Three for the Price of One!

There has been so much progress on Cedar Lane since my last entry that I am going to combine three blogs into one: construction progress, color decisions, and working myself.
Before I do that, though, I can't resist showing everyone just why I have gone to this expense and effort to get that water view.  How beautiful is this, in any season!
 

 

Construction Progress

 

The crew from Skyline Marble and Granite arrived on the morning of March 21st to template the kitchen counters and the vanity tops.  Using strips of cardboard they had the measurements necessary and away they went.  It was suppose to take a week or so to get it all done so I was expecting they to be back this past Thursday or Friday.

On Wednesday of this last week I went to Falmouth for the day to look for fabric and bedding, more about that in the second "chapter", returning in the late afternoon to see the progress at the cottage.  Here is what I found!

 

Done!

 This is not a very good closeup of the granite but it gives you an idea of what it looks like up close.  It reminds me of the black sand beaches with veins of gray/white running through it.  It is Jet Mist granite with an antique finish, making it appear to be soapstone without all the problems of soapstone. 

 

Guest bath/powder room vanity before...

Guest bath after...doesn't look like much you might think but wait...come a little closer and see the surprise...

I found this sink in Mexico probably 6 years ago.  I carried it under my arm onto the plane and through Customs to keep it safe.  It has been waiting all those years in the basement and is finally just where it was meant to be.

Master bath, before and after.

     

                 

While the granite was away getting cut, Russ and Brendan were not idle.  They were putting the finishing touches on the wood treatment in the living room.

The molding all around the room, chair rail I suppose you would call it, will all be painted a white, giving the room a bit of character.

Cannot wait to see the room without all the saws and tables.

 The master bedroom is getting the bead board under the windows to highlight the wall and to look like a headboard.  The bead board will also go into the master bath to tie in the master suite. 
After all that old pine paneling in the old cottage, I didn't want the walls in the new cottage to just be plain wall board.  i think we have given the walls just enough character to appear interesting and timeless.




With most of the chair rail and bead board done, Brendan began working on the master bath tile job this week too.  We went with a very simple pattern, large subway tiles in the shower with small Carrara tiles on the floor of the shower and larger marble like ceramic tiles on the floor.  The surprise and whimsy comes into play in the band of bubbles that goes around the shower. 

Waiting for tile... 

Tile job took Brendan most of the week but he did have to do the shower walls, floor and the bathroom floor too.  I am amazed at his planning and exact cutting of the tiles.  The job is just amazing, the bathroom is better than I could have imagined. 

 

If you look carefully at the seam in the bubble tile strip, you can see that Brendan matched the larger round glass tile so it "bends" around the wall, fabulous.  I have told everyone that I will shower outside all the time but now that I see this shower, hmmm, might have to shower inside too!

 

One of the first days Russ and Brendan were in my old cottage, tearing out trim and taking out windows, I brought this green bowl into the cottage and told them to build me a cottage around the bowl. (Reminiscent of the Kohler ad where a couple go into an architect's office and tell him to build a house around the faucet.) I think they have done it and more!

 

Color Decisions

I have found that making the color choices for the cottage the most challenging decision thus far.  I am trying to marry my parents Haywood-Wakefield furniture from the Blue Anchor as well as the furnishings I have gathered from my cottage.  When I was staging my mother's condo for sale last year, I had her furniture recovered in anticipation of this remodel. 

I have always seen the color scheme to include blues, greens and corals and have been hunting the Internet for over a year to gather ideas. 

Pitcher and future floor cloth which are my inspiration, or so I thought! 

  

As we are a week away from greeting the painters, I had to finally decide.  I took a Sunday afternoon with my neighbor, Deb, and my business partner, Anne, and we decided on colors.  I went and bought test pints and painted several walls in each room to get an idea of what it would look like in different lights.  Here are the colors we decided on. 

 

After painting the test colors on the walls, I decided that the cottage looked just like a basket of Easter eggs. Great for this time of year but not every day. Time to regroup!

I have a friend on the Cape, Mary Sliney,  who is an interior decorator and she came over to consult on the colors. 

 

Here is the revised color palette: the beige and white dove for the great room, the green for the guest room, blue for the guest bath, and the seafoam (all three shades) for the master suite. 

Great room colors and fabric: the coral is on the couches and the stripe is on two barrel chairs found at the swap shop.

Guest room bedspreads with the green and blue colors

 Master bedroom: white spread, the fabric in the front will be the bed skirt, the pillows are very organic and the three colors will be in both the bedroom and in the bath.  Very spa like, I think.











So it is decided, the cottage is going to be less beachy and more calming but I think it is a good decision.  Mary suggested this palette to draw the eye to the views from every room rather than the rooms themselves.  Color will be added, the greens, blues and corals I envision, as we build the rooms.  Exciting and challenging all at the same time.

 

 

My Work Begins

Russ and his team have been the worker bees so far on this project but now I have work to do too.  Years ago I changed out the knobs on my kitchen in Pennsylvania but I kept the brass knobs thinking I would use them elsewhere.  Here they are ready for primer.

Primed and ready for the finishing coats.

 Several coats of hammered bronze, the knobs are ready to be installed.

Knobs are in, ready for a dinner party...oh yes, no appliances!  Guess we will have to wait a little bit longer.

I found this chandelier at the dump several years ago and always knew I would use it at some time.  I had it rewired before I left for Florida and it is now ready for primer too.

Primed and ready for for a final coat.

I painted the chandelier in gloss white even though many thought I should leave it in its "natural" state.  I would have if the green leaves were a better shade of green.  i love it all white and glossy but i did try mixing glazing liquid with a spring green to paint the leaves.

If you look very closely you can see the one green leaf I have painted.  I wish the picture read better but I think I will paint the leaves with the glazing mixture and possibly the flowers as well.  Will keep you posted.

So, That is all we have been up to these last two weeks.  I am exhausted just thinking about what we have accomplished in just 14 days.  Many more decisions are to come this week.  Apparently Russ and Brendan will be finished with the interior construction by the end of the week and the painters will arrived next week.  While the painters are working, Russ and Brendan will be working on the deck and the remaining outside work.  We will probably wait to paint the exterior until it warms up, Spring has not arrived on the Cape yet.  That means that the floors could be sanded and sealed in less than two weeks.  After that the plumbers will be back to install toilets, hook up faucets, appliances will be delivered and installed and I  will be ready to move in.  Cannot believe that we are so close.  Yipee!

 

 

Lessons Learned:

     1.  If you want to renovate or remodel your home, check with your local plumber or electrician to find out who they work with and recommend.  I have worked with Brian and Julie at Cape Cod Plumbing and heating ever since I bought my cottage and after the experience i had with another builder, I decide to ask them for a recommendation.  I have not been disappointed.

 

     2.  Having lived in my cousin's cottage this winter I have found that you can live without a dishwasher.  I use one coffee cup, one spoon, to stir the coffee and then eat my cereal, one cereal bowl, one glass, for both iced tea during the day and for my scotch at night, a fork, sharp knife, and a dinner plate.  If it weren't for Bloomie and her horrid wet cat food, I wouldn't need anything else to get through the day.  Washing and drying in a drying rack allows me to rarely open a cabinet for anything else.  Truly a revelation in our time of excess!

 

     3.  If there were one regret I have so far it is that the windows are not big enough.  They are to scale of the cottage but I wish they were bigger.  I once was talking to a friend who happens to be a builder and he told me to always make a room or addition the biggest  you can do.  I only wish I had done this with the windows.

 

     4.  And finally, remember to write a blog entry in a timely fashion or you will have a VERY long and complicated entry when you finally sit down to catch up.  To all of you who have struggled through this latest entry and have read it all, I apologize! 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINALLY!

The post title really refers to two things: I am finally back on Cape and I am finally getting to post a new blog.  It has been a very interesting time trying to get back up north after a much longer time in Florida than I had planned when I left the Cape in mid-December. The weather did not cooperate with me at all and every time I was prepared to leave there was a major storm hitting the mid-Atlantic and then the Cape.  When I finally had a window of opportunity, Bloomie, my 19 year old cat, got sick and I had to stay two more weeks. Bloomie is better but I have to realize that she will be 20 in the summer and will not live forever. 
No sooner did I cross the Sagamore Bridge than I was chomping at the bit to drive into Cedar Lane.  I had seen pictures from Russ of the outside but it was such a joy to see it in the flesh.  The cottage fits into the space just perfectly, not too big, not too small.  It doesn't make the neighbor's cottages look diminished at all, a goal I have had since first wanting to do this project.

This is what I walk into each morning since I have arrived.  This picture does not do the space justice, it is so much larger in person and you can see what it is going to look like when finished.  You can see that all the trim work is around the doors and the floors are done.  The sanding and finishing will be the final job before I can move in.  Russ doesn't want to do them until we are all done so they don't get scratched. 

Another view of the great room.  Tom, the cabinet installer, has been working for over a week installing the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanities.  The floors are looking better in this picture.  They are pine and really fit into the space perfectly. 

Compact and just perfect. Granite guys come on Thursday to make the templates and the counters will be installed next week.  I am recycling my old brass knobs from my PA kitchen.  I will paint them a hammered bronze to match the rest of the hardware.  I can do that in my shed or in the new basement!  

As you can probably tell, I am dying to start decorating as I already have the start of a floor cloth in its proper place.  The cabinets are fabulous with so much storage I can barely stand it.  The drawers self close, there is a garbage/recycling bin drawer and a spice rack in one cabinet.  Love it already and cannot wait for the first dinner.

 

 

 

Master bath vanity in place.  Tiles for the shower have been ordered and are ready to be installed, probably this next week.

Master shower ready for tiling.  Am having a shower head on a bar which can be adjusted up and down so that you can get a massage while you shower.  The shower head is able to be lifted out of its holder so that it makes cleaning the glass doors and the shower easier.  Clever. 

 

Guest bath/powder room vanity ready for installation.  Doesn't look like much right now but the mermaid sink will be going in here.  As the sink is very colorful, the granite is called blue midnight, being basically black with pips of turquoise in it to bring out the colors.  As of right now the bathroom will be a shade of lime green. 

First glitch in the plans.  You are probably wondering what the large rectangle is to the right of the two finished windows.  Well, it is going to be a larger window.  When the inspectors came they decided that if there was a fire the occupants of the room could not get out one of the existing windows so a larger one was needed.  I had been sorry that we hadn't put in three windows in the guest room anyway but I am not sure I would have put in tow small windows and one larger one but that is where we are.  The room is so unusual in shape as it is, I don't think this will be anything but campy when it gets finished.

 

As you can see, lots of angles and now lots of windows.  You will definitely see the water when you come to visit.  Think I might put in a full bed and use one of the many twin beds I have as a couch, allowing for more sleeping space if needed.  Not sure yet but that seems like a good idea. 

 

Second issue involved the bathtub area in the guestroom.  We originally wanted a pocket door at one end but because of plumbing and electric issues, two doors were installed.  Too much door!  One door had to go and it was decided that the door separating the vanity and the tub was the logical one.  Problem solved.

The walk in closet is getting its shelving and bars.  I have my grandmother's antique chandelier and I think that I will hang that in here.  I will think of her every time I go to get dressed and I think it is so campy. 

Sinks and faucets are ordered, lighting comes next.  I really only have to decide on the pendent lighting in the kitchen as I rewired a 1950's metal,flowered chandelier I found at the dump.  Am not sure if I will paint it one color for above the dining room table or if I will leave it in its rusty, painted finish.  Will take a picture of it and get your opinions for the next blog. 

Paint colors for all the rooms is taking up a great deal of my thoughts as the rooms are all visible from the great room.  The color palate includes corals, blues and greens but in what hues and in what rooms.  Was trying to keep some of the linens and pictures from the old cottage as well as the Haywood-Wakefield furniture of my mother's so this marriage of pieces and colors is a challenge.  My next door neighbor, Deb, Anne and I spent about three hours last weekend picking out several options and so this weekend I will paint some boards and live with it for a bit to see if what we have chosen is what is in my mind's eye.  Living with the colors and seeing what they look like at different times of the day is important.  As I have learned from Kurt and Marcia, it is only paint and it might take a few attempts before you get the right shade.

I also want to paint some pieces of furniture as well as the dining room table and chairs so we have to pick several shades of the same color as to not make the room look too busy.  This is getting harder than I thought it would be.

So as you can see, I have much to think about as well as do.  I am having a great time and cannot wait to see the cottage finished and to have you all visit.  I am off to the paint store, wish me luck!  Next blog will be about color!