cottage spring cleaning

this weekend actually felt like spring. so close in fact that I think we are justified in saying that we did some spring cleaning at the cottage on saturday. we’ve been wanting to head up north but not only has it been a little cold, the cottage has not been completely finished.

we bought this place in 2012 in pentwater, michigan and have been fixing it up ever since. it’s taken us longer than it probably should but summers in northern michigan are gorgeous. and it’s much funner to ride your bike to the beach and spend time with friends than slave away on cottage siding… hence why it’s taken us 7 years, and a builder to finish this project.

we got it to about the finish work and had a builder come in and finish it up (aside from paint and a few cosmetic things. he finished the ceiling, lights and floors amongst other things (trim). we still have a lot to paint so we’ve been taking it room by room. we finished the “master” bedroom last fall and this weekend finished painting the “living room” . i use ” ” because the entire house is under 900 sq feet (if you include the loft upstairs). you can view our entire transition under the pentwater tab.

a lot of you guys have been asking the story behind how we came to own this place. well, it was 2012 and we were just coming out of a recession. joe and i were looking to upgrade from our starter home in byron center. our current home was a foreclosure deal that we fixed up. the problem was anything that was considered an upgrade was about the same size/ price of what we already had so we would just be making a lateral move for the same amount of money. we kept looking around and there were no home “deals” left. so we waited and one day this little cottage came up in my zillow (don’t ask me why I had pentwater in my search). it was under $70k and the map said it was on the beach. we thought no way… and scheduled an appt with the real estate agent. when we got there we realized that zillow had it listed incorrectly. it was E concord not W concord. E concord was about a quarter mile from the beach while W was on the beach. we walked through it and fell in love. we ended up picking up this cottage in the low 60’s and got to work tearing it apart.

the more we took down the worse conditions we found. wires duct taped together sitting on top of drop ceiling, dry wall just nailed to studs, full on squirrel communities in the attic, snow blowing through the old rotted windows. it was a disaster. each thing we found though it was a “thank God it’s a small house” lol. nothing (other than siding) was that crazy to fix or replace. we watched a lot of youtube and learned how to use a lot of tools. we decided once we had otto that enough was enough. we didn’t want to do the finish work as that was the most important so we hired the builder and it was “done” by spring of last year. we have paint and small things like light switch covers, curtain rods etc to do but the major things are done and it feels sooooo good.

we got a lot done this weekend and now have a fun place to crash by the beach. joe and i both say it was one of the best worst decisions we’ve ever made.

a few of the sources you guys have asked for

the black mid century ceiling fans are from wayfair. click here.

the black and white checked rug is also from wayfair. click here. 

when we were finished up painting we grabbed  a bite to eat at the antler bar in town. we then headed back and filled up the dump trailer with all the garbage and scraps left over from construction. we cleaned the place from top to bottom so the next time we head up there it is open and ready for use. we can’t wait to spend time with otto up there this year!

we headed back to my parents house to pick up otto because paint and open light sockets are not toddler friendly. we ate dinner with them and called it a night.

sunday morning we woke up to head to brunch with our friends. they flew their plane from jenison to kalamazoo so otto got to see the plane and even sit in the seats! he thought he was way cool. we grabbed omelets at food dance before getting groceries and heading home. otto was not in the mood for a nap so we went for a nature walk and blew bubbles. we afternoon doing laundry and getting things ready for the week. we made a simple dinner of butter chicken before calling it an early night.

a very productive yet tiring weekend. can’t wait to start working outside!