How I Left It...

Had to say bye~bye to the cottage and that wasn't easy.  Had a few things happen in the last few days of our trip and getting home....well let's just say it would have been really easy to come up with an excuse not to go back so quickly.  But it wasn't in my cards to stay any longer....so we cleaned it up for our guests and off we went.  Here are some finished product photos of a few of the projects that I worked on this trip...HANG ON~

The new wall that had to be built inside the bedroom to make the bathroom more functional, now is a perfect place for my personal PHOTOGRAPHY, shots that I have taken over the years at the beach.  Can you say art on a BUDGET!  They are frames from Target $14.00 each...my prints from Wal-Mart less than $2.00 each...finished product looks like a MILLION BUCKS!

The letters over the window...old metal sign letters found in the fields in Warrenton Texas, just $5 each.  My Mom helped me sew a revamped bed skirt...out of muslin...I left the edges frayed I liked the look, only $15 bucks for the fabric, we just sewed it on to the existing bed skirt and it worked like a charm! 

I can't even explain how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE this piece of custom art that I received from a dealer in Brimfield. She fixed it a little extra special for me...a little burlap here makes it just that much more perfect!  Thank you so much Sandy! 

You can't see it cuz of the glare...but the letters framed from my Gal Pal Janet....says BEACH, LOVE IT!

A few little sea shell accessories!  

 A few vintage linens for the finishing touch...

A final shot from the new bathroom looking out...

More photos to come...hope you enjoy!

Before & After...

Just another few teaser photos of the tiny bathroom remodel....

Before...LOOK at the TINY DOOR!

That window is now in the bathroom!

After ~ What a difference a few weeks makes...

The combination of the tiles turned out great!

It's still not huge, but it has a great tall utility cabinet next to the vanity for plenty of storage.

A slightly different view today than from picture #1

This complete job was done on a BUDGET...even though this is a mobile home...if you would have a contractor do a job turning a 1/2 bath into a full bath...it would be a huge amount of money, probably in the neighborhood of $5,000-$9,000 depending on your choices.   I didn't have that kind of money...so this project was done on a budget WAY less than that.  In the next few post I will go through some of the ways that I was able to cut chunks out of the cost of the remodel. 

Choices, Choices, Choices...

When doing any project there are so many choices to make...and not all of them are *FUN & EXCITING* choices.

Usually...I can make decisions quickly and swiftly, but sometimes you just get hung up!  I was doing some of those NOT SO FUN things and decided to take a stroll over to the lighting section of LOWE'S.

Here are some of the *FUN* lighting fixtures that I saw...

This one I really loved...it was a fabric oval drum shade type of hanging light fixture with the Satin Nickel finish....it was just light and airy.  LOVE THAT!

This one is looked like sea shells ... and had that bronze or black finish.

I had to LOSE my ceiling fan when doing the latest project of expanding the en suite bathroom...so I am on the hunt for a new ceiling fixture option...but it's gonna set me back just a bit on budget, because the location of the lighting has to be moved....I've gotta get creative! 

One of the next *FUN* choices that have to be made...plumbing and lighting fixture finishes.  Is it gonna be Satin Nickel or Oil Rubbed Bronze? Hmmmmmmm.....

More to come! 

Longing For The...

B E A C H!

These flash cards came from my dear friend Janet of Rubbish/Sweet Talk, check her out for some flash cards of your own!



I could really use a few days at the shack...and it would be a great place to hop on down to! However, we are getting ready for our next show in Brimfield, so there is no time for the beach!





My Mom & Dad stopped by and spent a few days with us on their way back from their 2nd home...FL and it made me want to go to our little ol' shack....





I started looking through my photos from this past winter and I found a few to tease you with!


The chunky shelf was Pottery Barn...see what I did with the flash cards...randomly placed in a see thru frame from Target only $12.00! The photo on the left side of the shelf was one I took out on the island! More teasers to come.....until next time!

More After Shots...

Here are some additional after shots of the shack. Today we will talk about the cabana room...before it was "oh so grandma gone bad!!!!!!!"

Today it's "not to shabby"...

Our 2 Ice Blue Wing Back Recliners only $36.00 EA

The vintage egg basket used for a magazine rack.

The vintage French grain sack used as a body pillow.

The bamboo style floor lamps that I was going to pitch, topped with a

$14 drum shade from Wal-Mart, still looking ok....

Looking from the cabana into the kitchen/dining room

The dresser bought at a yard sale for $15.00 repainted and re purposed for a TV Stand.

Just scroll back through the earlier post...you hardly won't believe the transformation. The paint colors we used where Coffee n' Cream & Porch Swing. FYI.

More to come!

Sorry I have been MIA...

I must apologize, I have been MIA. With all the construction, then the holidays and life in general I have not been posting. We have spent the last few weeks cleaning up, putting things together, celebrating with family and FREEZING, yes FREEZING! It has been soooo unusually cold here. I know, I know you say poor Tricia...but we passed all of our beach days during renovation, and now the weather has changed and the temperature is not going our way :-(

Today, we had lunch out at the island and then did some antiquing and shopping. We hit my favorite shell shop, and picked up a few items too! Here are some photos of the great finds I have been collecting for decorating our shack and also some items not pictured that will be heading home to the shop. Finding things on a budget are not has hard as you might think....you just have to turn a few more stones...

Enjoy!

That tall clear vase, picked it up today for just $10 including all of the mini star fish.

Picked up these vintage pillow cases 2 sets for just $40 this set says Gal & Guy!

Another shot of that awesome tall vase & my neck pillows made from vintage fabric from a textile mill in Texas.

These AWESOME @ and & symbols I picked up at a Home Goods store for just $12.99 ea! The all white Matlesee under the @ sign, picked it up for just $1.99 today at the Salvation Army....$1.99 WOW!

A vintage clock dome for only $8 and a large sand dollar just $2.50

A vintage wooden step stool with beautiful original aqua paint...and my cool sea shells!

Large Star Fish....just $2.95 ea WOW!

Vintage flash cards....I have a plan for these!

Large heavy rope wrapped ball....I am using it as a cool door stop, just $14.95!

More to come....stay tuned!

Renovation Day...I lost count...

The yard is full of debris again, a toilet in the front drive is a first...with yet another trip to Lowe's...and a little more money out the door...we came home with yet another load of supplies to make repairs to the shack. Total demo was not in the plans until we found an un-foreseen plumbing issue that couldn't wait to be taken care of until next year...so hey we got a new bathroom out of it! :-)

We really tried to not hit the budget to hard since we were not planning to renovate the bathroom until next year so we managed to make a few budget conscious choices and here they are...

An outdoor siding that is designed to look like cedar lap siding. Made from a cement & paper mix. We didn't use it as lap but we butted the edges and it looks like a complete wood wall....AWESOME look! Best of all the boards come in 12' lengths and they were only $4.50 per board, much cheaper than wood! It cuts easy with a circular saw and we installed it with our small air power nailer with finishing nails, gave it a quick coat of paint and we were done. It could have also had a whitewash technique done on it if that was the look you were going for.

Sadie is wondering when this is going to be over with.....I wish I knew girl!

Stay tuned for the finished product!

Just Another Renovation Day...

As we came back from NYC our "To-Do List" was getting pretty small, and we thought we were on the down hill slide of this reno. I had already gotten my mind right that I was going to forgo my extreme dislike for our bedroom and 1/2 attached bath...and I was going to make it my mission to just live with it until we came back next Winter. We arrived back from NYC late Sunday afternoon, had a nice dinner and went to bed early.

As I woke up on Monday morning, I was looking forward to a quite morning...however I was awoken by the sound of Jerry ripping down wallpaper off the walls in the bedroom. I said "what are you doing", he replied "if I would have told you what I was going to do you wouldn't have slept at all last night...", and he would have been right. I was thrilled....even though it wasn't going to be the full fledged re-do that I was going to do...it was going to be a nice face lift and I was excited! I mean who wouldn't be....this was the U-G-L-Y room in the house...I mean REALLY U-G-L-Y.

While we were pulling off the wallpaper smiling...Jerry opened the access panel that hid the plumbing to the nearby bathroom. That was a mistake...but I guess one that would have been uncovered eventually...so when they opened the panel they found a plumbing problem under the house...and the bedroom face lift came to a hault and the bathroom that we hadn't planned on fixing until next year...well it came to the forefront.

They started by trying to go under the house but with no success, they came into the bathroom and by the end of the night there was a big hole in the floor and the only thing left in the bathroom was a bathtub! So the renovation budget took a small hit! When doing remodels, these unforeseen problems pop up, and you just never know what you are going to run into. We were happy to have found the issue before it had become much worse.

We will keep you posted on the progress, it is coming back together and Jerry was able to fix the plumbing problem with not to much hassle...YEAH!

Renovation Day 16...

Sadie & I headed out to Petsmart to get her some dog food...and headed to Lowes to return some items and get some brackets for a shelf project that we started a few days back...I know we bought the brackets....but we can't find them here in the house....can you believe it!

The Fedex man brought our glass tile....and we were so thrilled!

We put together our make-shift wine rack , one that we made from a Closet Shoe Rack...and it turned out great! A budget decision of only $29.00 and it holds a whopping 15 bottles! WHEW HOO!

I cleaned the yard a little, cause we were starting to look like the hillbilly's again, and we were off! The bracket shopping trip was un-successful and we were back.

Trim was getting finished up and we were on a roll until our bellies started growling!

We headed out for a lunch on the beach and to meet some of our friends and after 3 vodka & tonics later I could have cared less if we did another construction project! :-)

Cheers for now!