MY COTTAGE ON COOK---A Previous Rehab-House #6

Most of you that have followed my blog

for a while know that we have moved

many times.

Since MyHero and I got married we

have rehabbed 15 houses (I think)

I may have forgotten one or two~!;>)

Anyway, 

I thought it might be fun to post 

a few pictures of some of our rehabs because 

I started this blog for my family.

 I imagine each one of them thinks of 

a different house as

HOME!

In the beginning I didn't take many pictures.

I only had a Polaroid.

Remember those?

So, the first few houses have sporadic pictures

but I will try to dig some more 

out of my old books as I go.

So-

Here you have Move to House#SIX 

(Dec1989-July1994)

Cottage On Cook

This house had been on the market for 5 years.

It was an obsolete floor plan which we 

figured out how to fix by moving one wall-
which gave us a huge family room.
It had 4 bedrooms and 2-1/2 baths.

It reeked inside because they kenneled

dogs in the basement.

Yes! Real kennels!

In the basement!

It was a mess!

It was also a BARGAIN!

The most dramatic transformation

was on the outside.

I don't have any befores that I can find.

But we painted it from red stained 

(dark red) board and batten

to what you see here.

We replaced windows and put up a picket fence.

After we were done the front looked like this.

in December.

Summer snippets-Dining room window

Living room window (again)

Front entry and little window in the attic

There was a little light behind that window that went on automatically at dusk.

All the kids believed a family of elves 

lived up there.

I'm pretty sure they did!

MyHero went up to replace a lightbulb and

 was going to paint the window grid 

cream color but he 

got disoriented and could 

not find his way back to the ladder- 

I had to tap on the opening

to guide him back----shhhhhhh

I think the paint is probably still sitting there.

This was a cute house-good-sized- 

with about 2500 sq.ft

plus a full basement that we fixed up.

It had a nice yard that backed up 

to an undeveloped field

and I copied ideas I had seen 

in someone else's yard.

If nothing else I am a good copy cat!

So---what do you think?

Do you like these posts of old houses even if

some of the materials and colors, etc.
 might be "dated"?

Let me know -because I have a 

BUNCH OF THEM!

Otherwise, I am going to resort to showing you

pictures of MyHero doing things like

THIS!

Yes- He was jumping over a chair.

Yes- He was over 60.

Yes-He has issues!

And YOU ALL think I am

THE CRAZY ONE!

MY MASTER BEDROOM COPY CAT Re-Do! FINALLY- HERE IT IS!

Grab your coffee-
This is a long post.

 I LOVE it when the old boy

goes out of town for a bit.

I can move mountains when I am alone.

I can also move beds and other furniture!

So-our bedroom has been the same 
for a long time.

Rather bland.

Nice enough but

it just kind of happened.
I used what I had..

But- As I was going through the

Ballard Catalog a couple of weeks ago

I spied this bedroom and it was my 

INSPIRATION to DO SOMETHING.

So-I almost pushed MyHero out of the house 

to go to his seminar so I could get started.

I had been sewing and stashing stuff 
in my closet

for several days.
I am going to take you WAY BACK 
to when we moved in.
Our bedroom now was the old family room.
We blew out the wall to the right which gave us access to the old garage.
We took part of the garage for our bedroom.
On the other side of the new wall we created
you will find a hall, 
MyHero's office and the laundry room.
Most of you will remember that we made a tri-level
into a functioning two story.
The windows here were all moved to the new garage addition.
Sorry for the grainy old photos-
it was a disposable camera.

When you look at current pictures
that  far window will be in the place
of the small window to the left of our bed.
On the opposite end of that room 
is a fireplace and that
became a small sitting room/study...
which I will show another time.

Here is a little after/before:
Isn't THAT confusing?
This is how it has looked for about 8 or 9 years.
To the right is the entrance to the master bathroom.

I still love the rose painting and though you

 can't tell it here the colors in the painting 
 are not good with this wall color.
I have shuffled that off to another room.

So---What did I do?

Here's the materials I started with~

I wanted to use some toile I had and it was the perfect shade of blue.

See that cording?

Well, it is the STIFFEST cording I have ever worked with.

I bet I broke at least a dozen needles 
because even the EDGE 
where you were supposed to stitch it was 

HARD and stiff.

I might or might not have said a 
couple of naughty words to myself
every time I broke another needle.

After I sewed my little heart out
and had shoved MyHero out the door,

 I stripped the bed and started layering.
It is such a dreary day I had to turn the lamps on.

I can see my pillows are a little wonky here...

I should have done a bit of fluffing before pictures, huh?
Oh, well- you know me-
Keeping it real here.

I painted an old bench that I had and placed it 

at the end of the bed.

The rug is one I had stored for years.

My husband picked it out and it is one he loves.

Aubusson rugs are not my favorite 
but the color is perfect.

While I would love to have a 
hardwood floor in here

it is a poured cement floor -
done to level the 
old family room/garage transition.

New lamps:

Another peek with lamps in place.:

MyHero loves the soft blue color.
It is my early Christmst present to him.
The mirror is a gift from my son.
And he came and hung it for me.
There is 1/8" clearance top and bottom....whew-that was close!

 I hung this sweet little bird on it.
He has just a touch of the same soft blue I used throughout!

The white roses came from MyHero
what has HE been up to, I wonder?
and the vase was made by my friend, Jan,
 that I don't see often enough.

Here is the old ugly dark brown,
 scarred up piece I painted
with Annie Sloan paint.
It holds the TV set and videos.
I need to redrill the holes so the
 handles aren't on there wonky.
I'll get right on that!
This is a soft aqua-ish blue-but-
 the color doesn't come up right.

And- in the corner -this holds some of  the extra pillows at night
Also painted with AS paint and recovered the seat.

Here is the view from MyHero's pillow.
It looks at the cove formed by the bay.
See what I mean about it being a dreary day?

This is the view looking straight out at night.
That is the moon shining off the ice on the bay.

SO-Their you have it!
Side-by-Side
Ballards Design and My CopyCat Redo

Whew!
I'll be off eating bon-bons, 
watching soap operas and
sipping white wine the rest of the day.

uh-huh

IF you believe that- I have some personal stocks
you might want to invest in.
Trust me (or not)~

Rehabbing A European Colonial Revival- Part Two

When I ran my little survey
several of you said you liked the 
pictures of the rehabbing we did 
on the homes we lived in.

This is another area of the house we rehabbed

in the Hysterical Historical District.

You can see the front porch and foyer here

If you remember the front looked like this after we painted.

I am not sure what happened to two of my

photo albums so I am reduced to using the few

free-floating pictures that I did not put in an album.

So- these pictures are sketchy, at best.

After you step through the vestibule

there is a center entry hall.

As you can see it was in pretty sad shape.

You will notice if you look into the back entry

that we moved the door to the far right side.

That is because the porch was hanging away from the house

and open on both sides.

I used the radiators as opportunities to decorate

for the Season.

Formal living room is to the right.

Dining room is to the left.

Notice the GREY drop leaf desk?

Was I ahead of my time, or what?

This was 15 years ago! lol

I am not sure WHAT is in the back hall

propped up on slats.

Some project I was working on....

More pictures coming as I get them scanned in.

Meanwhile,

Happy Friday!

I am spending the day alone-Whoo Hoooo~

Rehabbing House #10- A European Colonial Revival

Well, I did such a long post yesterday

that I will make this one short and sweet.

I think this was House #10 out of the 14 or 15 

we have rehabbed and lived in.

We lived down the street one block from this house

and it was owned by friends of ours.

They listed us as an exception to the listing contract

while we made up our mind 

about moving one block.

Ultimately, we decided in a couple of days

that we would take the plunge.

This is what the outside looked like when 

we moved there.

The thing that makes this a 

European Colonial Revival

(so we were told)

is the Palladian window inset on the top.

Most Colonial Revivals have a peaked front.

If you look close you can see the original

"panel" pieces between the upstairs windows.

There were no shutters on the house and the 

landscaping was not in good shape.

This is what it looked like 6 months later.

We put a driveway in and I landscaped the front.

This house was on the historical register and was built in 1897.

She was a beauty.

Close up of the front porch-

Before-

It had a navy blue ceiling and a burgundy front door that was not original 

to the outside of the house.

It also had wrought iron railing 

that had been added in the 60's.

Front door:

This is what it looked like freshly painted with 

historical colors

Ill show you the vestibule  

just inside the front door  today so you 

can see the door and the restoration we did there.

Before

That door that you see was originally the INSIDE foyer door.

We moved it back inside and replaced the

vestibule windows that were missing.

Here is how it looked once we were finished

and had installed the 

leaded glass front door and windows.

We also replaced the crown moulding which had been taken down.

That is Mr.Midnight sitting on he floor to the left.

He was the smartest MALE cat we ever owned.

We had a female that was even smarter....

and that's all I'm gonna say about that~

So- that's it for today.

I will show you some more pictures of this house

as we restored it in another post or two.

You can see the backyard makeover I

did on this house HERE.

Have a great day.

I am picking the girls up from school so that 

SWEET CHEEKS

can pick a winner.

If you haven't signed up yet for my giveaway

HERE

you still have a chance until about 3pm today!

Making A Powder Room In A Closet

Several years ago we owned a home in

Door County, Wisconsin

Door County is called the

Maine of the Midwest.

It is gorgeous.

If you click the link above you will

see how beautiful it is.

Anyway,

We found a house that had been sitting vacant

for several years.

The house was stone and in very good shape

but was dysfunctional in some ways.

It desperately needed a powder room

that would service the main living part of the house.

There was a closet that opened off the back hall.

The closet was 3-1/2 feet by 5 feet.

By putting in a pocket door we were able to 

install a functional bathroom.

Now this was BEFORE I knew ANYTHING about

taking pictures (like I do now) THAT was a joke-

So, the pictures were taken with the dreaded FLASH

and the decor, by today's standards, is dated,

but it was great at the time.

I used a poster, cut the hands out 

and applied it to the wall

next to the ceiling.

I then took paint and started 

highlighting and shadowing

the applied piece.

Everyone thought it was hand-painted on the wall.

The walls were lightly marbelized.

I was able to put a small sink in there.

I used a glass shelf to keep things "light".

You can work a bathroom in just about anywhere

if you can get to the plumbing from 

the basement below.

That was the bonus to having an unfinished basement in this house.

The great thing about this house was 

that the lot went down to the channel

between Lake Michigan and the Bay.

We were able to divide the lot into

three sections.

We sold the house with one acre

and sold another acre off and

still own one lot.

Why no one had figured it out before

we did is beyond me....

but that is what happens when you are 

constantly "looking".

LOL-

It's a disease!

I will show you more pictures of this

property in the future

if you are liking these rehab posts.

Let me know~

Ummm...getting close to 700 followers!
You know what THAT means!
A GIVE-AWAY.
Hmmmm...what to give you!
I was thinking of a framed
8x10 of MyHero IN BED!

I'm just having a hard time deciding 
which picture I like best!
okay-that might not be the
REAL GIVE AWAY