Renovations Begin, North and South

I have to admit, I love to plan and design a new space.  Bet nobody who knows me understands that!  If there are no clients around who want to pay me to renovate their house, I will just buy one and do it myself!

Since I hate the tile in the kitchen, I decided the first project would be a floor cloth which would cover most of the floor.  As many of you know, I use vinyl flooring for my floor cloths, gotten from the dump, of course. 

  

This is how it all starts: cut out the shape and prime the backside of the vinyl.

       






                Here we are in the middle of the project.  Everything is measured out, center field painted and the corners are done.  Coral design, downloaded from the Internet, has been enlarged and traced into the four corners. 
           FYI...145 black squares lined and painted...but who is counting.

Finished floor cloth is in the background, coral field and turquoise corners with orange coral in each corner.  I am pleased. 

The chair in the front comes from the Haywood-Wakefield dining room set from The Blue Anchor.  I think the plastic seat cover is original, needs to be updated and in the correct colors!

Chairs recovered with Sunbrella fabric.  Stain resistant and color fast.  Always a great idea for dining room chairs. 

While I worked at the cottage, Joe Gramm reupholstered  and worked magic on cushions for my Haywood-Wakefield chairs and this little chair which will return to Florida.  The bolsters will go at the end of the couch.  The welting on the cushions is left over fabric from the dining room chairs.  Fabric for the cushions is tablecloths, on sale at Home Goods.  Stain resistant and color fast.  They even were on sale!

Today I went to only one Swap Shop ( that is because only one was open!) and this is what I found for the condo.  8 vintage, etched wine glasses, 4 flutes, also etched vintage, for Prosecco I'm thinking, white canister set whose tops I am going to paint orange, two platters, a towel hanger, a bar measurer (although I don't measure) a cake server and the two candle holders in the background which I am going to fill with beach glass and candles.  Now, really...how can I not go every day?

 Meanwhile, work began on the condo.  First thing to do is get rid of the white carpeting in the bedroom, walk in closet, and the great room.  An improvement already.

Very Yucky!

I found these sconces at a flea market in Idaho last summer and could not resist them.  Did I have a place for them then, no, but they were too good to pass up.  So, Ron (the photographer in the picture) is going to remove the mirror and the light fixture in the powder room, add the wiring for the sconces and when I get down, we will add them.  Cannot wait. 

The team has been hard at work getting the condo painted and ready for the new floors.  The color looks a bit dark in the pictures but I think it will be just perfect when the furniture arrives.

 Master Bedroom:  such a happy room and the views out the balcony door and the windows is fabulous. 

 

The movers come in about two weeks and then the real fun begins.  I am taking the corner cupboard from the Blue Anchor too and will use that for display and storage.  It is getting really exciting, I cannot wait for it to be finished and for company to start coming.  make your reservations early, my "dance card" is filling up!  Seriously, come visit we have a great time all winter. 

 

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Return!

As many of you know I have been going to Florida for the past ten winters always renting a condo.  The condo I was in last year is going on the market and I decided it was time to look into buying one of my own. 
Zillow is an amazing site which allows you to spend hours searching for properties that are available.  After looking for months, I found a one bedroom, 1 1/2 bath unit with an amazing view in Ponce Inlet, just a few minutes from Daytona Beach.  Several friends either live or rent in the community, Harbor Village, and it looked like it might be a good fit for me.

Here is the view from the balcony, facing west, overlooking the Intercoastal...a great sunset and cocktail spot!

I flew down to Florida in July to make sure the condo was a good as I thought and to look at a couple more just to make sure this one was a good fit.

 

 

View of the living room/dining room from the kitchen area. 

Right side of the great room looking into the bedroom.

Front door with the kitchen to the left and the powder room to the right.







Lovely furnishing, right?  Told the owners that I wanted the condo emptied before settlement.

 



The condo has a really large kitchen for its size which was a selling point for me.  I did think about replacing the white appliances but then I decided that a change in the countertops was more important.  Granite is going in, hardware will be changed and updated and I think it will be just fine. 

Master bath:
Really strange setup with a walk-in shower in the picture and a tub, all by itself, on the opposite wall.  Cannot justify making changes here as of yet.  Am sure I will be able to talk myself into redoing this next year.  Already have plans to take out the tub and put in a walk in shower and loosing the shower and making that storage.

 

After a bit of negotiations, the condo was mine the middle of September.  I have found a great contractor who can do just about everything and the next post will show you the progress we have made so far. 
Cannot wait to get there the end of October.  The movers come around the 23rd of this month and then I will either drive or fly down myself.  Then it is time to use up some more of the furniture from my mother and many, many items found at the dumps!

Upcycling 101

 

I am having renovation withdrawal after spending so much of my time this past year thinking about and renovating my cottage.  Now that the summer has past and my traveling is done for awhile, I wanted to just review all the items I have used in my cottage that I got from the "dump" or the various swap shops. 
When I tell people what I do three or four days a week, visit the swap shops and store my "stuff" in a garage and a storage unit, they think I am a bit off.  I tell them that I must go to the dumps every day they are open or I must be the founding member of  "DA" otherwise known as Dumps Anonymous!
For those of you who are reading my blog and do not know the origin of my passion, I will give you a bit of the history.  I bought my cottage in 2005 and furnished it with yard sale and thrift shop finds.  One day when I was getting my hair cut, I mentioned to my hairdresser that I was needing an iron.  She asked me if I had been to the "Treasure Chest".  I asked her what that was.  She explained the swap shop philosophy here on the Cape.  Our transfer stations, or land fills, are full and every community on the Cape has to haul their trash to western Massachusetts and pay by the pound for it to be dumped.  In order to save money, each dump has a section of their grounds dedicated to a swap area or swap building for people to drop off what they no longer need or want but that is still working for others to take.  This saves the communities hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. 
I found my iron and my new path after retirement.  In the years since then we have renovated and furnished five houses and worked with local Realtors to stage listings of theirs to better show the homes  and hopefully appeal to a broader audience. Along the way we have discovered that when we work with  a realtor and have a realtor's open house at the same time we have our estate sale, to sell the furnishings we have saved and rehabbed, we get more foot traffic and more exposure for the listed house.  In many cases our sale brought in the ultimate buyer. 

Just one days finds.

_____________________________________________________________________

A Before and After

 

Our first rehab using finds from the swap shops.  The drapes are new and the couch is the same, everything else in this living room came from the dump: lamps, art work, furniture, material for slip covers, the Pottery Barn slip cover for the couch, everything...amazing.

My "new" dining room set was found at the dump, it just needs some TLC.

 

 

 

Here is the final result...

 

A good upholstery tip to remember: look for stain resistant tablecloths on sale.  The seat covers are Ralph Lauren tablecloths gotten for about $2 a yard.

 

Another tip:  prime and spray paint old knobs. when the paint cures they are good as new and can save you tons of money.  I used my old knobs from my PA kitchen for the cottage.

 

 

Perhaps my favorite up cycling done in the cottage was this chandelier.  I had it rewired just to be safe.  Primed and spray painted it white and glazed the leaves a light green to give it some depth but not too much color.

 

Hung and ready to shed light on a dinner party!

 

Here are just a few examples of the final products now living a new life in my cottage.

 

These barrel chairs just needed to be reupholstered.



 All my dishes, glasses, and most of my serving pieces have come from the dump.  I look for good design, color and vintage items. 

 

 

I have started to collect colored bottles whenever I find them at the dumps.

This little guy, "an educational souvenir" from Memphis, Tenn. was one of my first finds.

Vintage pieces such as this towel bar and Victorian purse just make me happy.  All I had to do to the towel bar was sand, tape and spray the metal parts white.  Saw a similar one on Etsy for $135.  Now that is ridiculous!

 

 

This Hadley covered dish was a dump find.  It tells you that the dish is empty with the words The End printed on the bottom.  That will be my cue to end this blog entry, don't want to bore you with too many of my "finds". Let me just say that it give me great joy to save these "finds" and to use them each and every day.  I have not included most of what I have saved, you will just have to come visit to see it all. 

 

 

Housewarming!

Moving Day: May 18th
Housewarming: May 25

On the first morning I was in the cottage, with at least 50 boxes to be unpacked, it dawned on me that in six days, there would be at least 25 people here for dinner.  This lead to the continuation of the 12 to 14 hour days.

So, as I unpacked, I also prepared of the party. 

Pies baked and dinner cooked, all ready for the first guests.

Bar ready for the first customers. 

Deck is ready for guests, unfortunately it was too cold and rainy for anyone to go outside!

David Knauer, a friend from high school, circled the house and bless it. 

Seems that Jane, Barbara and I all got the black and white memo. 

When I first bought the cottage, I was amazed how many friends from my life are here.  In the picture are Howard, a friend of my mother's, Mary Ellen and Billy, friends from PA, Jane a new friend and Barbara, who I have know since the first day of college.  How blessed am I to have all these people still in my life.

Jonathan, Lisa, Leah, and Anne.  I have known Jonathan since I was a kid, his parents and mine were best friends.  Lisa and Leah are new friends we met at a wine tasting dinner at Norbella's a few months ago.  Anne is my cousin's wife and my business partner.  I could not have packed up my cottage or have moved back in without her help. 

Rosella, Liz, Lisa, Leah, Jonathan and David at the pie bar.  The blueberry tart was the hit of the dessert table.

Howard was 91 earlier in the week so I thought it was only fitting to celebrate his birthday too.  I was fortunate to accompany Howard to Washington D.C. two years ago on an Honor Flight, a program that allows WWII veterans to visit the WWII Memorial.  It was one of the most moving and memorable events of my life. 

Howard about to tell one of his stories, got to love him!

 Mermaid and starfish hooks for the outdoor shower, really great.

Early the next morning the swan pair with their four babies were on the pond, a great way to wake up and the reason for all the renovations. 

 

 



 

Lessons Learned:

1.  Renovation a house doesn't make it a home, friends and family do.  I am so lucky to have a wonderful new home where friends and family will eat, drink and be merry for years to come.  What more could one ask for.  Thank you all!