a little fall decorating || at the cottage

I haven't been in the mood yet for Fall decorating. I think it hit me as September approached, that my baby was going to be in school all.day.long.  Of course I have my moments of frustration and exhaustion, but I really enjoy spending time with my girls.  I just wasn't ready for school to start, and in my book that meant not being ready for Fall decorating!  Now we are in the swing of our school schedule and my kindergartener loves school!  Savanna and I are having so much fun, just the two of us!  The weather is starting to change, as are the leaves, and I am finally feeling ready to add a few Fall touches.

After dropping Addilyn off at school, Savanna and I headed to the cottage to do a little Fall decorating.  We just added things that we took from the shop....pillows, faux pumpkins and mums.

This was happening the entire time I was taking pictures.  This child is so full of life, energy and just pure crazy!  She was fluffing pillows, re-arranging pumpkins, moving flowers like she was the boss.

We took a few pictures inside too, I will post those soon.  In the mean time, here are a few details......

-Twig Wreath  | available at the shop, $75

-Faux Pumpkins, various sizes | available at the shop, ranging from $16-$30

-Les Indiennes Pillows | available at the shop

-The wood porch was painted 4 years ago with Chalk Paint®.  It has weathered and aged just perfectly!  We used the color GRAPHITE and COUNTRY GREY.

The andiron deck chairs were purchased 'raw' and we used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (color TROPHY) to make a wash.  They look naturally grayed out and have held up perfectly!

the cottage || SPRING CLEANING

Typically in March and April I do some major Spring cleaning at the cottage.  Our little vacation rental in Carlton keeps me busy in the summers!  I have cut the gardens way back and filled in a lot of flower bed space with shrubs and bark dust, but the flowers still need tending to and the cottage needs cleaning after each guest leaves.  I am always ready and excited for the start of the busy season {usually May} but then always ready for the busy season to come to an end {usually November}. I took the girls with me to take inventory of everything that needs to be done.  The list is long!  So I took a few new pictures for the vacation rental website page instead ;-)  I can't seem to find any interior 'before' pictures of this little cottage, I know I have some somewhere.  But this little place was definitely a 'fixer upper'!!

A few interior photos...

Once I get the outside in ship-shape, I will share some pictures of the exterior!  It's such a sweet little home and full of many memories!

MOVING THE STUDIO :: and the vacation rental

I feel like we are always moving/building/creating/changing.  I love it, wouldn't have it any other way.  But, with sweet little kiddos in the mix now, we don't have the bug to always move/build/change.   You know?!?  We still love all of that, just don't want it to take up all of our time.

The new house we are moving into has a great detached garage + upstairs office/studio.

I love working at/creating at the studio.  It's my own little creative space and I love the opportunity to meet new people!  But, it's really hard with two little ones.  So moving the studio to our property is going to be awesome!!  I will have more details about the new studio space once escrow closes {next week}.

With all of the moving changes, we have decided to turn our Main Street property back into a vacation rental.    We have had vacation rentals in Carlton for 6 years now!  Crazy how time flies! This past week, we have been slowly making the changes to turn it back into a vacation rental.

The living room is slowly coming together.

I sold all of furniture last year when we turned this house into a studio {of course}!  So I am buying new furniture and moving things over from our house.

This is what the dining room currently looks like.  Lots of work ahead of us!

I have the kitchen stocked, cleaned and ready for renters!

The kitchen takes me the longest to clean after we have had renters….at least 1 hour!  But nobody wants to vacation at a home with a dirty kitchen!!

Matt still has to build a bed for the upstairs office, and convert the work room back into a bedroom, I have to make changes to the website, yada yada yada.  Seriously, we are crazy!

But, I know in the long run it will be much easier, and I can be more productive, to have the studio where we live.

Life is good, I am so very blessed.  Hard work just keeps me sleeping good at night and not having to work out!

OUR COTTAGE :: the loft

 I thought I would post a little update on our sweet little Main Street Cottage.

Even though this little gem needed a lot of work, she caught our eye about 6 years ago.

We approached the owners, letting them know that if they ever wanted to sell, we would be interested in buying.  They were actually considering selling anyways!  They wanted quite a bit for the house, and at the time, it was just out of our budget.  Fast forward about 1 year....they had listed the house, and were ready to move to Eastern Oregon.  They lowered the price {a little} and we decided to purchase it.

 The home had/has charming features.  However, it needed A LOT of work.

We would save up cash, and fix an area.  That cycle took us about 4 years, but we finally got her fixed up!

 Below is a picture of the attic space 'BEFORE.'

The space was un-used and had floor joists that were on top of the attic roof.  If I remember correct, there was about 5'5" of head space.  Just fine for a shorty like me, but challenging for anybody over 5'3"!

 Matt gutted everything.

We brought the wiring and insulation up to code, framed for a bathroom and just worked away as we had the time and money.

 Matt hung the drywall, then applied a faux plaster finish over the drywall.  It gave the walls an old house look and feel, but with out the mess of lath-and-plaster.

Then he went to work on all of the built-ins.  Since the space was attic space, we had to be creative for storage needs.  We couldn't get a bed up the stairs, so Matt built a bed and then carried the mattress up a ladder and through the tall upstairs office window!

 It took about 6 months to complete the upstairs bedroom and bathroom addition.

Now, we are turning into the upstairs suite into a nightly rental.

Instead of guests renting the entire house {as a vacation rental}, they will just be renting the upstairs bedroom/bathroom/seating area.

I am still fine tuning the space, but thought I would post a few pictures.

All of the built-ins make for such a cozy space!

  Plenty of linen storage.

 Double vanity, linen storage, walk-in marble shower and a water closet.

All that's missing is a huge soaking tub!!  We really considered adding one!!  However, since the new bathroom was built in the existing space of a 1938 cottage, we didn't want to take the chance of adding the additional weight.   Plus, we didn't have an 'un-ending' budget!

Next week I will post the photos that This Old House took of our upstairs space.  It was so fun to watch them at work and see the amazing images they captured!!  It takes true talent to produce/photograph space for magazines, and they were amazing.  Anyways, more on that later.

Until then, have a lovely weekend!!