And then they were done

Hello all. Nearly two years after starting this project we finally wrapped up the last items on our wish list. We'll use this final post as a retrospective on the transformation of The Cottage.

As we step into the Wayback Machine, we remind ourselves of where this all began. A simple Cape Cod on a quiet street.

As you step through the front door, you are confronted with a classic case of "little old lady" decor. Not objectively good or bad, and we're sure the previous owners liked it, but it wasn't our cup of tea:

The carpet came up, replaced with our yellow pine, painted the walls, changed the window covers, added artwork, replaced or rebuilt furniture:

Then as you continue into the kitchen you get a good dose of the prior owner's style--birds, drapes, and did we mention the birds:

This clearly wouldn't do. We removed the wallpaper border, repainted, installed a wood floor, built some new furniture and replaced others, installed baseboard here and elsewhere, and added a number of decorative touches that really livened up the room. We also removed the baseboard electric heaters here and throughout the house:

Then turning 90-degrees to the left you got the full brunt of the kitchen as it was--brown, 80s-ish, functional, and yet more birds:

 

That became something completely new. Much of the layout remained but the pantry went away, the island got twice as big and rotated, the remaining and new cabinets got a fresh new color as did the walls, and the decorations became much more subtle and colorful (and fun in the case of Hank):

The previous laundry room was also below our expectations--too small/narrow to use and an awkward entry to the house:

So we retiled the floor, painted, installed a more useful sink, added a decorative cover for the water heater, and many other touches to make the room more welcoming (which can also be seen from the perspective here):

The small, third bathroom across the hall from the new mudroom was more than we needed:

We pulled out the shower stall to make room for this armoire, moved around water lines and tiled, painted of course, added a new door, replaced the light fixture, and generally created a lovely, dedicated room:

The other bathroom on the first floor mostly needed cosmetic help:

So we changed the floor tiles; painted; replaced the cabinet vanity, sink, mirror, light, and toilet; and of course the new door:

The two bedrooms both needed more TLC to upgrade them from this:

To better colors on the walls and painted window/door trim white, stunning pine floors instead of carpet, no wallpaper borders, no baseboard electric heaters, and new doors and furniture and artwork:

 

As you move upstairs there was a need to tackle, well, the stairs and the little landing at the top:

 

Once at the top as you turn to your left was this bedroom outfitted for a small army (there was even a mattress inside one of the storage areas by the dormers on the front of the house:

Through paint, a new floor to replace the carpet, and other trimmings we turned it into an artist's dream studio:

Turning back the way you came was an upstairs bathroom in need of a lot of help:

This room that got a dynamic new tile; a new cabinet, sink, light, and toilet; an additional storage cabinet made to fit, removal of the wallpaper and electric heater; and more than a dash of decorative flair:

The other bedroom upstairs needed even more help because the carpet, window trimmings, and color made the room feel small and dark, despite this room having the best, unobstructed view of the water:

This became lighter and airier after being the first floor we installed, brightening the windows, giving the walls a more interesting color, and adding a number of design touches:

Turning to the outside, you would have seen a back deck made of plastic boards and a rotting handrail:

This became painted pine deck with new furniture (including a replacement swing) and attractive white railing that is a good deal sturdier than the original:

The garage went from something functional:

To an all-year garage with drywall, insulation, and two minisplits to control the climate:

As we wrap-up we return to the front of the house where we see an overgrown, somewhat bland entry with a far too-small front stoop:

That became this--with cleaned up flower beds, painted star and shutters, new lights, new stairs, and plenty of standing/sitting area:

Thank you for following along this adventure with us and providing lots of advice, encouragement, and kind words throughout. Take care and see you around the home decor store.

Knock, Knock

Hello all. Now where were we? Oh right, we had replaced one door downstairs (plus two upstairs) and needed to do the rest. This is the next part of the story.

This is what we were replacing. They came with the house and were undoubtedly original. They were serviceable--meaning they opened, closed, and fit the jambs--but not very appealing. They had a plastic veneer over a stiff cardboard/pressed wood interior.

That's why we opted for these, solid pine doors from Home Depot. Amazingly these were lighter and easier to maneuver than the solid core doors we installed upstairs for the bathroom and bedrooms.

As always the first step was the measure and trim the doors to fit. Fortunately since these were now our fifth-eighth doors, we had a bit of a system. The prep work per door was somewhere between one and two hours.

One thing that slowed the process down was having to constantly shift clamps as we trimmed the long edges. We don't have a single clamp long enough to run along the height of the door (akin to the one that runs the width of the door in the picture above) and had to jerryrig something by clamping a piece of wood we used as a straight edge and against which we ran the circular saw.

And you can see how little, plus the width of the saw blade, we took of each side to make it fit.

When it came time to install them we improvised this method to get the height right. These are styrofoam sheets that came as packaging with some piece of furniture. We've found them to be, among other things, knee-savers when doing flooring. Then once the door is screwed into place you wiggle the stryofoam away.

Here's how the first door turned out...

And here's the entire downstairs (with two more doors on the other side of the hallway). We still have to clear coat finish them but like how they look.

Until next time.

Door Dash

Hello all. As we begin winding down our renovation, we have one major interior project left. Upstairs we need to install two more interior doors to match what we put on the bathroom. Downstairs we have opted for something different.

Throughout the entire house are these doors from the manufacturer--plastic, brown (we painted this one), with faux wood grain. Fine but not all that nice.

Step one in "operation double door" was to get nice, solid pine doors from HD. Then we had to trim them to fit the space, both length and width.

Once the door is the right size, we needed to cut a hole for the handle. Fortunately there are cheap, simple guides like this from Ryobi (you can tell the brand by the lime green color).

This kit comes with the drill bits as well, so with a little patience and we had our cutouts.

Routering for the hinges followed the earlier steps for the bathroom door. 

There's still a little routering to do around the door handle because there's a plate around the little part that retracts and actually holds the door closed. Plus we're going to paint these white or stain them clear. Still deciding.

Now all we have to do is repeat these steps four more times!

Until next time.