A Cottage Update

You guys, we are almost there.

Two and a half years ago we purchased our lake cottage and we’ve been working on it like turtles…slowly and steady we are getting there.
Pretty much like with every older home remodel nothing has gone as it was planned. Nothing is square or perfect but it is heaven on earth to us because I get to lay in bed every morning and watch the sunrise over the lake.

So many of you have been writing in to ask if we even have the cottage still because it has been crickets on the site about the place. For a long time we were at a stand still with really exciting things like electrical and hot water issues but those have been fixed and we are almost done.

The only large project inside we still have is to paint the floor. It’s a gray color right now so while it isn’t bad it is pretty scuffed up and just not what I want. I want to go with a midnight blue color or something like a Kelley Green and knock everyone’s socks off. Which do you guys prefer?

Until I decide we have that project on the back burner. That and the fact that we are painting it with marina grade paint which has a ton of fumes and needs to cure…both of those factors mean we’ll probably stack the furniture high in one half of the cottage and then paint the other half before we leave the for winter.

Other than that we are done with all of the big projects. We have the details and the fine tuning to work on but the nuts and bolts are in!

Other projects outside include installing a railing on the front porch and putting in a deck out back that overlooks the lake.

I wanted to show you some photos of how the place is looking…

Enjoy!

This Ikea coatrack is perfect for the cottage…cute and functional while being simple. That gorgeous wrap is from Evy’s Tree and my Magnolia hat is there too.

This corner in the bathroom is one of my faves…the original cupboard and the lake house sign are precious.

I found this old container at a Habitat for Humanity Restore. Its quirky and works really well as a hamper in our bathroom. I can’t bring myself to scrape off the letters yet but I might one day.

Using hardware from Amazon Nick put together these double barn doors that cross each other in the middle. The door on the right leads to the bathroom and the door on the left is a set of double doors that leads to the kids sleeping area. All the doors we salvaged from a house being torn down next door to our primary residence. Nick cut them to fit the area but they work perfectly!

Everything here was put together. The hutch belonged to my Grandma Jean. It is an old Coppes Kitchen piece. The velvet chair belonged to Nick’s parents and is in desperate need of reupholstering. Anyone have any ideas for what to do it in? I am really tempted to go with a navy velvet but we are trying to make everything “lake friendly” and I don’t know how sandy, wet bathingsuit bottoms would do on velvet. The “W” was a gift from my parents, the lamp came with the cottage. We keep a space heater tucked away there for those cold nights in the spring and fall.

This is the kids bunk area. I found their bedding at a resale and was over the moon that 1 I found nautical themed bedding and 2! that I found two of them together. I bought their striped long pillows at Costco. It helps them both to use their beds as loungers and they like to sleep with them.

Emma has a little ladder up to her area. Nick covered the ceiling in planks. I was bummed he couldn’t find enough reclaimed to finish it so we’ll probably end up painting it because the contrast is so stark. Before it was just the original ceiling boards which were cool but the roofing nails were hanging down…not cool when you wake up in the middle of the night and take a nail to the head.

I think I will forever spend my days trying to figure out if I like this chair or not. It came from Habitat for Humanity Restore. Some days I find it neat and eccentric. Other times I find it offputting and garish. It is comfortable though so it will stay…

Here’s the cottage when you are standing by the bathroom and looking in. As you can see I didn’t tidy for these pictures so excuse the mess. I love the kitchen chandelier, we found it on amazon. The fridge works great and we bought it off Craigslist for $50. The couch folds down into a bed and is an authentic mid-century couch. It came with the cottage but was owned by a friend (there’s a story there somewhere folks). The red cooler on the fridge is the only big pop of color. It was my Grandpa’s and my Grandma gifted it to us. I adore it because of that. I really love how the kitchen counter turned out with the chairs and the bar. It’s one of my favorite features of the cottage.

As you can see we have an active puzzle going on our puzzle table. The table came with the cottage and we knew we had to find a place for it. It works really well for puzzles and will work for board games or if we have a lot of food and/or people. Really, the possibilities are endless!

So we have had this fan for almost as long as we’ve been married. It is vintage and neat. So we brought it to the cottage and introduced it to it’s new home. The dishes in the photo belonged to my late Grandma Wannie. They are one of my prized possessions. I spent countless hours having tea with Grandma Wannie with those dishes and I am so tickled to have them. I miss her so much.

Here’s a shot of our kitchen. We bought our Jenn-Aire range for $60 again from Restore. I am in love with how Nick got it to fit. The seam on our counter just popped up. Actually the counter is what popped up and the bar area is where it is supposed to be. Weird, I know. We have to reglue it and hope that fixes it. We knew something like this might happen with how humid it is at the lake.

You can see things are unfinished but they are coming along. We are having a drawer specially made that will fit around the stove parts. We need trim and outlet covers but the main parts are there. The sink is the original sink. We bought the faucet handles on amazon. It’s a bit weird having hot and cold so far apart but I insisted because that’s the way it was.

Nick salvaged as much wood as he could from the original kitchen before he tore it down and I just love how this wall came out. We aren’t going to paint this wall but will leave it like it is. It has so much character. We have this convection oven because we don’t have an oven but really, we don’t need one save for a pizza which cooks just fine in this. Perfect!

And I think that is everything! I’ll be going around and showing you some of my favorite details. If you have any questions please let us know!