*** The Mayne Island Cottage Reveal ***
Lorenzo, our daughter and I headed over to the island on Thursday night, leaving two teenage boys to fend for themselves. I was touched by how enthusiastic they were to help us load up the truck; such helpful lads. And the way they sprinted into the house as we pulled away? Eager to start in on their chores, I suspect.
The weather was great, and this marked the first time we truly had (almost) nothing to do. I had taken a slew of pictures on our last trip over, but I used the wrong aperture on the camera and the results were disappointing. Anyway, here is the cottage! It's done! YAY!!!
The Cottage Reveal:
Bathroom:
As mentioned previously, the bathroom was on the main floor and it occupied the south-east corner of the cottage which meant we had very little light coming in. This picture was taken the day we decided to make an offer; it was all we could afford and we could see the potential. Behind the hideous cedar-paneled wall was the bathroom. Talk about lack of privacy...
Construction began which meant re-locating all the plumbing to the second floor, reinforcing the floor to accommodate the tub etc. This was a big job which presented a truckload of headaches...
We borrowed the closet from the boy's room and about two-thirds of the space from our daughter's room...
The goal was to make a decent-sized family bathroom....with a tub!
 |
| Lorenzo in the tub |
We chose pebble-tile for the bath enclosure because it looks beachy and it hides the fact that many of the walls are not perfectly straight...
I couldn't be more pleased with our bathroom....
The console was an excellent find and I especially appreciate the storage in the basket drawers at the bottom. I use this for the blow dryer, flat iron, and other hair accessories....
The back wall before....
and after...
Due to the narrowness and overall small size of this space, we opted for built-in storage that is no deeper than the studs...
We have a medicine cabinet above the sink and another cabinet above the toilet...
I have learned over the years that deep storage is not only unnecessary for the vast majority of items, but also a recipe for clutter and not being able to access the things you need. This bathroom is a pleasure to use and better outfitted than my bathrooms at home...
No cottage is complete without a whimsical drawing from one of the kids. My daughter drew this in the third grade...
Eh voila!
All in all, the bathroom is a very lovely space and I feel happy when I walk into it. The gray-green colour feels very clean and fresh and all the elements came together the way I envisioned it. There's a place for everything. Lorenzo wants to put in a sky-light as he's convinced that we're going to have moisture issues, but I don't think we will. The fan is extremely powerful. Having said that, some natural light would be nice. We'll see....
House Tour Part Two - The Landing:
The stairwell heading up to the second floor was dark and spooky. And the "stained glass" light fixture was pretty ugly...
New flooring, a lick of paint, and what a transformation.
I saw a wire-cage pendant light on the Home Depot website for $49....
Lorenzo liked it, so we bought it. It is perfect for the space....
The old railings were removed....
And Lorenzo installed railings from Home Depot....
Dark pine paneling be gone!
Light, bright and airy....
This outdoor barn lamp looks right in this spot....
Lorenzo installed new pine walls that matched the original paneling elsewhere on the landing...
New doors and trim and the whole landing looks bigger, brighter, and much more welcoming...
Daughter's Room: This room became a bedroom and bathroom, neither of which are particularly large but the bedroom is impossibly small....
The result was a tiny space....
But it has a certain charm....
And is just big enough for a set of bunks....
And a cabinet in the corner... I had left over knobs from the kitchen so I switched out the old ones which were small and boring. It looks much better now. The wall lights are from Ikea and they're fantastic. What a great idea if you don't have room for lamps and night stands....
Moving along. The Boy's Room:
Our sons' original room was just gorgeous and we thought about leaving it the way it was. Something about those 70's paneled walls and the thick shaggy rose-coloured carpet almost brought a tear to our eye...not to mention the oversized aluminum window. So retro!
Everything was stripped away, new window installed, new walls and ceiling and floor...
It's amazing how much bigger this room looks - I swear, it looks as though we added on to it. Two double beds from the Salvation Army, an old dresser, some lighting and hooks, and bob's-your-uncle. Our window screens hadn't arrived when we were there so I just threw up some old sheers to keep the skeeters out...
As I said, we had to take their closet for the bathroom....
It wasn't a very useful closet anyway...
The Master Retreat:
Actually, our bedroom shares the exact dimensions of the boys' room which is about 10-feet wide by 15-feet long. Another room lost in the worst decade for style....and check out the bright blue plastic coat hanger on the wall. Such a thoughtful touch....
Demolition, work, sweat....I think a dead bird or something fell on Lorenzo's head when he gutted this room. South wall before....
and after....
I hung a favourite print by Kiff Holland on the wall opposite the bed so we'd have something nice to look at when we wake up in the morning....
North side of the room before....
and after.... This room feels so big and airy even though we opted for a king-sized bed. I love my cottage bedroom - at night the creamy-coloured walls glow when the lamps are on and the high gloss paint on the wainscoted ceiling also bounces light around. In a long narrow room with only one window, you have to keep things light and reflective.
Let's head down the stairs to the main floor...and what a yucky staircase it was.
Not anymore!
What used to be the ugliest part of the cottage is now bright and pleasant...
After the bathroom was removed from the main floor, we added windows where previously there were none. New plumbing, electrical, insulation, walls, ceiling, flooring... Gutted to the studs.
Two years later, dozens of weekends of back-breaking work for Lorenzo, and here it is. We couldn't be more happy with the results...
West wall before....
New windows, new front door....
And here it is. I still think we should have put in a glass front door but Lorenzo disagrees. I installed a mirror on the south wall to reflect the windows and it really made a difference....
The original kitchen....
In with the new....
View of the original kitchen before the bathroom was removed....
Demolition, new windows....
A very cute cottage kitchen!
Before....
During....
After!
South-east corner where the original bathroom used to be. Yanked it out, put in windows to bring in the glorious southern exposure.
Nice and sunny in the morning....
Guess what appeared in my kitchen window last Friday?
A young buck!
Moving along...original cottage; east view....
Strange "den" area knocked out to reveal that king-beam had been cut and left unsupported. That was fun....
Now it's one big open plan....
We never could figure out why this "room" was walled in. It was dark and miserable....
Here we go again, adding windows where there should have been windows in the first place. I don't know how the previous owners coped in such a dark house...
It's not dark anymore....
The stackable washer & dryer that were left for us were in good shape but they were too small for a family of five.
We gave them to our friend's mother and knocked out the whole laundry area to accommodate full-size units as well as a closet....
I chose flat-panel doors for the washer & dryer closet because I knew I wanted to put mirrors on them....
Hands-down, one of the best ideas I came up with. Nothing transforms a space more than colour and light, and mirrors give you light. They are magical. This corner of the cottage is twice as bright as it was; this is the north-end and it tended to be a bit gloomy.
Behind the mirored doors is my laundry "room"....
South side of the cottage...
I found this pine cabinet on Craigslist. It fit in this spot perfectly. This is a handy little thing - it's where I keep tea candles, cell phones, loose change, board games, etc.
This is the west wall which gave us more headaches than anything we did...poor Lorenzo. Builds a fantastic fireplace only to knock it all down....
After it was all done, this wall just looked wrong...had to break the news to Guido that we needed to renovate the renovation....
Once we pebble-tiled the wall and installed some shelves, we had a real focal point instead of a huge blank stretch of dullness....I love this wall now. I chose different pebble tile for the wall than what we'd used on the hearth. I just liked the gray better than the multi-coloured. I think it looks fine...
My cousin and his wife had some left-over Ikea countertop that we used for the shelves. It's oak, just like our kitchen counters, so it blends in nicely. I bought the brackets at Home Depot. I have decided not to clutter up these shelves with bits & bobs. I want to keep the cottage feeling as clutter-free as possible. The print is "Haida Totems" by Emily Carr. I brought it from home because it seemed to suit Mayne Island more than Burnaby...
On the other side of the wood stove I hung a big clock that I bought at Bowerings. It was on sale for $29. The metal trees I purchased at the Envisions Gallery on Mayne Island. They're really cool....
If someone had told me that our renovations would take two years, I wouldn't have bought this cottage. Just looking at these old pictures reminds me of how discouraged and exhausted we were. Here is the south-east corner before...
after...
before...
after....
I bought this sofa table on Craislist, painted it, and put on a new knob. The exposed back of a sofa
is never a pleasant view. This looks much better and gives me a place to put the mail, ferry schedules, etc.....
North side before...
and after...
Coat hooks and shoe rack from Ikea....
The reading corner....
Fish from the Envisions gallery on Mayne Island...
Well, that's all for now. Here are some other pictures:
* * * *
We're done.
I dedicate this blog to my husband, Lorenzo. When we met, he didn't even know where Mayne Island was. Eighteen years later, he takes on the biggest challenge of our lives. Because he knew this is where I call home. Thank god he grew to love the place as much as I.
This is our Mayne Island cottage. Built by an Italian stallion!
Ciao for now. Stay tuned for the exterior renovation coming your way this fall....
