Shed-Tastic!



 

 Believe it or not, this day was WAY more cold than the next picture with snow.

 

 

We chose white siding! 

 

I love the look of a white cottage. 

Something so timeless and classic about it. 

So, yep, The Windmill Cottage will eventually be white.  So excited! 

 

 

Far away pic cause ya know I ain't trekking through the snow to get any closer!

 

My camera takes an awful zoom picture.

 

It's a cute little 12x12 shed. 

 

 

Today hubby is working in the basement trying to put "shed stuff" in the shed. 

 

And let's keep it REAL for a minute!

 

 

  This is just one side of the basement full of our stuff. 

 I'd guess 70-75% of our stuff is still packed away in boxes. 

 

Hubs working on a shelving unit in an attempt to achieve some sort of

organization until our remodel is done. 

 



Clutter, Clutter, Paper Clutter

I struggle with paper clutter.  I've read all the tricks of taming the paper, applied many of them, but in the end I always have a pile of paper clutter sitting on the countertop.
My little superheros bring home A LOT of papers from school.  Then there are the recipes I've printed, the coupons I've clipped, the stubs of bills I've paid, precious artwork I want to save...you know, the list goes on and on. 

At the old house I had a place for all of this stuff.  I was pretty organized.  At the cottage 80% of our stuff is still packed away in boxes because we are going to be remodeling.  No sense dragging it all out to have to put it all away again.  The boxes for school papers I want to save are buried under other boxes and so on.  I am totally NOT organized.  I need to get a system working.

I'm pretty good at sorting through the junk mail and tossing out anything I don't want right away.  But I need to get better at only handling paper clutter ONCE.  I am going to apply the "Touch It Once Rule".  Clip coupons, put them in the coupon thingy.  Go through school papers and toss out anything unneeded as soon as the kids get home.  Fill out forms and return immediately.  No moving paper from one pile to another.  Touch it once, put it away, throw it away and be done with it!

 

You know what kept me going and energized?  Songza!  Have you heard of this site?  It plays whatever kind of music you're in the mood for. 

Go check it out.

Songza

 

I was listening to a 90's Dance Party.  It was just the right music I needed to power through and finish the job.  Just as I put away the last piece of paper clutter "Who Let the Dogs Out" started playing.

I did a celebratory dance!  Woo Hoo~

Let's hope I can keep a handle on the paper.



The Chaos Cottage

The new oven and the fridge are installed!  The rental oven got a shine job and transported back to it's owner.  The rental fridge also got a shine job but it's still sitting in the middle of my kitchen, which by the way is kinda small.  The house is in complete chaos.  My husband's favorite thing to say is "It's gonna get worse before it gets better!"
We haven't even started knocking out walls yet. 

Chaos

and more CHAOS!

 

 

 



We had to shove everything to one side of the room in order to get the appliances through to the kitchen.  The fridge did not fit through the front door.  Hubs and a neighbor friend had to take off the doors and freezer drawer.  Apparently they weren't that easy to get off and miserable to get back on.  Lucky for me and the boys, we were at the mall getting haircuts!

 

Once we get this place back in working order, my plan is to take some decent "before" pictures.

Well, gotta go get cleaning up. 

 



Fridge ~ Oven ~ Dishwasher



Today I am preparing for new appliances!  The appliances in the rental were not included.  So we needed to buy all new. What a shame bonus!  Truly a WOO HOO moment!  So today I am cleaning the rental oven.  I'm sure there is a much more earth friendly, less toxic way to do it....but I had this oven cleaner on hand and I know it works in 5-10 minutes. 
Hubby ran a gas line last night since we are converting from electric range to gas!  I fell in love with my gas range at the old house so that's what we opted for at The Cottage even though it cost a bit more to buy black iron pipe and fittings. 
We are picking up the appliances later today.  Just hoping that the fridge will fit through the front door.  Wish us luck!

It's Official! We're Homeowners Again!

We did it!  The thing we never thought we would have enough guts to do.  We sold our house and bought another one!  Today was our closing.
My hubby and I talked about moving for about five years.  We looked at houses on the internet, we did dozens of drive-bys, we stretched our necks at every "For Sale" sign in someone's front yard. 
We had our fair share of craziness with the whole process --that's another post.  But we did it!  We sold our house in September and TODAY WE CLOSED ON OUR NEW HOUSE! 

 

YIPPEEEE!

 

 

We have a lot of work ahead of us as we bought a fixer upper.  This little cottage needs new windows, insulation, a new furnace, siding and a new roof.  We named it "The Windmill Cottage". 

You can see a picture of the windmill here.

 

I can't wait to share our journey and pictures with all of you. 

 



Bit By Bit, Row By Row

The shed is making progress.  Hubby working on shingles today. 

 

 

We chose Owens Corning dimensional shingles in Estate Gray. 

 It was a toss up between Estate Gray

and Onyx Black

 

Doing the shed before the house roof allows us to see what our color choice looks like.  I'm thinking I might like the Onyx Black on the house instead.  We'll have to wait and see the final picture of the shed before making any decisions. 

I'm pretty sure about the vinyl color, but I'm not sharing yet because I've changed my mind like 1005 times!

Working on the Shed

We're my husband is building a shed at The Windmill Cottage.  Currently we have all of our shed and garage stuff stored in our neighbor's garage.  This little cottage has a one car garage that is full of building materials, our deck table and chairs, grill and the kids outside toys and bikes.  We need to get our stuff out of the neighbor's garage before we can start work on the cottage.

This is going to be the strongest shed in the East.  Our little superheros pounded nails anywhere they could.  Bless my husband for being so patient.  Those 16 D Common nails aren't cheap, but we gave in and let the boys nail as many as they wanted.  We're finally learning to let go of the small stuff and not worry so much about the money.  The boys really felt like they were helping build the shed and that was priceless. 

One Week To Closing

I am so excited!  We are one week to closing on our very own little cottage. 

We are actually living in the cottage because it belongs to very dear friends of ours.  We sold our house and needed somewhere to stay until the closing went through on our new house.  Our friends told us we could stay in their rental until we bought our new house and did some repairs to it.  Everything fell through for us and we gave up the house we had an agreement to buy.  We lost our hand money.  Lost money that we used on inspections.  Owed the bank money for title searches and the like.  Added a lot of stress to our lives.  But in the end, it was a very good decision. 
We weren't sure what to do, where to go.  Keep looking for a house?  We were really enjoying living in this little cottage.  We decided to ask our friends if they would consider selling their cottage rental to us.  THEY SAID YES! 

We have big plans for this cottage.  New kitchen, bath remodel, siding, windows, furnace to name a few.  I named it Windmill Cottage because there is a windmill in the backyard.  It is cemented into the ground and very tall.  It's a little bit of history in the neighborhood.  The original owners put it up.  We would like to keep the windmill but it needs some love.  Wire brushing and painting to start.  The windmill is not our first priority but it will stay.  It looks very rustic for now and we're okay with that.

I'm not one that counts her chickens before the hatch.  I tend to be very conservative about what I say and do just in case something doesn't turn out the way we want it to.  But I'm about to split at the seams with excitement.  I created this blog just for this little house.  I'm hoping I can record our journey of remodeling. 

Here's a picture of The Windmill Cottage.  I'm in love with this house.  I can see all the potential.

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of the windmill. 

 

My husband and I remodeled our first home.  This time we are adding two little boys to the mix.  I swore after the first construction I lived in, I would never do it again.   Well, now I am going to eat my words.  But I just can't wait.