Cottage Update: The Bathroom

It’s time to head back to the cottage for another update.

Here’s what we started with last year.

Yes, the toilet, tub and sink are a retro seafoam colour!

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the bathroom walls are floor-to-ceiling paneling, including behind the bathtub.

When we went up to the cottage in June, Mr. Mechanic’s sisters primed everything with the same primer as the rest of the cottage and the grooves between the panels were filled with drywall mud.

Since there was nothing that we could do to change the colour of the bathroom fixtures, we had to work with what we had!

The trim, ceiling and doors were painted white for another instant update (just like the kitchen cabinets). Then, what used to be dingy paneling was painted a very subtle seafoam-ish colour that was chosen to work with chocolate brown as a future accent colour. I know that they used a paint & primer-in-one formulation but I don’t know the name (sorry).

The paneling behind the shower was purposely left unpainted because there were plans for that space.

A $104 tub surround from Home Depot! (BTW- I just read the 1 star review for this on the website and it gave me a good laugh!)

We had the honour of packing this into our car for the four hour drive up North in July. Fortunately, Mr. Mechanic can pack a car like he’s playing Tetris!

With some creative trimming, tub surround adhesive and two handy men, the shower got a total facelift! (That’s the condensed version – it wasn’t quite that straight-forward, but it wasn’t as difficult as they anticipated).

Once this was installed and all the caulking was dry, everyone was thrilled with the makeover but something was still bugging Mr. M’s older sister . . . 

Everything else now looked so fresh and new . . . and then there was the floor.

So, she did this!

What did she use?

Peel & stick tiles! She stuck them on top of the existing floor and made sure they were well adhered using an old rolling pin! It was time-consuming and tedious, but it really finishes the space.

She could have done just the bathroom floor but instead she kept going and added the same floor tiles to the bottom of the linen closet and inside the vanity cupboard . . . and under the kitchen sink . . . and in the broom closet!

The bathroom hardware was spray painted with the same Rust-oleum hammered brown as the brass floor lamp and an inexpensive mini-blind was hung for privacy.

Now that the major repairs are done, we get to accessorize!

So, to put it in perspective, here we have August 2011, June 2012, July 2012.

I told you it was a good makeover!

We have a pretty hideous main floor bathroom in our house, so I’m curious to know the final breakdown for the cosmetic updates to this space. We definitely got a lot of bang for our buck!

All week I’ve been working away at a few small projects that have been on my to-do list for a while. I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve been up to since we got back!

Thanks for checking out another cottage update!

P.S. We may not have a beautiful bathroom, but we finally have some awesome wall art!

P.P.S. I just realized that the seafoam bathroom fixtures are similar in colour to one of my favourite spray paint colours: Catalina Mist.

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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Cottage Update: The Kitchen

Last night I edited photos while we watched a terrible movie. Technically, I sat on the couch with it on the screen in front of me and Mr. Mechanic “watched” the movie. I won’t even name the movie because you might judge me for allowing it to be on my PVR.

There are really only 5 rooms to the cottage – Kitchen, Living Room, Bathroom and two bedrooms.  Today I’m sharing photos of the Kitchen and how far it has come in one year with paint, a lot of manpower and multiple deep cleanings.

Here is how it looked in August 2011:

The cupboards were a peachy colour and the countertop was orange. The walls were a similar shade to the pink floor. There was also a border around the top that was promptly removed.

After our first trip up in June it started out looking like this . . .

*** I once again have to say that I take no credit for any of the painting progress in the cottage. I did some of the taping, helped to remove hardware and painted the primer in a few places, but the majority of his huge overhaul was done by Mr. Mechanic’s sisters and his parents. They are amazing!!!

But, see that shelf through the doorway? There are four of those – two at each end of the entryway and I painted every little bit of them. I was even painting them while the power was out for half a day after a storm!

The Makeover Breakdown

Everything except the floor and countertops was painted with two coats of Zinsser Cover Stain (which made Mr. M’s sisters very light-headed!). This was the biggest paint expense but it was worth every penny for its incredible coverage on multiple surfaces including wood paneling and ceiling tiles.

The walls were painted with CIL/Glidden’s Fossil Grey.

The trim and cupboard doors were painted with a white off-the-shelf Trim and Doors paint by CIL.

The only addition to the Kitchen was the light fixture that we originally bought two of from Costco for our own basement. It uses GU24 light bulbs and they are a royal pain to track down!

So, after all that, the kitchen looked like this:

Once everything had cured, the hardware was reattached, a wooden table was brought upstairs and the kitchen became the hub of the cottage.

The next set of photos was taken on my camera with limited lighting . . . sorry.

A coffee maker was the first priority since the closest Tim Horton’s is at least 30 minutes away!

On our most recent trip the faucet had to be replaced. Fortunately it was a quick and inexpensive repair.

Anyone else have a frog beside their sink? We have a green one at home!

 

 

That microwave cart has been used by my family for as long as I can remember. My Mom was amazed to hear that it will have yet another life in the cottage.

Why two microwaves? The oven is fairly small and had we had a second one given to us. Who knows if we will ever use two at the same time . . . or if the cottage wiring will support it!

So, once again, we went from this:

to this!

Just seeing the difference that white paint made on the cupboards makes us want to paint our cupboards here at home, too.

So, that’s the cottage kitchen! Next time I’ll share the bathroom transformation. It’s a good one!

’Til next time . . .

P.S. Check out this post to see some of the fun projects I did to update a poorly used space in my own kitchen!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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Spray Paint Makeover: Brass Floor Lamp Edition

We were at the cottage again last week – did you miss me? 

There are still some repairs and updates to be done, but most of the major projects have been tackled. We actually stayed there overnight for the first time on Friday and Saturday so that is great progress.

In addition to more plumbing repairs, this trip involved several cosmetic updates – including multiple makeovers courtesy of two cans of Rust-Oleum Universal Hammered spray paint in Brown Hammered.

I have to say, even though I was not a fan of the way that the nozzle sprayed (my hands were all speckled!) or the smell, the way that it so easily covered a variety of surfaces won me over.

We used less than two cans to transform all of the bathroom hardware (towel rail, hooks, handles), curtain rod finials and this brass-coloured floor lamp.

It originally had a pleated lamp shade that did not make it into the before photos.

After taping off the light socket and the power cord, we scuffed up the surface with a Scotch-Brite pad (Mr. Mechanic’s favourite way to prep just about everything for spray paint). The paint can said that no primer was necessary, but this was a quick step to make sure we got the best coverage.

Even on this!

(As I write this I realize that I can find something very similar on my parents’ bed frame . . .)

Several coats of spray paint and a $15 drum shade from Walmart later (home decor options were limited up North!), we had a new-to-us lamp, ready for the freshly painted Living Room.

 

 

I would like to add some sort of decorative trim to the shade in the future.

 

 

Replacing the flooring in the Living Room is not in the budget this year so it will look like this for a while.

A few of you have asked for photos, so here’s a trio to show you the amazing power of paint.

 

 

 

The Living Room, Kitchen and Entryway are all painted this grey. Prior to painting the final colour, everything was covered with two coats of barrier paint to block the smoke smell and stains. This room has paneling on the walls with fairly shallow grooves. Two missing pieces were replaced.

 

 Big difference, right?

If I had a camera like Mr. Mechanic Senior that could capture the whole room in one shot I would be able to show you how the Living Room looked when we left on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, I don’t and the lighting was poor when we left on Sunday morning. I have a lot of photo editing to do before I can share the after (for now) photos! I promise I’ll share them eventually.

Thanks for coming back to visit!

P.S. I love a quick makeover. You can find two more of my spray paint transformations here and here!

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I link up at: Serenity Now, I {Heart} Naptime, Under The Table And Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Simply Klassic Home, Home Stories A to Z, Craftomaniac, Skip To My Lou, Not JUST A Housewife, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Alderberry Hill, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, A Diamond In The Stuff, Creatively Living, The Winthrop Chronicles, Clean & Scentsible, Oopsey Daisy, Lil’ Luna, Someday Crafts, Live.Laugh.Rowe, The 36th Avenue, aka design, House of Hepworths, 52 Mantels, Thrifty Decorating, Crafty Scrappy Happy, How To Nest For Less, Tatertots & Jello, The Grant Life, It’s Overflowing, Lolly Jane, Too Much Time, Six Sisters’ Stuff, Positively Splendid, My {Re}purposed Life, Unrefined By Design, Dragonfly Designs, Just Us Four, Liz Marie Blog and The Crafted Sparrow

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Back to Reality

I’m back after a very busy week!

It was crazy hot working away without air conditioning (during a heat wave) but the cottage looks completely different from when we arrived last Friday.

The water is not yet drinkable and the plumbing needed to be off for most of the week so we were very fortunate to be able to stay at the home of a family friend during our time up North. At one point there were 9 of us staying there!

Since there were at least 6 people vying for shower time each day, I always opted for a morning shower (one of the drawbacks of short hair – bedhead!). As a result, there were several mornings where I walked over to the cottage on my own after everyone had left (usually to make a Home Depot run).

The cottage is located on a long, winding road lined with pine trees.

Mr. Mechanic’s Grandfather planted these beautiful trees and this was once all his property.

Through the trees you can see a sliver of the bog or pond that sits at the edge of the cottage lot.

This is what is looks like when you stand on the beach of the cottage.

The cottage overlooks a small lake that is already really warm. No swimming for me this time, but definitely next time.

Turn around, and this is what you see.

I was in charge of mowing the lawn with the riding mower. I did pretty well aside from the time that I drove over a tree stump! Oops . . .

Even the weeds were pretty!

There was no shortage of nature while we were there.

Over the weekend we were greeted by this little dog – Maggie – jumping up at the screen door wanting to visit with my 18-month old niece, Arabella. She (Maggie)adored her! One day she even followed Mr. Mechanic’s Dad all the way into town when he went for a walk with Arabella in her stroller! 

Since it’s a small community someone recognized her and drove her back home.

Maggie was my Pumpkin substitute while we were away.

On our second to last day there I almost drove over a turtle that was searching for a place to lay its eggs.

It started out on the road but eventually made its way down the long driveway (much faster than I would expect a turtle to travel!) to a sandy spot by the front door of the cottage.

From the window we could see it rocking back and forth, digging a hole. It laid its eggs and then filled the hole again. If we hadn’t seen the hole you would never even know it was there.

Then, she (I’m assuming!) got the heck out of there! I could hear this rustling in the woods and discovered that it was the turtle off-roading to get back to the pond!

In 2 to 3 months there should be some baby turtles hatching provided the other wildlife up there doesn’t get to them first.

Just around the corner from where the turtle laid its eggs, there is a large patch of milkweed. On almost every plant you would find at least one caterpillar munching away. If I had a better camera I could have had some great shots!

I don’t have any photos of the inside of the cottage because when we left the painter’s tape was still up in all of the rooms.

Once Mr. Mechanic’s Dad forwards me his pictures I’ll be able to show you some great before and afters (for which I can take very little credit – Mr. Mechanic’s sisters and parents were painting machines!)

Since returning home, I have been busy putting together a Canada Day mantel featuring some free printables that I made with the My Memories Suite software that I will be giving away to one lucky reader soon. I hope you’ll come back to check it out!

One more day of supply teaching and then I have a feeling that will be it for this school year.

Happy Monday!

P.S. Check out my first free printable here.