Assortment

Hello

 

Carmella Rayone

Everyone has a story. It follows like a shadow, a silhouette. Here, I write ours.

It's become a story about less. And more. It's about long-term goals and right-now sacrifices, followed by right-now blessings. It's living smaller in order to live larger.

It's taking note of the days and marking down the beautiful (and sometimes crazy). It's happy and hard (life just is) and very, very true.

And it all happens in our 665 square foot home in the foothills of Wyoming's mountains. Yes, 665 square feet for the five of us, just built in 2012. Here, we learn, we love, and we live . . . with less.

Welcome 

Becoming home: a photo tour | 2

Update: Hello Friends! I have news for your Friday! I've written a guest post about our little house over on Lorilee Lippencott's blog, lovingsimpleliving! Have a look!

Excerpt: The light can't help but fill the room. Everywhere you look, there's a window welcoming its arrival. Even if you look up, there's a window there at the ceiling, in that high dormer, not to mention the one in the gable end that breaks open a view of treetops and sky. Continue reading... 

 

 

A private retreat is there for us, just at the end of the hall. It’s diminutive size belies the fullness of what it holds. With the efficiency of a ship captain’s quarters, the space is assigned with careful thought given to the portion of our lives spent there.

I’d like to show you our master bedroom:

 

The room is only 8 1/2 by 13 feet in size; the ceiling is just under 7 feet tall. Here in the before shot, you can see it was a wooden box with a window and door.

 

A coat of primer began to change the feel of the room.

After paint, flooring, lighting, built-ins, and furniture, this is what it became:

 

 

A local carpenter built four cabinet/wardrobes, one for each corner of the room. Here on either side of the bed, the wardrobes were designed with nooks for books, clocks, and nighttime necessities – the perfect stand-in for bedside tables. Vintage porcelain pull-chain sconces offer ambient light for reading. And, how about clothing and jewelry as art, hung on an antique finial?

 

The opposite end of the room has a cabinet in each corner with the writing nook between. A stacked washer and dryer fit just right into the cabinet on the left; the cabinet on the right has floor to ceiling shelves.

 

 

Illustrated pages from a vintage bird book seem to fall randomly across the wall. An antique light fixture illuminates the desk.

 

Just outside the bedroom door is the door that leads to the bath. . .

 

One of our favorite things about this room is the window above the tub – every bath needs a window!

This is the bathroom now:

 

 

 

A pedestal sink, slim cabinet, white walls and ceiling, and white shower curtain help to ensure the feeling of openness. The vintage light fixture, and antique hooks bring old into the new, and the art reflects something of us.  A small antique milking stool holds the toilet tissue.

 

This is our home. It’s just 665 square feet in all. Now you’ve seen the entire lower level (great room photo tour is here), and the loft is next, but I have to admit it’s reveal won’t be for a while – the wheels of wonderful are still churning up there. But, it will be good, that I can say (can you imagine, a boy bunk loft?). In the mean time, I’ve got so much to tell you about the other rooms still. Details. We all love the details, don’t we? I’ll be sharing the details in regular upcoming posts in the Becoming Home series. You may want to subscribe to the blog so you won’t miss a thing!

If you’ve caught wind of this photo tour and are here for the first time, welcome! I’m glad to have you here! Wondering why it is, exactly, that we, a family of five, are living in such a little house? Find out here. If seeing this cabin makes you want to know more about how it came to be, you can read the entire back story here. 

As always, if you have any questions or thoughts, you can leave them in the comments!

 

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Becoming Home: A Photo tour | 1

I placed the just-now-wakening branches into the crystal-clear well water there in the giant footed vase . They were the last thing, those wild branches I’d gone barreling down the gravel road and into the canyon for, dust spinning a vortex behind me. The last minute, last thing that I tromped through brush for, bare-legged and shoes untied, because the time was ticking and the light wouldn’t be perfect forever, and there was the perfect bush to cut from, there, over there.

I set the giant crystal vase in the center of the table, its branches broken at the water line, all moss-covered and magnified. They were the last thing for making ready. Making this little house ready for the lights and the camera. For the day a puff-layer of clouds batted the sky into perfect diffused light; for the day a simple click would capture the inside story and lay it across a screen.

All that’s been done, and now it’s time.

It’s time to come in and see.

Today, the great room:

 

 

The day our cabin arrived, we opened the front door and walked inside. We saw this delightful little house that smelled of fresh-cut wood and spoke of many possibilities.

Here it is now:

 

 

This great room of the cabin holds kitchen, dining area, and living room together – yet, each area is defined by subtle architectural details, lighting, and rugs, giving a sense of place and purpose for each. 

 

The open kitchen stretches across the far end of the room, easily accommodating multiple cooks and dish washers! Barn wood shelves on iron brackets hold white stoneware dishes and glassware. Paintings by resident boy artists add color and whimsy.

 

 

The banquette beneath the window at the dining table serves as seating, storage, and, with throw pillows, it’s also a favorite spot for lounging.

 

 

This view shows the opposite end of the great room before completion. The length of every wall and the size and placement of every window and electrical outlet was planned and intentional. With small-scale design, every inch and every detail counts.

Here it is now:

 

 

The living area with its slip-covered sofa and vintage chairs gathers around the wool braided rug near the floor-to ceiling book shelves that hold books, art, nature collections, baskets, and bowls. Behind the cabinet doors and slate-gray curtains is the pantry.

The stairway leads to the boys’ bunk loft; the hall leads to the bathroom and bedroom (the entry door is just outside of this frame on the left).

 

Today’s great room tour ends with the chalkboard painted canvas that hangs in the hall, hiding the electrical panel and providing place and opportunity for the thoughts and sketches that happen.

Oh, there is much contained in these 665 square feet! Next time? Next time (Wednesday), I’ll show the bathroom, and master bedroom with its writing nook. Then, you’ll have a full sense of the lower level of the cabin so we can move into the details. In regular upcoming posts in the Becoming Home series, I’ll visit each room and area again, giving details about the inspiration, the plans, and the things contained there.

If you caught wind of this photo tour, and have found your way here for the very first time, welcome! Curious to know why it is, exactly, that we, a family of five, are living in 665 square feet? Read about it here. If you’d like, you may also read the entire backstory about how the cabin came to be.

Wishing you a lovely week’s beginning, friends!

 

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Under the White Umbrellas

There were lights, a camera, and hours worth of action. At one point, I was squeezed into our small bathroom with three illuminated white umbrellas. Sort of like taking pictures while wedged between clouds. Sort of. Then, of course, when someone needed to use the bathroom, it was a side-step, tip-toe, sliding kind of dance: me out, him in; him out, me in; tidy-up, carry on. At one point, my husband came in from his work outside and gave the slightest eyebrow-raise at all the equipment (and out-of-frame mess?) that was filling his house, and I said he’d probably not expected this white umbrella moment in his life, and he said no, he hadn’t.

Nor had I.

For who would ever expect the white umbrellas?

I remember the very first whisper I ever mentioned to you here about the idea of a little house, and how, lately I’d been “keeping company with this big idea of small.” And I remember when I wrote that, how nervous I was and how completely crazy I felt about this invigorating idea. I remember that we were then at the beginning, and how, soon after that post, everything seemed to fall apart, and how circumstances seemed hell-bent on throwing out a crazy notion such as this. But, that crazy notion, wire-haired and pointed, wasn’t so easily whipped. 

And a little house really did begin to form, first on paper, then in wood, steel, and glass.  I remember the day this little house arrived. I remember that sunny April day and how the trees were beginning to bud and the grass was beginning to green, and how nervous I was and how completely crazy I felt about this invigorating idea. A little house? For five of us? Yes, indeed. There it was, smelling of fresh wood, ready for paint and flooring; for vintage lights and furniture; for built-in boy bunks and barn wood shelves. It stood waiting for us. And so we began. With a light touch, its soul awoke. With each brush-stroke painted and every curtain hung, we saw it more, knew it more: there was life for us here. It wasn’t crazy after all, this well-tailored home, it was beautiful.

It is beautiful.

Especially under the white umbrellas.

 

 

* Don't forget! This Monday, May 13, begins the photo tour of our little house!

 

 

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