& that's the way life goes

This past weekend I did something I haven’t done since I was a child.  I went to the sub-wide garage sales around my house.  I used to go every summer with my Grandma.  She would give me, LP and AP a couple dollars in quarters and off we’d go.

Since buying our  cottage we’ve needed little things like tables, glasses and odds and ends and I figured that going to some garage sales would be perfect. JP came with me and scored some cool stuff while I feel in love it with it all over again.  I spent $36.50

shelf – $4
lamp – $4
table – $2
glider – $15
Drink Sign – $1
5 Glasses (in plastic bag) – .25
Comforter – $2
Blanket – $3
Cabinet – $5
Liko – not included

Friday night we made the 3 hour trek up north, which ended up taking closer to 4 hours because of the torrential downpour. We picked up LP while I had a panic attack from hell the whole ride up there. It was truly awful. LP and C are two peas in a pod. She’s become good friends with C over the years and they can both put down some beer. They drank a 12 pack Friday night in a couple hours when we first arrived.  It would have been more but C wasn’t thinking and when they finished those all the stores were closed.

Saturday began with a frantic search for coffee only to find that the town was out of power (not us thankfully). Burger King was open so we stood in a relatively short line for a long amount of time. When we got back around 11 there was a 24 case of beer and shitload of floor tiles and paint calling our names. C started on the floors while LP and I painted the last bedroom (a blue that I later decided is WAY too dark, but I don’t want to redo it!).

We finished somewhere around 12:30am. So 13.5 hours and 36 beers later (I didn’t have any and they had to get another 12 pack) the living room, 1 bedroom and kitchen were tiled and the last bedroom was painted. Without LP we wouldn’t have gotten so much done. The joke was C is a Union worker, taking as many breaks as possible or getting distracted by shiny objects. LP and I on the other hand are immigrant workers or woman…who just want to get shit done. (Yes that was a little stereotypical, but stereotypes come from somewhere people. Not to mention before the whole auto thing blew up, the guys sweeping floors were making somewhere around $20/hour)

I took pictures! Yay! *Gasp…

notice the grossness on the floor to the right, it's got 30-50 years of dirt/grim on it

I realize that the new tile we put in is hideous but it’s clean and it was CHEAP. 28 cents per square foot.

We’ll be replacing that disgusting green closet door and refinishing the cabinets

beer drinkers

You guys said you wanted to see some pictures of the place.  I’m just going to admit right now that I’m a bad blogger.  I have my camera with me at all times but I get so into what I’m doing I forget to take pictures.  Here are a couple I did take but there no full after pictures!  I promise to take some when we go back up!

We got the living room/kitchen painted in a gold color.  It warms the place up and makes it, as C calls it, a happy and cozy spot.  The bedrooms were both going to be this sand color but the walls in the yellow bedroom were so dirty and colorful it took two coats of paint/primer.  So I painted the closet and have decided to get antoher color for the remaining bedroom.

Sidenote: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Behr Paint/Primer in one.  You can ONLY get it at Home Depot (around here) but it goes on so nicely and it’s so easy not having to deal with priming first.  I used it in the spare bedroom at our house last summer and I was addicted.  And no, I wasn’t asked to talk about Behr paint, I just love it that much.

I don’t praise C that much because I’m not that schmoopy but it’s awesome being opposites.  I’m not detailed oriented at all.  I like the big picture, not the little details.  (shhhh don’t tell my job!)  C is completely the opposite so he did all the taping and trimming.  AWESOME.  I got the better part in this deal

Anyhow here ya go…

getting started

ugh ugh ugh

yay! pretty colors!

tackling the bedroom; this picture gives it no justice

Scooby hates going to the cottage.  He hasn’t been able to just sit outside and take in the fresh air, something he does frequently at home.  The goal is to fence in some of the property at some point but we are looking for an outdoor kennel for the time being.  He gets so bored sitting inside.

Lastly, I drove the 3 ton van all the way home for the first time.  I think Liko liked C’s lap better than mine because C doesn’t move around as much.

We spent over 8 hours painting this weekend.  We were clearly insane when we thought we’d get all the ceilings and walls painted in one day.  Insane.  We spent 8 hours painting the ceilings white. I’m almost positive they haven’t been painted since the house was built in the 50′s.  What I can say for sure is that the work we did is definitely noticeable.  It’s crazy what a fresh coat a paint can do.  Oh the things I’m learning.  Fresh paint, bleach and a scrub pad are all you need to make something look pretty again

I know some of you will think it’s crazy that we aren’t taking before and after pictures, but the truth is I don’t care.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed with digital pictures.  We take photos of everything and then they sit on a hard drive.  Also, the place was just dingy and I don’t really want to remember it that way.  So if you are looking for the Before and After transformation, well there isn’t any evidence.

The more work we do to the place the more excited we become.  This coming weekend we are going to paint the walls.  It’s going to make it so much cozier and us.  I’m truly excited!  I’m not so excited, however, for the manual labor part.

Before we left on Sunday we took the dogs down to the lake.  It was barely a 5 minute walk.  So nice!  It felt dream like.  It was humid and it had just down poured for an hour.  The streets were steamy from the heat and coolness of the rain.  When we got back Nani puked all over the place.  Fun times I tell ya!