Long time, no updates…

It has been months since my last post, and I have exciting news! We moved to sunny Southern California. We made the big move last October and haven’t looked back. People ask hubby and I all the time “did you move for your job”? The answer is no…we moved for the SUNSHINE. West Michigan is an amazing place to live…but the winters are long and gloomy…and I was struggling through each winter…wishing away our precious time…waiting for the sunshine to appear. When O was a tiny baby, we put our 5 year plan in place. Why 5 years? We wanted O to be in CA to start kindergarten.

We put our “cottage” up for sale, and it sold in a couple of weeks. We moved in with friends in SoCal on October 9th (watch for a future post on this), and started our house hunt. I have been watching this market for years…I knew this was a moment in time that we could afford to buy a house here. Then, all of the sudden, the housing market started going CRAZY…we put an offer in on a house…and there were 9 other offers. WHAT?!?!  Prices were going up FAST and we needed to figure out how to get into the market while it was still in our price range.

In mid-February, hubby stopped into a real estate office in an adorable neighborhood we thought would be perfect for us…we immediately clicked with a realtor in that office and, within a week, she had found a house in the neighborhood we wanted BEFORE it was even on the market.

Drum roll please…here she is!

See those French doors on the right…that is going to be my office…and it has a peak ocean view! I am beyond excited to show you pictures of the inside. We cannot wait to personalize the space and make it our own. This is truly a dream come true!

I’ll share more updates soon!

A New Plant…and pet???

Last year, while browsing through my Ballard Designs catalog, I spotted a beautiful plant that I wanted for our cottage. This isn’t the exact photo, but it is the same plant on the bottom left of the picture.                                                                               {Source}

I ripped the page out of the catalog and took it to my local florist to see if she could tell me what it was and order one for me. She identified the beauty as a Split Leaf Philodendron, said they were easy to care for, and placed my order.

The last week of June, my plant was in. It was love at first site! Pardon the picture quality…this photo was taken by O…which is fabulous for a 4 year old…don’t you think? He loves taking pictures with the little Canon PowerShot camera he got for Christmas. He obviously sees me taking pictures all over the house…so this was one of the shots I found on his camera. But, I digress…this beauty was a welcome addition to our living room with its long limbs and dark green leaves against the white trim and built-ins.

When I got home from work Wednesday night, I was greeted by an extremely excited little guy…”mommy, mommy, look what I found…can I keep it as a pet”? I approached him pensively…since said pet was currently residing in a small plastic cup with saran wrap on top with holes cut into it to provide air. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

Actually, surprise may be an understatement…there may have been some shrieking…”where did you find that”?? I was more horrified when the answer was “running across the carpet in the living room”. EEK! How on earth did a GECKO end up on my living room carpet…in West Michigan?! My plant! I gingerly peeked into the plant expecting to be attacked by a family of geckos…but saw only a bunch of white balls in the soil.

After consulting Google, I realized those were, in fact, EGGS! Eeeeek again. I attempted to get my neighbor, Lisa, to remove the formerly beautiful plant from the living room…but she refused citing her fear of snakes and reptiles in general…so we agreed to carry it onto the patio together…to protect the cottage from the gecko infestation we knew was imminent!

Once the offending plant was on the patio, Lisa and I had a much needed glass of wine while O used his “Backyard Safari Field Tools”  to carefully remove as many of the eggs as he could find from the soil of the plant. There were A LOT. I drank another glass of wine and was feeling much calmer by the time hubby arrived home and promptly told O that the gecko was “so cool” and “of course it can be your new pet”.

Stay tuned…apparently geckos are insectivores and usually live where it is HOT…which Michigan is right now! O has named him “Pickles”…hubby voted for “Phil” to represent the plant…but Pickles won out.

What about the plant? Well, after more research, it is apparently quite unusual for an egg to hatch in the air-conditioned house. Assuming he is just a sole survivor, I let the plant back onto our screened porch…hopefully it will make it back into the house by the end of the summer.

Does anyone know anything about caring for Geckos? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Welcoming Guest Room

My mom’s guest room is finally complete! We made the trip for the 4th of July and hung the new drapes and added the final details. I will share more next week on the details of how we made the drapes, pillows and artwork…but today it is all about the pictures!

First…a quick peak at the before:

And now, it is completely transformed to this…

 

Doesn’t it feel like a breath of fresh air? My mom and I are so excited with how it turned out. The room feels so much more open and spacious….and meets the needs of her guests much more than before.

I am headed to Minnesota for a long weekend with wonderful friends…hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Patio Transformation with Concrete Stain and Stacked stone fire ring

We have been busy enjoying our beautiful Michigan summer! Anyone that has ever lived in the North knows that summer here is enjoyed with a gusto. We spent our weekend enjoying our family at the lake. I also got some sewing time in…I completed the curtain panels for my mom’s guest room and a couple other finishing touches. We are headed to her house to celebrate the 4th of July and will be finishing the room. I am so excited to share the BIG reveal with you next weekend!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you an outdoor project we completed last summer. Hubby’s original cottage had a very large concrete patio…I mean ridiculously large…and grey….and ugly. We got a quote on getting the concrete stamped to give it more interest…but were shocked when the quote came in at over $7,000. Needless to say…we came up with a Plan B…and decided to stain the concrete to give it some life.

First, we pressure-washed the patio and then applied a burgundy concrete stain to compliment to navy blue siding. Here is my hubby applying the stain…in socks…doesn’t everyone wear socks when they stain?

The stain was just the change we were looking for…it brought the patio to life…we were very happy about the end result.

We already had a fire pit in our yard…an essential for living on the lake….but, after watching an episode of Yard Crashers, where they had added an amazing stone fire pit, I wondered if we could move the fire pit to the patio? There was plenty of space…it would be level, not on the grass…so less dampness and mosquitos.

I did some research and discovered that in order to put a fire pit on the concrete, you need to first create a hole in the concrete so that water can drain. I spoke to hubby about it…and the very next weekend he showed up with a concrete cutter…he was on board! And…so was the rest of the family…that is my step daughter in the background and her husband giving hubby a hand.

Here they are just getting started with step 1…installing a metal fire ring…

Step 2: stack fire brick around metal ring using mortar.

Step 3: Begin stacking the stone around the brick. They used the stone that didn’t need cuts or minimal cuts first. Once they got to the top layers, they used a wet saw to fit the rest of the pieces in perfectly.

This project took two full days with two guys…a rented wet saw…and approximately $250 in stacked stone bought from a local landscaping supply. The result is fantastic…well worth the effort!

 

Roasting marshmallows on a beautiful summer evening…one of our favorite summer treats!

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Room Peek

Hello All – Wow- things have been busy around here…but I wanted to share a sneak peek of my mom’s guest room. Two weeks ago, we went down for the weekend again. We painted the trim, touched up the walls, installed the window shades and then started unpacking the boxes of goodies we had purchased for the room.

The daybed from West Elm had me at hello…it is beautiful!

My little guy tested out the memory foam mattress we purchased  from Overstock.com. What a great buy…the price and delivery time were fantastic, the mattress is extremely comfortable, and it arrived conveniently boxed via UPS.

The dresser, again from West Elm was beyond our expectations.

 

It was fun getting all of the accessories in the room. I don’t think I will leave both lamps on the dresser…but the side table for the bed is another in-process project.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete the room for my sister’s arrival. I received the fabric for the drapes the Monday after we returned home and we weren’t able to get back down there before her arrival yesterday! We are enjoying our visit together now.

What do you think of the room so far? I just love how light and bright it is. Remember the before?

We are hoping to return within the next few weeks to install the drapes (first I need to make them), I also need to complete the pillows for the daybed and add trim to the shades and paint a side table. I will be sure to keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Room Mood Board

The guest room at my parents house was made up of my parents original bedroom set from when they were first married in 1965 and a bunch of miscellaneous pieces that overwhelmed the small room. It was outdated, lacked light and space for guests to feel comfortable.

My mom, sister and I have something very fun in common…we all love a good design show on HGTV! So, a couple of months ago, I asked my mom if I could redo her guest room. To my delight, she agreed. The room had a full size bed, two dressers and a chair…a lot of furniture in a small space.

Here is my design for the room:

{Sources: Pearl Beaded Mirror $150, Illuminated oval mirror $27, Fabric $10.95 per yard, Saratoga light-blocking roller shade $17 each, White wood curtain rod $12, Serpentine Storage 3-drawer dresser $360, Luggage Rack $77, Simply Shabby Chic Elegant Neutral Comforter $80,  tie pillow case $45 , Window Daybed $381, Glass table lamp $80 each, Carat Wall Hook $18 each}

With space in mind, we determined that a daybed with a trundle would be a better option than keeping the full size bed. The large mirror will help to reflect light in the small space and provide a nice spot to get ready in the morning.

Hooks are for towels, jackets, handbags, etc..

Room darkening shades will keep the room dark to encourage sleep for grandbabies. I plan to embellish the shade to make it look more custom. I will also make custom panels for the windows using the fabric from Tonic Living.

This last weekend we made the trip to start the process. Hubby and I cleared out the room, painted the ceiling and walls and did some other organizing. O helped paint too…he was in the mix the entire time…he loves helping grandma! My mom plans to strip the blue crackle paint from the dressers that used to be white and put them in her bedroom…which I think is a fantastic idea…they have great lines and are well made.

We are heading back down this weekend to touch up the paint or give it a second coat and start bringing some of the new items into the room. We are trying to meet our deadline of May 5th when my sister, niece and great-nephew will arrive for a visit….and hopefully a big “reveal”.

Stay tuned for more to come on this fun project!

 

Hello Monday…on Tuesday!

Hello Monday…I didn’t get any projects completed this week…but lots of things are in process.

Hello to a great weekend in Traverse City at The Great Wolf Lodge with this sweet little guy:

He was quite proud of himself after conquering the lily pads.

Hello Monday morning and a new septic system…umm yeah…not so cottagey. But, if it means I can do virtually unlimited laundry AND use my soaking tub again, I am in.

This was not an unexpected event…it has been looming since the house was remodeled…but the issue came to an ugly head on St. Patrick’s Day in the middle of our dinner party. I will leave the story at that or hubby will surely die of embarrassment.

Hello new $5.99 acrylic earring holder from The Container Store…how I love thee.

Hello herbs in clay pots. Unfortunately, I didn’t label the pots…so I need to wait until they get larger to determine which herb they are. I brought the pots into the house since there was a risk of frost last week.

Hello kiki…I see you checking out my bounty. I’m keeping an eye on you!

Hello getting ready for the Easter Bunny:

Hello to a fun, new project I hope to share with you later this week. I was hoping to have it done by today…but I failed to read the IMPORTANT message on the paint can:

Is it just me, or are you wondering how there came to be this sort of important message on the top of the paint can? When I was on my fourth coat of paint, I was thinking…is this EVER going to be covered…and then I had to laugh when I put the lid back on the paint can. The lid with the message for ME.

Have a great week!

I am linking up with Lisa Leonard and her Hello Monday series.