I am thrilled to be up and about today after spending much of my weekend with the view above. Snuggled up in bed not feeling well. Not exactly ideal. Unfortunately, I never got to see my sweet sister after our surprise sushi night because of all the sickies in my house. We are now all almost back to health. I'm still pretty dizzy and nauseous, but I'm UP.

Sickness didn't keep us from pressing on with renovations! We finished the pine ceiling and prepped everything for our first coat of primer...applied with our paint sprayer.

It's getting lighter and brighter every day! I know many of you have said "leave it natural!". And to that I say..."Noooooooo!!". I'm not a fan of naked pine in my home. Not a fan at all. Northwoods cabin is not exactly my style. I'm going for open, bright, white, spacious...FRESH! The big beam on the ceiling is going to be capped with barnwood. *sigh*. Can I just do my whole house in barnwood?

We had initially decided to whitewash the fireplace...but I think that we are just going to paint it completely white instead. I cannot wait to get that part done...it will change the dated look of the living area dramatically! Our main dilemma with the fireplace is what we will do with that left side. The living room layout is not super TV-friendly, and the fireplace might be our only placement option. Yuck. Not my first choice! Today we talked about creating a built-in bookshelf on the entire left side of the fireplace. I prefer to keep it all brick to maintain the sheer size of it. It creates visual impact! Does anyone want to brainstorm with me?

We are in the midst of kitchen layout and cabinet finding as well. I've been spending lots of time on Pinterest and on lighting websites. Matt found CRAZY DEAL for us on a dual-gas range! An open box item that they were just trying to get rid of fast and we saved TONS of money. So excited. We now have all of our appliances...next up: apron sink!

In the tiny window of time when everyone was well, we headed into town on beautiful sunny Saturday and picked up supplies we needed at Home Depot. I love walking down the aisle where they cut the wood...my favorite smell ever!

Happy healthy Monday everyone!