Cottage Projects - Update

We have a huge running (unwritten) list of projects we'd like to complete at the cottage. Realistically, it's going to take time.  We could spend our entire summer "working" but I don't think anyone, especially the children, would be happy with that.  Honestly too, it's a cottage.  It's a space we use so we'd like it to fit our needs.  We don't have plans to rent it, so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Because it would be too long to list out what we need/like to do, I've decided to highlight some of what we have done and what remains to be done in those spaces.  And I realize now as I'm writing this that I should have taken progress photos from the same view as the photos from when we first purchased the cottage for comparison.  (I'll do that at some point.)

Living Room



What we did in this space:

1. Caulked and painted the trim.
2. Painted the walls.
3. Started to paint the fireplace.
4. Purchased new couch and love seat.
5. Purchased new rug.

This room is in good shape with only a few remaining items left to be completed.

1. Finish painting the fireplace.  The bricks only have one coat of primer on them right now.
2. Hang the new curtain rod.  (Completed this morning.)
3. Paint the front door.  (Oh, how I wish the old wooden door hadn't been replaced.  Impractical, I know, but old wooden door!)
4. Figure out the light/side table situation.  We'll probably move one of the table lamps to one of the bedrooms to replace an antique lamp that doesn't give off much light.  One of the side tables doesn't really work with the love seat so we need to remove it and purchase a floor lamp, unless we have an electrician install a light in the ceiling.
5. We have a couple of the dining room chairs in the living room for extra seating.  Those need to be painted and (maybe three years from now) I'd like to sew up some cute seat cushions.
6. Purchase baskets to hold shoes by the door.  We don't wear shoes in our house or the cottage.  I actually just keep a pair of house slippers down there to wear.  It's a habit we started when the girls were babies.  Right now, shoes are all over the place by the front door.  Whenever I mention buying baskets, Rich tells me to look in the basement, that surely, there's a supply of empty, suitable baskets in the basement.  (There isn't.) 
7. I'd like to print out some of my beach photos on canvas for the walls.
8. Replace light switch covers (this applies to the entire cottage.)

Hallway

I don't have any photos and it's just a hallway but there was some work to be done.

What we did:

1. Caulked and painted all the trim.
2. Painted some of the wall space.
3. Removed the old furnace vent from the floor.  (Oddly enough, when this cottage was built, it had a heating system with one vent in the floor in the middle of cottage, which also happened to be the hallway.  The heating system had been out of service for quite some time but the vent remained in the floor, covered by a heavy rug, typically seen at door entrances to combat moisture and muck.)
4. Purchased a rug which matches the living room rug and is wide enough to cover the patched floor from the furnace vent.  (The cottage has beautiful hardwood floors (not oak) and at this point, matching them to cover that empty space would be time consuming.  Never mind the cost.  And it would be under a rug, so it doesn't really matter.)

What needs to be done:

1. Finish painting the walls.
2. Repaint the hatch to the attic. (This is a long term goal.)

   

Dining Area

This is the table Rich picked up off the side of the road.



While there wasn't anything necessarily "wrong" with the table the previous owners left at the cottage, it was a little on the small side, for us, even with the leaf and the top wasn't real wood and couldn't be painted.  This table is bigger and nice solid wood.  The wood had a dark staining on it but the top had visible water marks and scratches.  We originally thought to sand off the stain and refinish the top with another dark stain but Rich started sanding and it was going to take forever.  We went with Plan B, which was to paint the top a navy blue and the legs white.  We also bought a bench (still needs to be painted) for one side to reduce the bulk of the chairs.  

Bedroom #1

This is one of the girls' bedrooms.  It has knotty pine paneling on the bottom half of the walls.  The top half was covered in an antique wallpaper, which we decided to remove as it was in pretty bad shape.  We've (really, I've) gone back and forth on whether or not to paint the pine paneling.  While it would look better painted a nice, bright white, it would be so time consuming to complete.  From painting the top half of the walls, we've learned that it's difficult to paint a smaller room full of furniture.  I don't even know how would we get the beds out of the room without taking them apart and no one wants to deal with that right now.  Especially as we are actively using the cottage and need those beds.

I was all "we're going to paint the paneling!" until I painted the top half and then I changed that to "well, someday, I'll paint it."

So I picked out a pale blue paint for the walls and it ended up being a bit darker than I wanted it to be.  It's more like a light blue, as opposed to a pale, barely there blue.  I would be crazy to repaint it so it is what it is.  I don't have a photo to share but the bedding in that room is pink with purple undertones and the area rug has different shades of blue and aqua.  I found an aqua gingham fabric and I was thinking of using that for the curtains.  Although, the gingham is a bit smaller than I'd like for curtains.  Still undecided.

We also rearranged the two beds.  It makes the room less photogenic (I can't believe I wrote that but it seems like everything these days has to be curated) but gives more space.  The only negative is that one bed doesn't have access to a beside table, but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

Bathroom

I still need to sew up a curtain.  I have looked but have not found decent fabric and right now, Disney sewing has taken priority over any sewing.  That trip will be here before I know it.  I also need to print a canvas for the wall. Yes, I've been dragging my feet on that.

Beach Roses

So not really a project, but just some beauty.  Beach roses are wild, climbing bushes that grow like weeds all around the Cape.  At the end of last summer, I noticed something thorny growing right on the property line with our CT neighbor.  Well, it kept growing and now we have a beach rose bush.  It is crazy how quickly it grows.



It was full of blooms when we first arrived and by the end of the week, the bush had a ton of flowers.



Now, if only we had such good fortune with our hydrangeas.