Our dear family friend, Lil, became ill last fall and recently passed away.  When she went into a nursing home, it fell to Bob and me to clean out her house and ready it for sale.  It’s a cute, two story house with a very open plan, and the living space upstairs.  Lil had lived there for 23 years, along with many cats.  And, oh, Lil was a smoker!

We decided we had to remove all carpets, draperies, bedding, etc., and start over.  I didn’t take many before pictures, but here’s the living room after we (read Bob) had torn up two layers of carpeting, the first glued down.

All the woodwork in the house was dark and the walls were white.

The kitchen cabinets were also dark, with very plain door and drawer fronts.

I wanted to give them some style, so we decided some Shaker detail would be nice.

Once painted white, they looked terrific!  Eventually we added brushed nickel hardware and replaced the countertop, too.

The cleaning started last fall, but the actual remodel started in March, and we are now one project away from being finished.

Welcome to Gull Cottage!  The front door is new, as is the exterior paint on the house.

A beachy touch in the entry–and a new light fixture.  In fact, all through the house the light fixtures have been replaced.

Once you enter the house, you turn left and head up the stairs.

You’re greeted by a spectacular wall of windows facing toward the ocean.  If you look closely, you’ll see the outside trim was blue.  We’ve changed it to a dark gray.

At first I had a wicker chair by the stove, but replaced it with this chair.  And notice the hardwood laminate floor that
Bob put in in the entire upstairs.

The wood burning stove is a great feature.  It did have red tile under it, but we replaced that with this new hearth pad.

The new sofa sits with its back to the stair railing, now painted white.

On the opposite wall is the dinette.  I love the wicker, iron and glass set.

The kitchen is small but efficient.  I love the painted cabinets.  The bar is on wheels, so you have great versatility.

We replaced the kitchen counter top.

Since the bedroom and living room were open to each other, we got this track and panel system from Ikea.

You can slide the panels open, if you prefer.  And look how cute Lil’s desk looks tucked into the little nook that was created!

Queen sized bed.

Opposite the foot of the bed–closet on the left, bathroom on the right.

The bath off the bedroom.  I love the Ocean Breezes art that I found.

We upgraded this countertop to granite.

The vinyl floor looks like tile.  We used the same flooring in the entry and downstair bath.

Downstairs is another large, open room.  The only thing left to do is finish the headboards we are making and painting them and the night stands white.

I found a great fabric that matched the bedding and made valances.

Update – June 6.  Bob made these headboards.  Don’t they look adorable?

Here’s the carpet we put in the downstairs.

The downstairs sitting area.

There was no bathroom downstairs, so we took some room from the garage and added a nice bath.

That allowed us to add this big closet.

Which houses the washer, dryer and hot water heater.

We even finished sheet rocking the garage.

And I spread bark and topsoil in all the beds.

It was a lot of hard work, but I love the way it turned out.  I also learned that I’m not ready to start flipping houses for a living!