Welcome to our Cottage
I can't wait to share our cottage with you.
Ready?
Come on in, friends!
In case you missed it in this post you can read all about how my amazing husband took me down and presented me with keys as a birthday gift...keys to our very own lake cottage! It was so sweet and romantic of him to set the trip up and to give me a lake cottage for my birthday! He's really upped the ante when it comes to birthday gifts. Next year I'm going to have to give him a Porsha or something ;)
But anyway...
Welcome to our new home away from home.
Literally!
We are so, so blessed by this place. I have wanted a cottage ever since I was a girl but I had never thought of it as a real possibility. I never really even thought of it as being possible. If it did ever happen, I figured maybe one day when the kids were grown. Or I was almost dead.
But a few months ago this all started coming together in one of those events that you just know God is at the head of. We had taken Cal down (Emma had ballet and then was with my sister...boo! We always miss her) and visited with some friends of ours who have a cottage a few doors down from what is now ours (we're neighbors now!). They were talking with us about a few cottages that were available for sale. We looked at them longingly but figured it was just a nice dream and set out on our way.
On the way home though we were talking about how Cal just seemed to love being down around the lake. He rode his bike all over and had the best time. He was so much better behaved after being down there. Then we started talking more seriously about owning a cottage and God opened doors and paved ways we never thought would be open to us. It's been an incredible experience to be a part of. We have always known that nothing was impossible with our God but this has really proven that for us!
I do want to say that our cottage needs a lot of work. I don't want to sugar coat it and make it look like it's perfect. It's not. It's like us: It needs work. But we have a clear vision together of what we want and we are so excited to work on it together. Thankfully it is in live in condition...no mold or vermin or missing walls, whew!
It's totally us.
Except the furniture. The purchase came with the furniture so that will be moved out as well. Didn't want to confuse y'all and have you thinking we already moved furniture in. :)
If you know Nick and I you know that we are kind of weirdos. And we LOVE old houses. When a girl who's a history nerd marries an architect you get a really great love of OLD Architecture! Our home is over 120 years old. We have changed things and discovered things and polished things. It's the work we've put into our home that makes us love it even more. And one another. Our home (like this one will be) truly is a labor of love.
I don't think that we are "new" home kinds of people. We love the journey that old homes provide. Our cottage is one of the original ones on the lake left in the original shape. It is going to be so fun to tear away the layers and try to find what is still there...to go through the journey together and sift through the past.
So let's show you around...what we love, what we are going to change and everything in between!
Come on in!
This is the view from the front door. Currently there is a bedroom that you can see in the photo. It is actually decent sized. However we really want a big open space. I'm envisioning kids sprawled on the floor doing a puzzle, family cookouts with people bustling in and out. Those type of things. And with the space so small (less than 500 sq ft!) we really want to open everything as much as possible. We are planning on tearing down these walls! in the center of the room so it's just a big open area. We are planning on having a bed down there (ain't no fan of a futon) but it will be in the open space. Pa and Ma Ingalls style.
So I can definitely see what others were trying to do in the past with our house. I don't want to be one to say "what were they doing here?" because everyone has their own vision for space, their own personalities, tastes, ideas, and budgets.
What we are envisioning is one large area (for now). Down the road we envision a second floor being added on with the bedrooms moved to upstairs. Can you picture all of it? Can you? Eek, I'm excited just talking about it!
For now though we will have one large room which will serve as the bedroom/entry/living room. The children have a small room where they will sleep in bunkbeds. It's an adorable little nook for them. We also have a kitchen and a bathroom. and that's it! Let me show you those...
Here is the bathroom. It looks teeny tiny and it is! The first time we looked at the cottage I didn't go in the bathroom and then when I went home and thought of the cottage (and dreamed about it even!) I was eeked out by the size of the bathroom. But this time when I was in the cottage I actually WENT in the bathroom and I was surprised by the amount of space in the bathroom. Don't get me wrong, there isn't a lot of space. But I could at least change my clothes without knocking something off of the sink. Whew!
This is the kids nook/area/thing. Emma keeps telling people that they have to sleep in a closet which isn't true (but it is the size of a good closet I suppose!) The people before us have been keeping this as a little storage area so after a good tidy, some new matresses, and some paint it will be as good as new. One of the things I think the kids are having a hard time understanding is the lack of personal space. Living in a large home we all have our own areas of the house to go to when we need to be alone but here we won't have that. We've been trying to explain it to them but I think it will still be a big adjustment for all of us.
From the kitchen you can see that this place has not been occupied for some time. It's definitely going to need some love! These two photos are me standing in one side of the kitchen and taking a photo and then swapping sides and taking a photo of the side where I had been standing. Our big view of the lake is out of the kitchen window which placement wise makes it a bit awkward. But we are going to make it work!
Here's a very side view (not sure why I didn't take it from straight on) but I just love the view. We are about 3 houses down from the beach area that has a little playground. It will just be perfect!
Anyway, the view is one of the reasons that we want to make this as open and airy as we can...we want to see the view as much as we can!
Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little lake cottage. We are so excited to bring it back to life and love on it. God is so amazing friends!
