Do you categorize your daily routines into the want-to’s and have-to’s? There’s the gotta do the house cleaning, laundry, dishes, go to work, and grocery shopping. However, then there’s the move to the country, build new workshop storage, get my own flock of hens, and go on vacation kinda thing. sigh… Why can’t it all be fun? In my efforts to catch up in and around my home, I focus on my garage before winter sets in each year. Here’s a box of scrap goodness that has been begging for my attention. I have a vision for reclaimed wood houses. Hang with me now…
While I’m extremely thankful and see it a blessing to be able to take care of the have-to’s, I’m also yearning for the want-t0’s. I suppose it’s only natural to have dreams and work towards them. I’m not a quitter until I reach the grave, so I hang on and keep my head up. I feel like this wood is much like me…waiting for the right time for events to fall into place.
Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31
THE BACKSTORY
You see, these bits are harvested from reclaimed beams we pull from this glorious stash we’ve tapped into from time to time as needed for our remodels and projects.
Back a few years ago, we set out to remodel our kitchen. With our work schedules, family of 8, and budget restraints, it took us a few years, but our kitchen is no complete. In addition, you can take the tour in the video below and view the update HERE.
The scraps in the picture above are from the peninsula we built to replace my awful base cabinet. You can see the uprights are 4″ beams from a previous life.
THE CONTINUING STORY
After we built the peninsula, my husband didn’t see the value in the remnants. However, my creative eye saw a whole lotta potential. Do you see it? They’ve sat in a box in my workshop just waiting for the right time. The time is now. woot!
A few years back, I staged them on top of my bookshelf. At that point, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to finish them, but they are definitely too awesome to leave in a box any longer. First, I select an array of paints from my stash and dress them up in a wash. My inspiration is two different things: (1) salt box houses (2) the houses that line the shoreline of Italy on the Mediterranean.
After that paint cures, I apply a bit of details to really bring them to life. Do you see where I’m heading with these?
Oh, and I have a new toy that I’m eager to share you with that is also long overdue. eep.
THE REVEAL
Finally, after many years of waiting, my reclaimed wood houses are in their proper spot on my barn beam mantel. They are just as I imagined – perfect in every way. Totally worth the wait and my “want-to” now is a fulfilling moment.
Not only do they retain their rustic charm, but now I feel like they have an even sweeter story to tell. Plus, my kids and I have fun picking out our favorite and which one we want to live in. Which one for you?
Also, I wanted to retain the rustic charm they offer by adding a few rusty bent nails as door lights and chimneys. You can find my rusting recipe in this past post. Works like a charm!
THE FUTURE
Whatever happens in the future, whether I get to be back in the countryside, or have my flock of biddies, I know that I have a God who has me where He wants me. I need to make the most of the time given. When I’ve been in numerous scans or hospital stays, I’ve had time to reflect. Every day is precious – there is no promise we get a single one. We do have a promise that we will never be left alone and an eternity in bliss if we seek Him.
If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:9, 10
My goal is to inspire you to to not only have fun in life, the greatest adventure, whether it’s DIY, cooking, sewing, etc., but to be thankful for all your blessings. Likewise, your time is coming to shine!
In addition, do pin and share to inspire others too. It’s time to break out those treasures we’ve been saving for just this time.
Up next, a cutie found me that just needs an update and TLC. Come see the makeover HERE!
Before you go, be sure to sign up for my newsletter. Until next time!
Also, more fun creations like my reclaimed wood houses:
Oh, I love these, so cute!! Thanks for the reminder that God has us where he wants us right now. Also, I love the ladder with the doilies and pumpkins! I have an old ladder and a whole box of doilies…now, where can I put it?
🙂
I’m just skip-happy they are finally where I want them. I still need to decorate a bit, but that will come in time too. That’s the spirit! Decorate and have fun!
Larissa, you have such an eye for salvaging the very last bits. I immediately saw your vision when you showed the piece with the hole in it, though my first thought was bird house… but they are just adorable!
I agree, those pieces were MUCH too special to be trashed. They were just waiting for your amazing eye and imagination to bring them to their second life.
As for your dream of your farm in the country, hold on to it. I have absolute faith you will get there. My hubby and I were able to buy our first farm not long after we met. We both had good jobs, his kids were adults (I was 39, he was 50 when we met) our first place was a 10 acre “shotgun” property in a small farming community near Lansing, MI, not far from where I went to college. We knew from the beginning it wasn’t our forever place, but after boarding them for years it was a place we could have my horses at home.
Then I developed a strange health issue that it took 17 doctors in three different states to finally diagnose. It’s gradually resulted in the loss/partial or full amputation of six of my fingers, and continues. As a result, I lost my job in IT and we had to sell the farm.
We were blessed, after searching for months, to find a 50 acre farm with a glorious slightly finished older gambrel roofed cow barn. It had been started enough that I could just see it as our home. The house on the property was itty bitty – 1 bed/1 bath – and barely live able, but we were focused on the barn. The owners had purchased the property in a bankruptcy sale and had been farming the land. They were getting older and downsizing their farming, we’re impressed that my hubby was a veteran, and that I had a Clydesdale because they bred draft horses. We clicked immediately, and they saw my vision for the barn, and gave us a very good deal.
It’s now 9 years later, we’ve done some work on the place while almost finished paying off the property Picked away at enough around this house to keep it from falling down around our ears, and done some work in the barn. But as we’ve tried to get permits to do more we’ve run into wall after wall. (Can’t put a septic there, foundation isn’t acceptable… ) Hubby and I had seen this as of our dream property. We’re the only occupied property in the first mile of our road except for one neighbor down the way across the road. The rest is wooded or farm land.
So we can’t make the barn into our house. How about we build next to it then sneakily add a breezeway to connect the buildings and use the barn as our library and the lower as family entertainment space? Big dining room and family room? Nope! Building a new home from scratch was just out of our reach financially. We were really down, not seeing the future we’d envisioned.
On a whim I began browsing the real estate ads… and very long story short (Ha!) we take possession of our new farm on Saturday! Minutes from Lake Huron, a spring fed pond, stream, and the Trout River crossing a corner of the mostly wooded in hardwoods but enough open land for our horses. 5 outbuildings, 3 bed/3 bath – one of them completely handicapped accessible. Two HUGE kitchens, one on the main level, one on the walkout lower level. A huge climate controlled root cellar in the dry basement. The inspector said it was the best built and maintained home he’d seen in 42 years of inspecting.
All this to say Larissa, it can be done. You will have your farm and whether it’s to raise your kids or your grandbabies, you’ll have it. Keep dreaming!
Shelley, your dream realized is amazing! Yes, I’ve been waiting for 20 years to be back at my roots and never dreamed of raising my kids in a city home, but here we are. Thankful for your testimony and heart. I’m so uber-excited for you!! I’d love to see pics sometime. God is good!
Larissa,all your work is awesome but these little houses struck such a joyous cord, they are pure peace. Thank you for never giving up.
I could write so much but as you already know God makes a way, Jo
Tears! Yes, I had swelling heart working on these because I always envisioned them in my country home. Thank you for being a sweet soul, Jo.
You have the best ideas! I think this little village is the prettiest thing that you have developed. Thankyou for your happy upbeat sonshine! Lori
Lori, you’ve truly made my day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 😀
Well ain’t that funny.
When you showed a fist full of wood chunks what I saw in my minds eye was a town full of cute little houses to sit on the mantle, and boom! That’s what you saw too.
Super duper cute and fun!!
Blessings to you ?
Minnie
ha! That’s awesome!! Great minds think alike, ya know. 😉
love it! best real estate! 🙂
haha! Yes, the living is breezy and so relaxed. 😉
You truly have a creative vision! Those little houses are adorable, I love the rustic charm!
May God continue to bless you & yours!
?Pam
He is so good to me and my family. Thank you, Pam!
You continually amaze me with you creativity. You are so right about the Lord. His time isnt ours ,but he is always right on time a d his plans far exceed ours. God Bless You and yours .
I’m so thankful for that because if I had my way, I know my life would be a mess. 😉 Thank you, Charleen.
This might be my favorite of your scrap up cycles! Very cute!
How fun to hear, Kelly. It sure made my heart feel like all is okay because it’s been so long in coming. Thank you.
How adorable are these reclaimed wood houses! I love how you joined salvaged pieces together to give them dimension. The rough-hewn wood with a wash of blue gives them a fabulous coastal vibe. But how you used rusty nails for house lights is just too stink’n cute! Pinned 🙂
You can tell I had fun, then. woot! Thanks so much, Marie. My heart is happy!
Love, love, love these! I have a box of wood remnants that I wasn’t sure what to do with, and your project has inspired me 🙂
You are so creative and I love seeing how your projects are transformed from ugh to ahhh.
I’m just happy to have them up and done. I kept waiting to move, but since that hasn’t happened, I wanted to them to be out of the dungeon. 😉 Thanks, girl!!
Oh Larissa these are wonderful! Especially the rusty nail chimneys! I’ve picked out my new home ?
And you are truly the poster child for ‘happiness comes from within’.
“She lived joyfully, not because her circumstances were joyful, but because SHE was joyful”. Dieter F Uchtdorf.
How fun! Thank you for the virtual hug, Susan. I do believe we can choose joy…it doesn’t always come easy. Sending hugs back at ya! 😀
Cute little houses, and great verses!
Than you for the sweet words, Becky. 🙂
I think this my absolute favorite scrap project from you! It’s perfct! Your visions for something that might have otherwise ended up as firewood amazes me. I only subscribe to a couple of blogs because the others are just so predictable and unimaginative. I never know what you will show us next! So happy to have found you ♥
Barbara, you just made my day…really! Thank you so much for saying so. Sending hugs and smiles! 😀