of August. We will be happily married in our new house and maybe one evening we will be able to sit on our deck and just relax and enjoy all of the hard work that this past year has involved.

White Washing Our Ceiling… Fail Turned Success

The next step after the walls were painted in our house was to complete our white washed, edge grain Fir ceiling in the vaulted living area. What a disaster that was. Here is how our ceiling went from white wash to full on white glory.

We have had this plan of having a grand vaulted ceiling with white wash Fir since pretty much the beginning. We got Fir from Dan’s dads woodlot and got it all prepped and ready to go. I myself am not one for the look of just leaving wood in its natural state. I probably don’t appreciate the beauty of it as much as Dan does, so we decided to give it a nice white wash look. Dan did a bunch of samples with different ratios of white paint to water for me to choose from. We ended up going with 1:1 to give it the whitest look without losing the look of the grain in the wood. So, we mixed one can of white latex paint and one can of water together in a bucket and spent two and a half hours applying the paint to the wood with rags. Before calling it a night, we held one of the boards up to where it would be installed next to our Mascarpone (creamy white) wall. THE WHITE WASHED WOOD LOOKED FRICKEN PINK! We slightly panicked, but held up another board. IT LOOKED MORE PINK! We decided that because Fir is such an orange/ pink wood that our creamy white walls were just intensifying this look.. AND WE HATED IT! We talked to my dad and it turns out that applying a water based paint to the wood pulls its natural oils out which can stain the wood pink, brown, yellow, etc. He told us we would need to use an oil based primer on each board before applying a water based paint. It was back to the sample boards….

We decided the white washed look just wasn’t going to work on this house. We tried mixes of half white, half Mascarpone. We tried full on Mascarpone. We tried full on white. We didn’t know what to do because nothing looked good. We even debated getting the drywallers back in to drywall the ceiling. By this time it was Saturday and I had to head to Kamloops to go pick out and purchase all of our lighting. So I left the final choice up to Dan. He rolled on an oil based primer and purchased a can of flat white ceiling paint which I helped him roll on to the boards the next day.

It took Dan hours upon hours to install each board one at a time, up and down the scaffolding taking measurements and cutting each piece. We decided to not run each board too tight together so he had to wiggle each board around until it was appropriately spaced. He then had to mud all of the seams and sand them once the mud dried. He then rolled on two more coats of ceiling paint. The turn out was so worth it all in the end. The room feels so big and grand! We are very happy with the full on white look and will never try to white wash Fir again.

Dan will be heading to Vancouver this week to pick up our kitchen and a few other items that I have been eyeing up for our eating area and bathrooms! We plan to be moving in next month, but there is so much to be done in the meantime!