Remodeling This Life

I couldn’t be on this fabulous vacation without sharing some of the awesomeness of the cottage itself. Let me tell you the short version of the story. In 1981, my parents sold a cow and bought a cottage. How cute is that? Three years later, they bought the falling apart cottage next door to the first one. The fixer cottage sat for 15 years until my parents got serious about remodeling it. They decided to fix it up and add on.

My dad, brother, hubby and a couple friends did the huge project that spanned a couple years. There is all sorts of unique, fabulous, authentic cottage charm around this place. I am not going to share the kitchen and living room and bedrooms as those are just what they are. I am going to share the cute unique things that make this place so imperfectly perfect.

I’ll start with the hand built staircase, it’s beautiful windows and a piece of my brother’s artwork being showcased

Moving on up the stairs, there is an area that was cut in and a small staircase leading up to a reading nook was formed. A mattress and a bunch of big pillows and a view out the small window to the lake make it the perfect place for napping and relaxing on a quiet afternoon.

You’ll notice I didn’t tidy up for your visit. Sorry! I hope you enjoy your stay anyway.

Here is the heart of the cottage - a handmade stone chimney from decades ago. It’s the only thing that stayed when the cottage was rebuilt. Well, aside from the fabulous exposed beam ceiling. They kept the fireplace and built around it, installed a gas insert and hearth. We are pretty sure that when the men built it, they were really drunk. My parents and other people from around the lake remember this place from the 60s when they’d break in and drink beer and laugh about the chimney. You don’t knock down that kind of history.

Here is a glimpse of the original ceiling. New skylights were cut in to add light to the living space. In this bedroom, a loft was put in and there is a ladder up to it. Someday, it will be another cozy reading nook or sleeping space. For the time being, it is storage space.

Next, we’ll venture over to the dining area off the kitchen and I’ll show you the amazing table that my dad built (with help). It seats at least 10 and fits the space perfectly.

Another angle from that space so you can see the walls and walls of windows all the way around to the front porch that overlooks the lake.

One more little glimpse into a space that wasn’t being used before and is now converted into a walk-in pantry full of useful shelves and nooks and crannies.

I hope you enjoyed your walk through the cottage. Because it was all do-it-yourself, there are a lot of unique secret little spaces put in to maximize every square inch of the building and windows galore to bring in the sunshine and show off the view.

I love for my home to be pretty, feel cozy, and have a welcoming and lived-in feel. I care about how it looks and strive to make it beautiful. I don’t have a lot of money to do it though, so I find myself having to be creative. I can’t just drop hundreds of dollars on window treatments, new furniture, and decor.  Here are a few ideas from around my house to help make a house a home, make home feel personal and comfortable, vibrant and inviting without spending a lot of money.

Window Mistreatments

I learned this one from The Nester. I wasn’t a believer until I actually tried it and discovered it really was as easy as it sounded and didn’t just look pretty in her photos but was actually functional and pretty in real life. Shocker. Seriously, a lot of stuff I see in pictures I think that people make look and sound easy but they aren’t. This is.

See that? All I did was take napkins, fold them into triangles and hammered them into the wall with upholstery tacks. Instant pop of color!

Flowers

Seriously, I hope you have flowers in your yard. If you don’t, you’re missing out. But, if you don’t, you can hop the fence and take some from your neighbor, just don’t tell them I sent you. Fresh cut flowers are a great way to not spend money and add decor and color to your home, a touch of the personal and natural. In the photo above of my lovely kitchen window are some canna lilies that my daughter and I got out of the yard. Free and fabulous!

Furniture Relocation and Makeovers

I bought this patio set at a garage sale for $20. I don’t mind the green, but I kind of have this love affair with the color red. So I did that. Got some spray paint and added some pop to the dull set and ensured their uniqueness all at once. I’m like that. I like seeing other people’s fresh ideas but them putting a twist on it to make it all my own. So no black or forest green paint was going over this - nope, for me it was all about the red.

And I love it!

In my dining room, I was lacking a buffet. I wanted a buffet. I didn’t like how everything looked and lacked flow without one. Plus, I needed storage. So, I dragged a dresser out of one of the bedrooms and hey, look at that! A buffet! I keep my table linens in it along with my candle collection. It adds balance to the room and makes good use of the space.

The most fun way to decorate for me is to move stuff around. Use things differently, switch things up. it costs nothing and it adds change without having to commit myself. I’m married. Isn’t that enough commitment for one lifetime? Don’t ask me to commit to my decorating.

Melissa over at The Inspired Room has asked people to share their creative concelments. Since I am not at home, but at the cottage where there aren’t nearly as many flaws to cover up, I wasn’t sure what to share. Then I realized that the play area for the kids under the stairs is a creative concelment.

I didn’t even bother to tidy up before taking photos. That’s the point of the concealing, right? We get to just shut the curtains on the mess.

When the cottage was renovated a few years ago, this hardwood staircase was built. Underneath was just an open space that we considered putting a desk and chair for computing and such, but then realized it was a great place for the kids play stuff.

With the help of a couple tension rods and some homemade curtains out of fabric from IKEA, we were able to make the play area whimsical and fun while being able to hide the mess when necessary. And my daughter and son can go in there and play quietly if they want to. Everybody wins!

I have been on a memo, list-making, organizing rampage as of late. Too many last minute phone calls to doctors to check what time my appointment is and too many photos found strewn around the house that need to be hung.

I headed to target and picked up a 4 pack of cork board squares and used some fabric I had around the house and some upholstery tacks.

It also helps, but is not required, that you have a cute helper with a bossy pointer finger

Don’t forget, I am really lazy, not very crafty, but I like things to look pretty. I simply cut the fabric and wrapped the cork board with it and then attached the fabric with the tacks.

I made a couple of them - one for memos and notes in the kitchen and one for photos of the kiddos to hang in my bedroom. It seemed like a fun, decorative way to display things around here and it cost me $5!

I got a little crazy with the upholstery tacks and hammer yesterday. I was at Goodwill over the weekend and hit the jackpot. I walked out with a huge piece of beautiful fabric, a Seven for all Mankind Jeans skirt, a pair of Diesel Jeans shorts, new Stride Rite shoes for Monkey and a couple dresses (for me and her). Spent $29 and was so excited. I loved the fabric but wasn’t sure how far it would go and what I would do with it. I had in mind doing all the windows with mistreated valances in the dining room. Well, there wasn’t enough for all 3 windows for the standard length of a valance, but you know what? I am an unconventional girl and I don’t care if my valances aren’t the “proper” length. I dare anyone that comes visit me to take out a measuring tape and call me on it. Other than any of you. Please don’t. I might cry.

If I hadn’t been totally lazy and actually decided to *gasp* sew the valances, they would’ve been proper. But I am lazy and I am not at all a perfectionist so I grabbed my scissors, my hammer, my upholstery tacks and I got to mistreating. There was no tape, thread, hot glue involved. Just some folding, some tacks and a hammer.

Here is the fabric

And here is my hammer wielding helper

I paid $3 for the fabric and 97 cents for the tacks. And here is the end result

Then I decided while I was going crazy with the hammer and the kids were occupied smearing peanut butter all over the table, I would do something with my windows over my sink. I remembered that The Nester posted recently an idea to use napkins folded as triangles. So I tried that. I didn’t even iron them. I don’t iron. I don’t sew if I can help it. Can you believe I am a housewife?!

So I tacked those napkins up there and voila! 50 cent window treatments. I got the napkins at a yardsale and have an apron to match. Actually, I only used 4 napkins and I bought 6 of them plus the apron for 50 cents so if you carry the 2 and do a little long division you can figure out just how little these cost me. They’re not perfect, but oh, neither am I. We’ll get along quite fabulously, my window mistreatments and I.