Our First Home!

I finally got some good pictures of the cabin to share. I have to admit, that I wasn't too crazy about living in the country when I first met Ben, but I knew that had been his lifelong dream. That's the whole reason he bought his property in the first place...because he knew he wanted to live on it one day. God has really done a work on my heart about where we live throughout our relationship leading up to us getting married. I know it's a normal "girl" thing to dream about how you want your house to look, how you want to decorate, what style you will choose etc. Before meeting Ben, I had more of a traditional/transitional style. I've always liked to mix traditional decor and contemporary decor. Somehow, during the early stages of our relationship, I started to lean more towards a "rustic" style. Ben had duck mounts, deer mounts etc in his house before meeting me and one thing I told him at the beginning was that I did NOT want "animals" in my house..especially birds! Anyone that knows me well, knows that I do NOT like birds whether they are alive or dead. Once we got engaged and started talking about where we would live, I told Ben that I would compromise and let him put a deer mount in our house, but NO birds.....he agreed to that. See the thing is, when we get to build our house on his farm one day, he will have a "man cave" where he can hang ALL of his mounts. After a while, we decided that we would rent this cabin since it is the best option for our current situation. I have to admit, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea at first. The cabin is 20 minutes from Opelika which meant that it would now take me over an hour to get to work (in Montgomery). I really had to warm up to the idea. After seeing the cabin, I liked it, but it seemed small, wasn't sure how I would decorate it etc. But again, after a while, I started to be more "okay" with the idea.

At the beginning of April, Ben finally started moving his stuff into the cabin. I went in and started placing decorations and putting things the way that I liked and it REALLY started to grow on me. I was actually really starting to like it! I figured that it would definitely have a more rustic look (obviously) with a little twist. Most people that know me, are shocked to find out that I actually LOVE the rustic style now. The "fine china" that I registered for has a nice rustic look that will look perfect in our new house one day (once I can get a china cabinet).

When we started decorating the cabin, Ben wanted to put THREE deer mounts on the big wall in the den and he also had FOUR bird mounts out! One of the bird mounts was right at eye level and looked like it was flying at me--I told him it had to go. So....after much discussion and thinking, we came to a great compromise. He took the flying bird mount out, the other small bird mounts are up HIGH on a shelf (as to not creep me out) and we decided to have 2 deer mounts on the main wall and then I could put something in the space under it. Then I told Ben that if he wanted to have the 3rd deer mount, he could hang it in the upstairs loft area. Needless to say, he was VERY happy about that and I'm a happy camper too.

It really has been fun placing things and decorating. I know it's still a work in progress, but has quickly become home. Here are some pictures...

The den area
side of the cabin
Front of the cabin

Main bathroom (notice my deer antlers) :)

Another view of the kitchen
Kitchen
Bar area since we don't have a table yet

another view from the loft area
side table in the den
upstairs bedroom
Upstairs bathroom
The loft area

I am SO excited to continue making this cabin more our home. I love it so far! Next thing I wanna do is get some cute curtains made for the den area :)