Rick's Ramblings

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Cabin Trip 2014 - Day Seven? - Cabin Transformation

It is Sunday. We arrived a week ago tomorrow. So, I guess that makes this day seven! Time is flying.

Let me catch you up on a few things, then we'll switch to the main topic for this post.

Friday night, after dinner, we built a fire in our outdoor fire pit. It used to be at the back of the cabin and in a place that was not very "comfortable" to just sit and warm ourselves by the fire. So, I moved it to the front of the cabin, on a nice flat space near the picnic table, and I think that will work much better. We enjoyed a shot of whiskey (Buffalo Trace is our current favorite), and watched the sun set and the stars come out. It was very nice. The dogs just laid there quietly by the fire.

Saturday was busy.

First, I figured out that the furnace probably is working fine with the new pressure switch. It just takes about 45 seconds before the "whoosh", which seems like a very long time when you are standing there waiting. It worked yesterday morning and again this morning. I'll test it another few times before calling Grant and declaring victory.

We decided to buy a couple of pieces of furniture that we saw at Bart's on Friday. So, after checking the game camera (we got a photo of a moose!), we took off for Laramie. We arrived a bit early, so went into town to get gas (I took a couple of empty 5-gallon gas cans in), and to wander the Hastings store. I'm sure Lynne will blog about Hastings in Laramie, but I can tell you it is a fun and fascinating store. We bought a couple of books and a USB charging center for all our mobile appliances.

At Bart's we picked out two book cabinets (although one was no-doubt originally a CD cabinet). We rejected our other furniture choices (clothes dressers, mostly). Upon getting the book cases home, we decided to go ahead and finish our re-arranging of the cabin so we could place them where we wanted them. That meant moving the sofa, coffee table, chairs, rugs, and other stuff we had in our "living room". 

The cabin, which is essentially one big room, is now divided into smaller distinct rooms, mostly by the placement of furniture. And, we really like it.

Here is a photo of the antique hoosier that we moved into the open space of the kitchen. It may seem weird to have a piece of furniture stuck in the middle of a room like this, but it works great. It provides us with additional storage and a work surface that we never used before. The piece of amazing and beautiful furniture was being wasted in its previous location. (You can see Hailey laying on the floor partially hidden.)

Here is one of the new pieces of furniture, placed against the back of the hoosier. This is a shallow set of glass-fronted shelves which we will use for CDs, DVDs, shallow books and also spices and other pantry items. (You can see part of Bella laying on the floor to the right.)

This small dresser/desk used to sit by my side of the bed. I used it for computer work, the printer is on top, and the drawers held some of my clothes. It is now moved out where the hoosier used to be and has become the place where all the "office" work is done. Lynne is busy working on a blog post. (And, there is Hailey again.)

This is the re-arranged living room. The furniture in the room has been rotated 90°. The sofa used to face the fireplace. This arrangement better separates the living space from the bedroom, and also allows us to make better use of the chairs in the room. The TV is in the cabinet to the left of the fireplace.

And, now a couple of bedroom shots. The first is looking from the living area into the bedroom. The second is looking from the bedroom into the living area. Notice that we've turned the dressers so that instead of being against a wall, they form a wall? This provides a more efficient use of space and creates more separation between rooms. We now have plenty of room for some additional furniture such as dressers or book shelves. Also, the bed used to be against the log wall and facing the living area. It is now rotated to our one interior wall and faces the east windows.

Finally, here is a shot of our new book case which sits against the back of Lynne's dresser. Looks nice, huh? Quarter-sawn oak in pretty good shape. And, we got a good price on it.

Comments:

1. I love what you guys have done with your cabin space!!!! It looks so spacious and livable!  Nice additions with the bookcase and the hoosier in the kitchen.

   Warren and I have been following a show on FYI called Tiny House Nation—houses from 150 to 400sq feet.  Yours is ideal!

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/21/2014  at  05:38 PM

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