The Walls are Off . . .

Its amazing how true the old adage "you first have to make a mess before you can really clean up" can be. Now that the outside of the house has been torn apart and rebuilt, its time to do the same for the inside of the cabin. The next 2 big projects are flooring and drywalling the bedrooms.

At first, we thought of just leaving the fake wood paneling intact, but after hearing what we thought were carpenter ants and the need to re-wire the baseboard heaters to a wall controller, it became necessary to remove it all. We found a lot of good things in that demo job . . . (1) no evidence of active carpenter ants, (2) Insulation on the outside walls, and (3) hidden storage above the closets in both rooms. We also discovered that the water leak/rot along the shower area was smaller than expected and should be easy to get to via the bathroom side. The next task is to obtain sheet rock up for the walls and investigating how to "mud and tape".

Outside wall with insulation

Gary staring at the water pipes and inside wall

Hidden storage space above closet

While Gary was doing most of the demo work, I was working on some smaller projects . . . i.e. painting the interior doors. I was able to finish the garage-to-house door, although I think I will have spots I need to retouch. I'm realizing I leave lots of little areas undone and will need to have a "details" paint party in the future. On a more fun note, I painted the bedroom/bathroom doors an amazing ocean-like aqua called "Drizzle" by Benjamin Moore. If anyone likes the color, please please take the rest of my paint, I have almost a full gallon left.


Gary also found a great black Friday deal on an over-the -range microwave and installed it on Sunday. To celebrate we had Trader Joe mini-quiches for lunch. Unfortunately, the outlet he aimed for is out of power for "unknown" reasons. I personally want the cord to run through only 1 cabinet and so am canvasing votes for a new outlet above the cabinetry. Don't you all think it would be cleaner and nicer to have a fat, microwave cord hidden above? If you answer yes, please tell Gary!!!


We are just praying for a clear day next weekend so we can haul the drywall and the under-layment for the floor to the cabin. If anyone wants to help, please let us know . . . Gary's a little worried that I'm his only helper (hey I'm strong, well maybe not that strong)!

Midway Kitchen Reveal . . .

Good evening! We've been gearing up for the holidays and I have not been paying enough attention to updating the cabin blog . . . bad me! While I really wanted to have a complete before and after of the kitchen (since its the most dramatic change in the house so far), it just isn't going to happen this year . . . so here are the "midway" photos. I think you will agree its come a long way.

UGGHH! Before!!

After - no wallpaper, calming white


Gary picked the most perfect knobs

"See the Potential"

The items left to complete almost make me giddy with delight . . .

* Finish hanging all of the cabinets and drawers

* Replacing over sink light with a small nautical mini pendant

* Replacing outdated fan/light with larger nautical pendant

* Crown molding on the upper cabinets

* New white appliances + a new over range microwave that we just purchased

* Butcher block countertop for the floating cabinet from IKEA

* New flooring - vinyl in a Maple Spice pattern (ohh laa laa)

Sometime down the road when the budget finally is replenished I want to rip out the yucky countertop and replace with a ECO product made of recycled glass. Can't you just see it . . . white quartz like material with sprinkles of green and blue glass. Add a smoky blue subway tile behind the stove and you've got me drooling with delight.

YIPPPEEE

Ta Da . . .

Ta Da . . . we have buttoned up almost ALL of the outside projects!! The house looks like a whole new building and we are just pleased as punch at the result.

"BEFORE"

"NOW-YIPPEEE!!"

We learned so much along the way . . . how to paint steel doors bold fun colors, adding front door lights on a unlevel surface, how to deal with difficult individuals, the ins and outs of concrete block weatherproofing.

The crew surverying their domain

New bulkhead corner

New bulkhead corner

Front view of house (my favorite)

New front entrance

The only thing that we would redo in the future is to paint the bottom of the house a different color. Something to heighten the contrast between floors/materials, but it was just too bold of a step for the 1st paint job.

We are just super excited at our progress and are wiping our brows that we did it all before winter.

I know that Gary hates these posts, but I like to use them to see what I really like.  The whole search for a place on the coast came from a fun development off of Pacific Beach, Washington called Seabrook.  They are a planned coastal community of various sized houses dedicated to "fun on the beach" and almost every house is immaculately designed for vacation renters.  

Anyways, today I was pursuing their website to see what fun new houses had come on the market and decided to "save" some of the photos.  

While the bathroom design is not my cup of tea, the colors are!

Focus on the chairs and the half console + awesome lamp

I love this type of table . . . white with a bench!

These are the colors I want to have in the living room!

Can we say "What a set of pendant lights!!"

White counter tops, nautical pendant, eye catching wine rack

Don't you feel like you are in a boat?

Bedroom colors and love the couch!

The bench caught my eye

A nice version of twin over full . . . its that fun lamp again.

Nice to see beds, beds, beds not looking too shabby

A New Bulkhead . . .

Our long awaited bulkhead repair got started this past weekend!! Yippeee!! It took 2 months of waiting for a permit and 1 month of lining up a scheduling window with our contractor. Since our neighbor was not too keen on letting us onto his property, the contractor drove his excavator from the south beach access point all the way to our property (in the middle of the beach). It made for quite the show. We also had quite the log jam . . . hee hee . . . on our side yard for the last few days.




The girls were instantly mesmerized by the whole process, I mean it was a huge excavator digging out logs and man size rocks!! The event also became a community affair with at least 4 neighbors asking our contractors about their bulkhead needs.

We also managed to unearth 2 long garden hoses in the process . . . anybody want to play "where are the hoses in the pictures"? All in all, a very expensive beach item, but necessary. Major kudos goes to Gary for managing the "not so warm and fuzzy" communication between our neighbor and our contractor. Its been quite an adventure.

Keep your fingers crossed though that when they are done, our deck will still be level!!!!

Camping Out in Fairwinds . . .

Someday, down the road, the girls will wonder, "What was it like camping out in our beach cabin?" Well girls, here is a little tour of cabin camping summer of 2011.

The girls had no beds, so they managed to move around A LOT. We often found them in odd, strange places . . . generally near walls.

The living room decor was quite "rustic". All through the summer, each piece of furniture moved to every room in the cabin for various uses. However, at the end of each weekend, the furniture was ALWAYs returned to the "potential" layout.

The "kitchen" consisted of 2 coolers, a much needed electric grill, and a coffee maker that really only brewed hot water. All utensils and plates were stored in a "grocery bag".

The view from the sink is still fabulous and I have figured out that if you brew hot water and then add some left over to the cold dish water, you actually might get a decent temperature for greasy dishes. I also would recommend my reheat waffles and pancakes method, makes mornings so much easier.

This week I am tackling the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers. Its been a BIG learning process, but I think the results will be amazing!!!

Construction Update . . .

Warning here comes the typical house renovation diatribe . . . in every project there comes a time when, one or both individuals, becomes fed up with the delays and the oopsy events that are a normal part of renovation. We hit that about 3 weeks ago!! Maybe it was the whole contractor-money tango or the fact that summer is quickly fading that spurred the "holy moly, why are we doing this?" Luckily, there are 2 of us and eventually we were able to talk ourselves back to reality . . .

Or maybe the view helped us back?

Anyways, the siding is almost 100% complete, the windows are all installed, and the house is only awaiting trim and painting. A few of the more noteworthy "oopsy events" were:

(1) Our contractor accidentally cut off the outside grounding wire.

(2) The nails used around the windows and doors have already started to rust - so "countersink and caulk" came to the rescue.

(3) The downstairs door fell off - meaning, it literally fell off!!

(4) The contractor forgot to make a kitchen vent in the siding - this did turn into a blessing

(5) When going to paint the outside doors, after much prep work, we found the paint had gone bad

Despite all of these setbacks, we are still "Thumbs up" right now about buttoning the place up before fall hits.

Looking way better Fairwinds! In fact, I think the neighbors are even more excited than we are! Still to come garage prep work 101.