This past week was a big downer.  Found out our 16 1/2 year old kitty has lymphoma.  The vet expects him to have another 3-4 weeks.  The only possible treatment is chemo, and I am not going to put a geriatric cat through that. 

I covered his belly for the picture since it is still shaven from his ultrasound.  He's doing very well though, all things considered.  He had stopped eating almost completely but with a combination of appetite stimulants, syringe feeding, sub-q fluids and predisone, he is eating (and eliminating) normally again. 
Took some updated pics w/ the new camera this weekend.  Still on auto as I didn't have much time or energy to play around w/ the settings.  New from the last set of pics: we got a piece of glass for the table behind the sofa, got the TV service started, upholstered the bench by the bed, painted and upholstered the desk chair, painted the desk, got a piece of mirror for the dark frame that will go over the desk, got a larger flamingo picture, and hung a few more things on the walls. 

Next weekend I hope to hang all the curtains.  We're putting a panel on the wall behind the bed, in the spaces between the large door/windows in the front room, over the small bathroom window, and over the shelves above the laundry.  Still waiting on the living room rug; last word was it should ship next week.

Well the Tarpon cottage has really come along.  We painted the entire place (save for some touch up in the bathroom) and have all the furniture in except for this rug still on order.   It was supposed to ship the end of Sept and is now delayed until mid-Nov.  I will be pretty fired up if I wait this long and it winds up being canceled so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's just a delay.

I'll show the pics I took this weekend and then describe what is still to be done.  There's quite a bit but fortunately I will be working on it during the week at home in Tampa and not trying to fit it in while down in Matlacha.

Here is the front room, i.e. second or spare bedroom.  The doorway is to the left of the first picture.  We will move the fishing poles when we start to rent this out.  I think we may also paint the futon frame white or maybe espresso.

The fabric hanging is what I have on order to make curtains.  I'll hang 2 skinny panels to hang between the windows (to the left of where the fabric is in the pic).  They will be mostly for decoration but will function to cover the windows if desired.  Also those large dark fish on the floor will become wall art once I get the hanger things for them.

The flamingo picture is too small; we will get a larger one and/or fill in w/ other art.  There will be a mirror hanging over the desk.

The desk and chair are now in the garage waiting for primer and paint.   I am torn between a look like this

orange desk, white chair, turquoise and white fabric.

OR

white desk, orange chair, this for the seat (only on the reverse side where it's white w/ orange dots).

Onto the great room.  Still missing the above referenced rug, the pictures need to be hung, and I'll probably add another set of throw pillows on the couch.  I reupholstered the ottoman this weekend though and I'm lovin it!  Also didn't show the part of the room by the door as it was messy.  The table behind the couch is pending a new piece of glass and there is a plain board on it to hold things.  Also....I have to find a new light for over the island if I can't find replacement covers.  They are currently cobalt blue and while they don't bother the husband, I am way too AR to see past them in this color scheme.  In a perfect world I would have more neutral tile in the kitchen and bath too (or maybe I would have planned my colors around what is there, but that would have been too easy).

And the bedroom - the footstool is not upholstered yet i just have the fabric laying on it.  A few more pictures and there's really not much else to do in there.  Actually I take that back.  The more I look at these pics the more I want to see some fabric behind the bed.  The wall is small enough that maybe I'll hang curtains across the whole thing.

I might need to paint the wooden frame around that window white.  There's also no way to center the bed on the window and have a reasonable amount of room to get in/out of bed on that side.  So off-center it is and AR be dammed.

I got a new camera today - the Canon G11.  I am so excited and anticipate future pictures will look much better.  They better, anyway... that's how I sold the camera purchase to Chris :)

1st of THREE moves - check!

Friday we rented a U-haul trailer to take down the furnishings for the Key West Cottage.  Ikea delivered the bed, mattress, and sleeper sofa (and 2 bookcases for the boutique) to our house, and we loaded them onto the trailer along with the buffet, dining room table and chairs, desk and chair, end tables, coffee table, 4 arm chairs, and a few misc boxes and linens.  It was a long day as we did all of the loading/unloading just the two of us.  BUT it was SO FUN to sleep there Friday night in the partially furnished cottage!  We slept on the mattress on the floor since the Ikea bed is still in boxes.  That will be phase 2 this weekend, where we supply lots of beer and wine to our friends in exchange for furniture assembly and painting.

Here are a few pics of the cottage.  We will add the couch, bed, and some decorations this coming weekend.  We will also paint the walls a light gray-white.  And take much better pics.  And steam the wrinkled chair covers.  And add a layer of polyacrylic to the dining room table top.  And probably do 2 dozen other things.

I.  LOVE.  IT.

My newest love...

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....I am so in love with our newly painted dresser. 

Remember this? 

Of the hidden bonus panties?

Well now it looks like this!!

I am LOVING it!  Here it is along with a redone dining room chair that will be in the same room.

That chair used to look like this

I sprayed so much turquoise paint on Friday that when I blew my nose it came out turquoise (probably not so healthy on that....need to grab some masks next time) and my arm/hand was sore the rest of the weekend.

Moving right along

We spent this past weekend in Matlacha - another meeting with the bank to talk about financing and to open a business account, and another meeting at our accountants to get some training on using Quickbooks.  Tiki was welcome at both meetings.  I may start taking this dog friendly stuff for granted - god forbid I wind up in the ER or something, I'll be all "and why CAN'T my dog be here?  what kind of place IS this????"

We stayed at the Bridgewater (not view) Inn, which was nice and close for all the back and forth we did with the new property.  We took our photographer friends, Wendy and Davis, around to show them the property, meet the owners, see Pine Island, etc.  They loved it and we're all super excited for them to display and sell their photos.  Rich and Lesa joined us as well for Saturday day/night.

The owners had a bunch of furniture they wanted to leave if we could use it.  They also have decades worth of tools bought specifically for the property.  Between the two lots, we should have everything we'll ever need.  Included in the furniture lot is a ton of restaurant stuff.  Will make it easier to jump into that when we're ready.

Also took some detailed measurements so that I can start figuring out the store floorplan and what racks and displays we'll need to buy and arrange.  One of the detailed measurements was of the master bedroom in the owners cottage to see if our king sized bed will fit.....it will leave about 18 inches on each side of the room.
I think we're desperate enough for our large bed that we'll live w/ the tight space!

I made a list of all of the furniture things I need to finish and it's painfully overwhelming.  I thought I got such a head start on it, but once the frigging garage filled up, I couldn't really do anything (using spray paint anyway), so it came to a standstill.  I was planning to continue to procrastinate last night but felt the need to get something, anything, done....so I sprayed and covered the seat on this chair (it was already primed).  Baby steps :)  This pic is before I put the final coat of turquoise on. 

as a reminder; here is the before picture:

Also of note; the buyer for our home came by last night to learn all the details of the pool/dock/house maintenance.  He even brought me a bottle of wine!  These buyers couldn't be nicer and more excited about our home.  I am so thrilled.  Today is the inspection so pending that; we're golden!  Still looking at an August 15th closing date.

2nd and 3rd official completed makeovers

With the restaging of the house brought opportunity for bringing some things in from the garage to use in the house.  I'd been waiting to make this coffee table into a bench and realized the foot of the bed in the larger guest room would be a perfect place to put it. 

Coffee table before:

And after!

I LOVE it.  And it was super easy. 

Even easier was just painting these tables.  Not quite as exciting but at least they serve a purpose while we wait to furnish the new place.

Goodwill end tables before:

And after

Next up will be a pair of Captain's chairs from Goodwill - plan to re-paint and replace the canvas/fabric.

Chair alteration, misc pics and inspiration

I wasn't happy with the way the chair cover fit once I moved it to the actual chair that it will be covering.  We have 3 of the Ikea chairs, one is a little different from the other 2 that match, and the one solo chair was the one I tried the cover on first.  Even though I thought for sure it was smaller than the other 2, the cover actually fit looser on the other 2.  So I "took in" the parts that were too loose and it looks a lot better.

Plus it's hemmed now too.  Love it!

I've been browsing on the popular website Pinterest lately for ideas.  Here are some random pics of ideas and inspiration as well as stuff I just like.

Decor and color inspiration

Ideas for things to make

I think this next one is my new favorite saying!