Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Countdown is ON

Yesterday we signed the contract and sent in the first deposit.  It took an entire month of going back and forth between lawyers, talking to bankers to make sure we can get financing, and negotiating the details but we're finally there.

One thing that almost held us up was the commercial kitchen.  The lawyers were saying the sellers said that ALL contents of the commercial kitchen belonged to the women currently running the restaurant...including the appliances i.e. stove, fridge, etc.  WTF?  I got all fired up over that one.  We reminded them that the pictures on the website and all descriptions described a working commercial kitchen....not one that needed appliances.  We plan to replace the chairs and tables anyway so that wasn't a big deal, but to have to install cooking equipment?  Anyway....issue resolved, the appliances will belong to us.

So, next on the list is the inspection, which should occur next week. 

One more month until we can start making it ours!  I am dying to start moving all the crap out of our garage and put together the first cottage.  I haven't posted a recent picture of the garage but I will soon....it's a spectacle.  And I'm up to over 100 items of women's clothing sizes XS/0 to XL/16.  I think I'll need to double to triple that to have a decent inventory July 1. 

Monday, March 21, 2011

Key West Cottage Decor Ideas

Since I have no more pictures of my own that I can share, I will post some ideas and inspiration pictures here.  If nothing else it will help ME to get my ideas together, and maybe some of you friendly people can weigh in on what you like and don't like.

My initial color scheme idea is yellow/gray/white/turquoise.  I am still debating on in what quantities each color will go.  If it were just my regular home and not a rental, in my dreams it would look something like this:

But yeah, not only does that room cost 86 billion dollars, it wouldn't exactly tie in with the whole Matlacha fishing crowd.  That will not deter me from having it as beachy chic as I can possibly get away w/ though.

Since that room in the pictures doesn't have any yellow, here are a couple with some yellow/gray and yellow/turquoise, just to see the combo all together.


Here's a pic of the living room as it is now as a reminder of what we're starting w/.  As you can see some of the trim is wood.  The baseboards are white and the walls are white.  My initial thought was to paint the walls a light yellow and the trim white.  The door is a strange light blue which I'd probably also paint white. 

So for the living room (this room), I'm thinking a gray area rug.  I'd love a white rug, and I did find a decent option at Lowes that is sort of a white/cream/gray blend that would probably be pretty dirt durable, but I do love this one and it would probably be better for hiding dirt.  It's just more $$ than I had wanted to spend, but given that the entire furniture purchased so far adds up to like 45 cents, I may justify the slight splurge.
I also love this one from Ikea, and it's only TWENTY dollars, compared to more than 10x that w/ the one above, but it's a little bit too small for the area.

Alternately I could torture my husband and go for my signature animal print....that's always fun...


As for seating....after hour upon hour, day after day of deliberating, I have somewhat (like the commitment?) decided on these from Ikea.  The room is simply too small for a couch, so this is a loveseat sleeper. 
Sitting across from two of these chairs
Leaving them either as they are in dark gray or covering them like this

But maybe in this fabric, which ties the color scheme together.  See this chair from Target, which used this same fabric as upholstery for one of their chairs.  Love it!! 

From here my biggest variable is how to paint the furniture - the desk and chair, coffee table, and end tables that will go in the room.  Obviously white is always an option but I'm loving these brightly painted pieces. 
I'm pretty sure I will wait to get the place partially decorated and decide which gets what color then. 

One exception to that is the dining room dresser/buffet/sideboard, I am pretty sure I will go straight for turquoise with that one.  As in BEFORE:

AFTER (the color, not the actual dresser):
Picture that with a white dining table and chairs,
Upholstered with something like one of these




(moooooooo......yes it's doubtful there will be a complete lack of some sort of animal print)

Then with a plain indoor/outdoor rug underneath, like a gray jute or something like these

And finally, the teeny, tiny bedroom!  Unless plans change we'll go w/ this bed from Ikea, since there is no room for a dresser in the room.

We'll add some shelves on either side instead of nightstands, since you won't be able to open the back drawers if there were nightstands sitting next to the bed.  Like this:

I will probably upholster a headboard like the above too, perhaps w/ this fabric


I'm stumped on bedding for now too....there are lots I like but I have to keep reminding myself who the room is for.  So I'll probably keep it pretty plain; either solid or a simple pattern like stripes.

I was going to do a big rug underneath the bed, but again the room is only slightly bigger than the bed itself, so most of the rug would be wasted.  Instead I found two small rectangle faux sheepskin rugs that I'll put on either side of the bed for comfy morning feet.


OK, give me your thoughts!  (girls, you can email me you don't have to post here).

And yes, I'm already planning the next one...  Here's a sneak peek of what I think the inspiration will be for the colors.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

I love surprises....most of the time

Tuesday I came  home early to show the house.  I took advantage of the extra hours and started priming some lamps and various metal decor items I had bought to refinish, then started cleaning and sanding the new yellow dresser. 
Here's a better pic of it in the garage.


I am loving this piece - it's not fine furniture by any means but it's perfect for a buffet for the small dining room in the Key West Cottage.

When the lady dropped it off, she mentioned like twice that it was marked "purchased in 1979".  Well she was close. 
This is what it actually says.




Sort of like this flower,

it will be a shame to paint over that.

So the joy didn't end there....first as I was removing the drawers I found this


Not sure if this was a small towel or a pair of socks, I didn't find it necessary to inspect that closely, especially when after the next drawer removal these appeared....


Seriously.  It's better than finding a giant spider,
but still pretty gross.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Check out the current Coastal Living article

I checked just now to see if it was online yet and it is.  Here is the main article, and here is the part just about Matlacha/Pine Island.  Hopefully the next time they run an article like this we will be mentioned!!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Weekend Update - furniture priming begins!

 Had a super productive weekend. 

On Friday I powered through 7 pieces of furniture and some oil based primer.  Half way through I wanted to stop....but I was starting to see how cool it will all eventually look, so with the help of some Advil, I continued until each piece had 2 coats of primer. 





Still to do - the large hutch type piece, 4 end tables, 3 lamps, dining table and 4 chairs, and this newly acquired beauty


Bought this off of Craigslist yesterday - $30 delivered right to our door. 
It's perfect for the space and I plan to paint it turquoise.  Love.

We also had a neighborhood yard sale and in addition to unloading 1-2 Jeep loads of stuff that we no longer need/want/use, we made $115 (at the end of the sale there was a Goodwill truck that took any unsold stuff we wanted to unload and we took a full car-load there).

And finally, we had 2 last minute house showings; one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  And got a call for another tomorrow (on top of another tentative one scheduled from last week).  So at least we're getting some exposure, seemingly at least as much if not more so than the houses on our street that are listed w/ realtors.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Trash to Treasure?

This is our garage these days.


I have mixed emotions about this....I'm half proud-half embarrassed by this Sanford and Sons set.   Proud that we're being so thrifty/recycling/creative, but definitely embarrassed that it looks like such total ass. 

I plan to paint every one of these babies.  They have all been sanded as of a couple of weeks ago.  Then I sort of stopped, somewhat overwhelmed by all the work ahead.  Last night I needed to suck it up and get back to work.  I made some progress by dusting them all off and placing them all on some sheets so that tonight I can get right to priming before I have time to realize I'd rather be on the couch with a glass of wine watching House Hunters International. 

Here is the piece that started it all.  Well other than the Pottery Barn mirror, but that doesn't need refinishing.  This little gem was had for $3 at a garage sale the day after we knew we were on our way to a deal.  Now that I've shopped around a bit, I realize I may not have much use for this table, but really, how wrong can you really go for three bucks?


Later that same day came the pieces I posted about here.

The ten dollar antique hutch
We were on the fence with this.  It had a $20 price tag on it, which wasn't the issue....we just weren't sure if we would use it.  While we were deliberating, the owner came up and said we could have it for ten.  Sold.  It's actually really cool.  It had a rotten piece of wood, which I scraped out and replaced, and a broken piece of glass which I also removed.  We are just going to remove the glass on the other side since we'll just use it for store display or something.

When she offered the ten dollar hutch above, she offered her previously marked $30 cedar chest for $10 as well.  Again, no real planned use, but it's gorgeous.  It had some broken feet on the bottom but nothing a little gorilla glue couldn't fix.

Here is the metal decoration on top. 
And finally, the five dollar desk. 


So this fine day we spent $28 on 4 pieces.

Next up (I think the next day?) I ventured out for some Craigslist tables.  4 of these Thomasville end tables, 

and this matching mirror (like it matters since they'll all be painted)

for $24/total.  Since we really don't need so many end tables I am planning to cut the legs down a few inches and add pads on top for seating/benches for the yoga room or wherever.

In search of a coffee table, I picked this up from another Craigslist ad for $20.

The drawer is obviously out for painting.  I am thinking about upholstering the top to make it more
ottoman like.

These came from Goodwill.  I was going back and forth on them for $20 when the guy offered them for $12 for both.  After confirming from Chris that he didn't find them hideous, I splurged.  I think just about every household in the 70's had these tables.  I love their retro goodness.



Another Goodwill trip found me these matching, but more importantly WORKING, lamps...for $8/both.

Hold on, I'm almost done....I swear (for now anyway)

In search of a chair for the $5 desk, I found the $5 chair at Goodwill.  I think this is going to be adorable with paint and new material.


And last but not least....another coffee table.  I wasn't looking for one, but while at the property this past weekend, we came across these beautiful bamboo tables that had an open area at the top filled with sand and sealife.  This is not even remotely in the same league, but since those tables were $900 and this one was $30, I think we can make an "inspired by" version that will be really cute.

This is Chris's favorite part.  He is literally begging me not to paint over this.


This, however, was my favorite part.  Three pieces of what appeared to be bran cereal....stuck to the inside of the glass covered area.   Sweet.

Oh and let me not forget our dining set....which is my favorite price - free! 

Donated to the cause by my co-worker.  I'm leaving this in my office until we can start moving some stuff out of the garage which will hopefully be early April.  Then these will be phase II of sand/prime/paint/upholster.  That is if doing all of the above doesn't completely burn me out and cause me to run screaming and crying
to Rooms To Go.

Tonight (maybe...hopefully) the priming will begin.  I can't wait to see how these babies transform. 

Oh and the grand total for all of the above?  $127.  $137 if you include the $199 Pottery Barn mirror.