Uniquely ella: November 2017

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Bringing them back to life.

To say that I'm happy that we're finally doing the floors is an understatement. I was really looking forward to this part of the renovation because I knew they would make a big difference. The sanding part was the hardest and OMG the dust and the mess that was not fun at all. James did the sanding and my sister and friend helped me with the cleaning up. That dust got everywhere, we had to even clean the walls. Now it's the fun part, these are old hardwood floors that are not perfect and that's fine by me.

I got this idea from YouTube, actually I learned how to do this because of YT. I went with a roller because I felt more comfortable with it. We used the Poly from Benjamin Moore and it was so worth it. We ended up mixing a satin and gloss to get the perfect sheen that we were after.

I'm so glad that we ended up not staining them, this wood has so much character.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Sharing some vintage goodness.

Like little Red Ridding Hood ?

This is our 20 minute drive to my sister's house that lives out in the country. There's this particular county road that I just love to take because sometimes we are the only truck out on the road. Living in the city my entire life, this is a treat that I hope it never gets old.

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Sewing curtains for our little cottage.

I think window treatments are so essential, they set the mood for the room.

We're almost there, once the floors have been Poly then the curtains can go up and we can start moving. I can't wait to see them on. I wanted my panels to hang a few inches from the ceiling but it was near impossible to find panels that long. So I made my own curtains. I'm going for a natural organic look with some white in the pattern. Well I found exactly what I had envisioned, in Hobby Lobby and I love them.

For the rods I went with simple black to match the light fixtures.

For our farmhouse bedroom.

For our dinning room.

For our living room.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Kitchen progress so far.

We first started by opening the kitchen off and that took removing a wall. Then we removed the tiles to expose the original hard wood floors, surprisingly in very good condition. We then got what will be our island and planked the ceiling with wood. I didn't like the cabinets to all be lined up in a straight row, so I made some shorter and staggered some. The idea was to use what we had, plus they're solid wood and in great condition. Finally added some wood to the cabinet doors to created a shaker style look to them and added the back splash.

For the counter tops we have considered butcher block, but I have some friend that have told me that they are so sorry they did that. We might do a stone but it's so hard to choose???

Making progress.

Our new front deck being built and I can't wait to get to decorating it.

Trying to make the little island look like a piece of furniture. I can see it in my head, let's see what happens.

Cottage renovation project.

I wish I could do our cottage reno project in slow motion. I've always dreamed of taking a vintage cottage and renovating it, well my dream came true. God has been so good to us, thank you Lord. This house has so much character and potential, from the old squeaky hard wood floors, original shiplap, farm house sink and wood moldings. I even love the old siding, but what I love the most is the location. Our street should be called cottage lane and they're all so cute. But it's all happening so fast, and in some ways not fast enough, because we like to leave our temporary housing and move into our little cottage. There're so many new projects floating in my head for our new home, but I'm just doing the bare minimum just to get it move in ready. We're almost there.

I discovered a new tool and the possibilities are endless.

Here I used it on the little butler's pantry and I love how it turned out. A little bit of texture but still a white enough background to display my pretties. Can't wait to play with it.

My neighbor and new sweet friend, Jean Marie had an idea and we ran with it. She has been an amazing source of inspiration for me, she renovated her cottage two years ago and is still working on it, it's so pretty. Well, as it turned out she's a retired designer and artist. I've saw pictures of her latest design project, a gorgeous home in the mountains of Tennessee. Well she has offered her services to me and I took her up on it. Here we have turned regular fence boards in what will be our kitchen back splash. The fun part about this is that it's just paint and I can always change the colors or go back to my safe white, lol. But they turned out so beautiful that I want to enjoy them like this for a long time.

I did managed to save the prettiest windows, the two picture windows in the living room. The rest of them had to be replace, because they were beyond salvaging. But I did rescued all the panes, they're so beautiful with the original chip paint on them. Lots of projects in my head for those.

New crispy white windows.

The old windows, they didn't have energy efficiency double pane back then,

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Fun day out in the country.

Today we went and visited with some new friends. Well, actually James' new buddy from work. We are so enjoying our cottage renovation project that we have not had much time for socializing. I'm so glad we took them up on the invitation to spend a day out in the country with them. It was so fun, as it turned out she had the most adorable "she shed". She's into crafting too and this is her space. I love it.

We had a blast on this thing.