Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Another Fish Joins the School

Wow, I had no idea I hadn't posted anything since May.  Sorry to those who are interested in the progress of the Snook.  The good news is, it's DONE!

New countertops and backsplash...



New shower...


Lots of loveliness...





 









If you are interested in booking this before I get it online with VRBO/Homeaway/Flipkey, etc just send us an email.  We'll start booking for dates after August 19th immediately.

CHEERS!

Also, I am going to post about the retail space this week too.  
VERY EXCITING THINGS coming up in there.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Multi-tasking

I thought we’d be down on our productivity this weekend since some good friends spent part of the weekend with us.  We went out on the boat over to Boca Grande on Friday, an anniversary tradition that got postponed due to the high winds last weekend, and had an amazing lunch at the Boca Grande Club.   However, when they left on Saturday, we were right back into improve and fix mode.

The weekly trip to the big box home improvement store yielded a piece of trim we needed to add to this wall so it would appear to match the rest. 

note the irregular paint on the back wall, there is no chair rail there

We know the prior owner did all his own woodworking, so we figured we’d have to get something remotely close in size and shape and then stain it.  However, in the trim section, there was some trim that was the same exact color and width as the rest of the trim.  It’s not the same exact shape, but being where it is and mostly covered by furniture, for the 5 minutes it took to install, it’s a great solution.  We just put some liquid nails on the back and it was cut exactly so it pretty much held itself in place (which, since I was the one who did the measuring and started the cutting, was total luck). 

yeah, I forgot to take a picture before we moved the furniture in front of the patched trim,
but trust me, it looks good!!


We hung the pictures we had set aside for the Snook, as well as put the rest of the bed (frame and headboard) together.  The trip down on Thursday night also had us bringing more kitchen supplies, misc décor, side tables, and some fabric samples to add a throw pillow here and there.

We got house numbers that Chris attached to a cool piece of driftwood, and mounted to the front of both the Tarpon and the Redfish.  I’ve been wanting those out there to make it easier to describe which building is which for our overnight guests. 

Chris also did his first solo spray paint project; he prepped and painted the old “Eiffel tower” statue that is part of the mailbox out front.  (The mailbox that doesn’t get any of our mail, by the way…I was told by the Cape Coral mail station that the local delivery lady can’t safely get to the mailbox and when I asked where we can place it to get mail delivery I got a “let me get back to you” and that was at least 2 months ago).  Anyway, I regret that I did not get any pictures of that or of the house numbers so I will have to post those in next week’s update.

I’ve not posted pictures of this yet; this is a mural painted by the artist David Ruhe.  At first we had planned to cover it in some way since a mural of outerspace seemed a little out of place, but now we’re (I’m) rethinking it.  It sort of blends in now that we’ve painted the dark blue.



So I think that was it for the weekend!  Here are some remaining pictures of the Snook.  Aside from the countertops and backsplash in the kitchen, these views probably won’t change much.   Our handyman is working this week to get the washer/dryer in the pantry room, and then we’ll be able to build in the bathroom shower.  That will be exciting since we’ve both been using the outside shower each weekend for the past month J




Thanks for reading!!


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A HUGE Thank You to our Friends

I've mentioned in past posts that various pieces of furniture were given to us by friends, but I thought a post that specifically mentions what we have been given was overdue.

We have been incredibly lucky to be the recipient of so many donations of furniture and appliances, I can hardly believe our good fortune.  We have received, for FREE:

  • a washer and dryer
  • a refrigerator
  • two bicycles
  • 3 sets of outdoor lounge chairs complete with cushions (some brand new) and side tables
  • 2 TV stands
  • a coffee table
  • a dining table and 4 chairs
  • miscellaneous decor items, some used in the cottages and some used to stock the store
  • clothing items to help stock the store
And, most importantly of all, countless hours of help painting, cleaning, moving, putting furniture together, and just being excited about our venture.

A HUGE thanks to all of our friends, you know who you are :)

Weekend Update - 5/5/13

This weekend was our 7th wedding anniversary and we had a wonderful suprise visit from some friends from up north - so we didn't do as much work as we did the past two weekends, but still got much done on the Snook.

Most importantly we got a bed in there!  The frame and headboard arrive this week so we'll add those this weekend.

I painted the inside of the closets and the bathroom.  We also put together a small desk, and brought down a small table on which to put the TV.  The table was a freebie from one of our wonderful friends.

Our handyman finished demo-ing what used to be the shower, and will be starting the replumbing for the washer/dryer and retiling this week.  After that is done, we'll start the construction on the shower.

Still trying to figure out what we'll do for kitchen countertops, but no hurry there.

That's all for this week!  I'll take some great pics this weekend once the bed is all put together.





Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Progress on the Snook and a new bed in the Tarpon

It appears we have correctly named the Snook Cottage.  Chris saw a snook in the water outside the cottage 2 weekends ago, and again this past weekend.  Seems they like hanging out around their namesake.

This weekend we painted the cottage.  We knocked out all of the main room with just the baseboards and some touch ups left.  The closets and the bathroom will need to be painted too but no hurry on those.

Initially we had though about painting the top half of the walls navy blue and then putting up white beadboard or board and batten on the bottom half.  However, when we got into the cottage again we saw that we had forgotten there was already a dark wood chair rail going through the cottage.  That, in addition to the adjacent creamy white beadboard cabinets made us change plans and go with this instead.  Plus, any art work we put up top will look better against the vanilla color vs the navy blue.

Sorry for the pictures being so dark, I was in a hurry and just used auto settings.


It's hard to tell here, but we painted the kitchen walls floor to ceiling in the navy blue.




We need to add a matching chair rail to the far wall.  That wall used to be french doors leading into the gallery.



  
We also made some more progress in changing out fixtures from brass/silver to oil rubbed bronze. 

Next up: continue to furnish, repair TV, figure out shower, countertops, backsplash, repair or replace microwave, finish paint....no small tasks.

Also this weekend we moved a daybed into the front/2nd bedroom of the Tarpon, and moved out the futon.  We think this will be a huge improvement to anyone utilizing the 2nd bedroom.  We've had a few people who needed the 2nd bedroom turn us down because they didn't want to sleep on the futon.  While we thought it was comfortable, we don't blame them at all, and think this is a much more comfortable solution.  The bed has a pop up trundle that with a king size mattress pad/cover will be a comfy king bed for a second couple, or can remain 2 separate twin beds for kids or adults who do not wish to share a bed. 



Thursday, April 25, 2013

T-shirts for sale!

Wow.  Just like most everything else we've done, these shirts were a loooooong time coming.  First to decide on and order, and then getting them up online.  But, they are here and they are spectactular.  Well that might be an overstatement, but they're pretty cool.

The men's shirt is this American Apparel shirt.  It could be the most comfortable t-shirt in the world.  Everyone who has worn one says so.  The seafood shop across the street uses them for their t-shirts so we copied them after realizing how wonderful a shirt it is.




The women's shirt is this Next Level shirt.  I decided on this t-shirt after buying one at a concert and falling in love with the deep v and the fitted, long length.  It's also super soft.







Existing quantities are pretty limited - you can buy one through our physical store, our online "shop" page, or just email me!