You, Me ... and the Kitchen Sink

Today I was surprised to find my blog featured at Down To Earth. Rhonda has a simple living blog from Australia; I can't tell you how she has inspired us to live in the moment ... purposeful ... creating a nurturing environment for our family.  My husband and I have always scrimped and saved ... paying down on the mortgage ... saving for cars ... mending .. re-purposing items ... so when it came time to build our home, we had enough equity in our old home to build the new one with just a tiny mortgage.  It is our hope to be debt free in less than four years.  Our builder helped us stretch our dollars as well.

I decided to feature a few more pics of our kitchen sink ... and a little more of our home.

In the planning stages, I knew I wanted a double basin ... deep kitchen sink.  We have two other laundry tubs for soaking extra large items ... but this sink actually holds my largest canning pot ... a large turkey, and a boat load of dishes.  I prefer two basins so I can wash in one ... and have one free for rinsing.  The foyer is nice and roomy.  Having such an open area, I didn't want people to see into the kitchen from the front door (just in case the kitchen was a MESS;)

We didn't need a formal dining room so opted to have a large eating room open to the kitchen.

I made sure that most of our furniture would fit in the new home.  The only things we purchased were the sofas in the great room and the kitchen bar stools.  I am a gatherer of vintage, junkyard, thrift store, garage sale furniture/finds.

The most recent change to our kitchen was replacing the microwave/hood above the kitchen stove.  It just couldn't handle the heat from canning; the electrical panel warped and quit working.  We replaced it with a much more efficient heavy duty exhaust fan.

The openness of the great room/kitchen/eating room makes this the heart of our home ... for cozy family gatherings.

Believe it or not ... this critter ... a rather large moose is a frequent visitor ... along with his family.  Imagine eating breakfast and seeing this guy 25 feet from the dining room window.  That's enough excitement for one day ;)