Tweeking the decor in the Redfish, Tarpon complete less one LONG awaited rug

It's funny - in taking all these pictures of the decor, sometimes it takes seeing a picture to realize that I don't like something in real life.  That is what happened with these yellow tables.

Looking at the pictures, I realized they looked too dorm room/color by number/bright/matchy-matchy, etc etc.  Every time I looked at the room it just screamed HEY!  I'm Yellow!  Did you SEE ME?  I'm YELLOW!  It became my new mission to replace them.  I also thought some of the art we placed would do better slightly moved around.  I decided a mirror next to the door would be awesome to reflect the water view from the other side of the cottage, and since we placed a small shelving unit on the right wall, the art there had to be moved.  So the final result is here.  I do not see anything drastically changing from these pictures.

Here's the bedroom w/ the bed made differently....SO important and life-changing, I know.

And.....since my last posting of the Tarpon, we did a few additions; wall art and curtains.  We are literally one freaking taking forever rug away from this being finished.  And maybe a light fixture once I figure out what to do about the cobalt blue.

Stick a fork in this cause they're done!

AND holy crap!  As I was editing this post THE RUG ARRIVED.  I can't believe it.  I ordered this mo-fo in August.  You will have to bear with one more set of update pics next week :)

When it rains....it pours

Well maybe it's not "pouring" but compared to 4 months of no offers, last week was definitely a strong shower.  Not only did we get the official offer early last week, but Friday I got a call from a realtor who showed our house in June.  She said her clients have a contract on their house and were hoping to move forward on ours; but it was slightly out of their price range, so they wanted her to ask if we were willing to negotiate.  I've no idea if they would have been able to give us a price we would consider or not, but told her about our contract and said I'd keep her info if it doesn't go through. 

This weekend we're going to take another load of stuff down to the property.  We're also going to meet with our photographer friends, Wendy and Davis Varner, to show them around so that they can take so local photographs that we will sell in the boutique.  I am really excited to be starting off so quickly with our own local talent.  In addition to the Varners, I will have at least two pottery artists from the Tampa area selling art in the boutique.  Both of these ladies make ocean/beach/fish inspired pieces from clay.  Pics to come!

After this weekend, we'll head down again with some bigger items (furniture for the Key West Cottage) the weekend of 7/29, and then return the following weekend to paint and set up the boutique.  We'll have to move the remainder of our house into the condo somewhere around 8/10-8/15 if our closing remains the 15th.

Because the owners don't want us painting around their art collection that is still in the gallery, we'll have to postpone opening the boutiqe by a week; but we should be pretty set to open the weekend of August 13th.  We're back to having the Key West cottage vacant, so as soon as we get it furnished and photographed, it will go up on vrbo.com and homeaway.com as advertised for rent.

I think that's all the updates for now.  The pace is quickening....hope we can keep up :)

Ok, let's try this again: ONE MORE WEEK!

Yeah, so things didn't go as planned....we got the lease for review a few days late, and there was no way we were getting everything resolved by this past Saturday.  So we're hoping we can have everything settled by the end of this week so we can sign this weekend.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that Matlacha must be part of this "island time" we always hear about.  Must be nice!  Not sure if my anal retentiveness about punctuality will ever succumb to island time but we'll soon see.

Not too many new furniture additions since we can't hold another item in the garage, but I did score a free desk last week.  Just needed a little bit of wood patch where it appeared a dog did some chewing.  Splurged on some pretty drawer pulls to replace the very basic wooden ones it came with.  Some primer and paint and it will make a perfect desk/vanity for one of the units. 

What'SUP? YOLO Paddleboards are purchased!

Yesterday Chris and I met with Brody Welte of http://www.standupfitnessinc.com/ to test out the 2 types of paddleboards we were considering.  One is more expensive and will last a lifetime, but more succeptible to day to day damange.  The other is more durable if it's knocked around and a bit less $$.  Since for our purposes we didn't feel a big difference between the two, and since we'll be renting them out, we went w/ the latter.  Also, he had a few demo models so we saved even more by buying them slightly used.  Win-win.  We bought two of this model.  Took them for a quick spin in our "backyard" and found that it wasn't too difficult to launch them from our dock.  The biggest challenge was trying to keep them away from the pilings which are covered in sharp foam-cutting barnacles.

By the way - YOLO stands for "you only live once", how great is that for a company name/motto?  Love.

Sorry no pics!  We were so excited to get them out on the water I didn't even think about it.  I'll do better next time.  To make up for it, here are 2 pics we took last night as it was getting dark and the full moon was coming up.

Yeah, I can't believe we're leaving this either....

Property description and pictures

OK so for those of you to whom we haven't described this property ad nauseum, here's the quick breakdown.  Four buildings and two docks.   One building is the commercial restaurant kitchen and one will be used as a rental cottage, right now it is called the "Key West" Cottage.  The third building is the Gallery/storefront/rental cottage and the fourth is the owner's cottage and current indoor dining area.  I'll describe as best I can w/ the pictures below.

 Taken from the one of the docks, this is looking west.   The building with the red roof is the Bridgewater Inn.

 Taken from the same spot, this is the cottage connected to the gallery.  Currently there is a full time tenant in there.

 Another picture to the west.  The dock in disrepair is owned by someone else.  Somewhat of an eyesore, but not a huge deal.

 Looking to the east at Bert's Bar and Grill. 

 Looking back toward the property, there is some of our restaurant seating.  We plan to clean this up and maybe re-arrange a bit.

 The restaurant kitchen.

 Right now this is indoor seating for the restaurant but it's also connected to the house we will live in.  We are thinking about moving the indoor seating to the gallery and opening this up to the house for more space.

The kitchen/living room of the house where we will live.

The dining room of one of the "Key West" cottage.

"Key West" cottage kitchen above, and bath below.

Bedroom and closet in rental "Key West" cottage.

"Key West" cottage living room. 

The large gallery space.  Through the door is where the boutique will be.

                                     
The other side of the gallery.  The doors here lead to the occupied rental cottage.

Boutique space.

Outside between the 4 buildings.

We'll take more pics on our next trip down and of course lots of pics along the redecorating/renovation process which we will be able to begin in April!