I have previously shared photos of the exterior of The Cabin. However, I’m posting a new photo below because we have made a few changes. No more green shutters! The shutters are now blue and I love them. (Kenn chose the yellow for the front door, so I got to choose the color for the shutters.)
What you haven’t seen until now is the interior. The living area is a “great room” with a lofted ceiling. The walls of the living area are a dark wood as are two of the bathrooms; the bedrooms and one bath have sheet rock walls. However, even in the rooms with traditional walls, the doors, door frames, window frames, and base boards are stained a dark brown. The wood walls are perfect for decorating. Want to hang a picture? Just grab a hammer and nail. Not the right place? Just yank the nail out. There’s no need to patch the nail hole, no one will ever see it. However, all of the brown makes the house DARK.
We have a wall of shutters (dark brown, of course) between the living and dining areas that cover sliding glass doors. When we’re home during the day, we open one side of the shutters to let in more light, and the cats enjoy watching the world go by. Then night falls and the shutters are closed. This is when I turn on almost every light on the main level: the kitchen light, the dining room light, and the three hallway lights. Occasionally, even all of these lights leave me feeling like I’m sitting in the dark.
I have to admit that even feeling like I was living in a cave, it took me far too long to actually check the fixtures for burnt out bulbs. LED lights are bright and all that, but I miss incandescent bulbs. Flip the switch and and incandescent bulb would fail with an audible pop and one last dramatic flare of light; there was no doubt that the bulb needed to be replaced. LED bulbs just quietly fail and it seems to take a while for the failure to register with me. In addition to replacing failed bulbs, I replaced the yellow-tinted “daylight” bulbs with the brighter “bright white” bulbs. This small change made a noticeable difference.
A couple of weeks ago, I was once again replacing burnt out bulbs when I told Kenn that I wanted to replace one of the hall fixtures; it was a smaller one-bulb fixture with a translucent globe so it really wasn’t providing a lot of light. Kenn agreed and said he wanted a light that would actually illuminate the interior of the hall closets. So, we made a trip to Lowe’s and bought a replacement fixture that not only matches the other two, but has a clear globe. The new fixture produces such bright light that Kenn says he feels like there’s a spotlight shining on him whenever he is in that area. Sounds to me like Mission Accomplished!
On of my future goals is to replace the sliding glass doors with French doors thereby getting rid of the dark wall o’ shutters. Not only will that provide more natural light during the day, but I will no longer have to dust the bloody shutters which is one of my least favorite chores.🙌
Are there any changes you would make to your home?
I am wondering how your shutters get so bloody…😁. We have made a lot of changes over the years, and the main one has been increasing the light, so I get that. Up next are paint the hall a lighter color (it is a dark khaki), paint the living room (it is a light khaki), paint the computer room/office ( it is a textured sand dark yellow), and paint the master bedroom (it is a sage green), paint the screened porch, and renovate the laundry room. Oh, and the real biggie is rip up the carpet in the bedrooms and office and put down the vinyl plank flooring. We love love love it in the kitchen, guest room/art studio, and the hallway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL. Ripping up carpet is also on our list of things to do. Vinyl plank flooring is so much better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Especially when you have two dogs that shed! We can brush them every day and they still leave hair!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s the same with our cats. I vacuum up a ridiculous amount of fur.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have dark-stained shutters and a louvered door between my kitchen and living room and I hate dusting them as well! Since no one ever comes to the house upstairs and it’s just me, I kind of let them slide (bigtime). I once bought a gadget with “fingers” to slide in between and make it easier to clean, but no, it didn’t. 🙂 I really miss the incandescent bulb in my kitchen swag lamp. The lamp is old and used to have a glass “chimney” but I can’t use it with the LED bulb as the bulb is too big. The light is not as good in the kitchen as a result, so, if I am reading or doing some watercolor painting, I have a floor lamp in the corner and I have to use it to get more light. I like the blue shutters – very nice with Kenn’s yellow door!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love your house! 💙💛
I’ve got a long list of to-dos for ours. When we bought the house three years ago, it was in desperate need of paint on all of the walls. So far we painted the kids’ rooms, my husband’s office, the kitchen, and the guest bathroom. Still need to do the living room, dining room, master bedroom, master bathroom, and hallway. Last weekend, my husband and daughter, painted the worst of the walls in the dining room. We have already updated light fixtures with ceiling fans in all of the bedrooms, the living room, and the dining room. I don’t know how the previous owners lived without any ceiling fans! We still need to replace the light fixtures in both bathrooms. The tub/showers in both bathrooms are ridiculously tiny but replacing those will cost a small fortune. 💰
LikeLiked by 1 person
Replacing the ceiling fan and dining room light fixture has been at the top of our list, but it keeps sliding further down. Due to the lofted ceiling we’ll have to hire an electrician with a long ladder, LOL.
And, thanks. We love our house too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely love your cabin/home! Totally my style. I even like the contrast between the blue shutters and yellow door.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m just so glad all of the green is gone! True, it probably made the house blend in more with all of the trees around us but I’m much happier with the blue and yellow.
LikeLiked by 1 person