PROJECT GUESTHOUSE, PART 2

  The sea has not yet frozen, which means we´ve still been able to spend weekends at our summer home. Remodeling that is.
  Our guesthouse has proceeded nicely (you can see the starting point here):

Insulation in process. Although this is a summer house mainly, we want the guesthouse to be warm for winters too. Hopefully in the future (when the kids are older), we´ll spend weekends here year round. Preferably with friends.

We used ecologically friendly insulation, made of old recycled newspapers.

The walls were covered with timber panels and then colored using wood wax. It is breathable and non-toxic. At home we´ve used the same stuff on our floors, and fallen in love with it. It feels nice and warm against bare feet, and when it wears off in places mostly used, you can just rub a little more wax on where needed. Awesome and practical. The old door in this picture is an original one used when the place was built in 1967. It is older than that, solid and very heavy timber you no longer get anywhere. It was in a relatively good shape, so we wanted to save it for a new purpose...

View to the door. This guesthouse is a studio, there´s only one room and a little kitchen nook.

 

Here´s what it looks like right now. Still missing finishing touches, but it is starting to take shape. The pic is taken standing at the door coming in. There´s a bunk bed and the small kitchenette in the back. The old door we preserved, now serves as the end of the bed/kitchen "wall".

Obviously the place is in need of an electrician... And I must point out how I hate the faded yellow pine table & chairs there (original ones from the actual cabin, probably 80´s style)! But we have not yet bought new furniture because we need to store all the stuff from the actual cabin somewhere while we tackle it in the near future. So I´m gonna have to stand this for some more time. Poor old me...

We installed big windows on every wall, except in the back, to create a feeling of space in this otherwise small space. The couch is also evacuated from the bigger cabin, and is ridiculously too large here, and we will replace it with a smaller one one day. Patience, patience...

  My husband and I have staid here for three weekends so far. We designed it to suit two people, and by far it has proven to be a cozy little sanctuary. I can´t wait to get it finished!

PROJECT GUESTHOUSE

  Needless to say, we have spent a lot of time at our summer cabin in the past few months. Mostly it is about fun and play, but we have also been productive.
 We have been restoring and building a guesthouse there. Since the cabin is located on an island where you can only get to and from by your own boat, our guests often stay overnight. So there is big demand for an updated, quality, up-to-date lodging.

  Here´s what we´ve done (so far) this summer:

The starting point. An old tool shed from the sixties. We wanted to conserve the old, instead of demolishing it and building a completely new one, out of respect for the history of the place.

Emptying it was a huge task in itself! Under the floor boards there were old bird nests and 35 abandoned, rotten, eggs...

Only one window in the whole building.

Don´t they say it always has to get worse before it can get better?

Roof under construction, plus bits here and there too.

Floors, walls, the roof, everything was strengthened and rotten wood replaced with new. And the whole building lifted up higher a foot.

Then it was time to start rebuilding. Now light begun to show at the end of the tunnel.

Now the inside feels fresh and good to breathe in.

And after installing more and bigger windows, the space seemed to triple.

Some of the old boards and beams are still visible, but not much is left of the old shag.

The outside begins to form.

Especially after getting painted.

We wanted it to match the new shed-outhouse we finished earlier this year. (Needless to say, the buildings are not crooked in reality, the camera lens is to blame here!)

This is what awaits for us next: insulation. And it is about time, the temperature has dropped to near freezing in the past couple of days!

  The style of these buildings I drew from old fishing sheds, which I imagine having stood by the sea for a hundred years. Something like this.

  Project guesthouse will continue until the sea freezes around the island. And then we´ll see what the winter will be like, whether or not we´ll be able to drive there by car.
  Projects keep life interesting. Highly recommendable I say!

MY BRAND NEW WARDROBE

  I can´t believe it, but I made myself a wardrobe:

We have a (too) big master bedroom, and the extra space has always troubled me. What a better way to fill it than build a custom-fit wardrobe?

It is right next to my bed, so I decided to leave an opening to that end to serve as a nightstand. Now I have generously room for both my clothes, and night time accessories such as wakeup-light, cell phone, glass of water etc. And it was all my own idea, yipee. =)

  The doors... They nearly gave me a headache, when figuring out what kind I wanted, and what I would be capable of making (I have more aspiration than experience in woodwork). Instead of going for the easiest option, making them out of plywood, I wanted to challenge myself and go for what you see above. Wooden frames filled with chicken fence and gathered linen fabric.  I´m very pleased with the end result, considering I´m no carpenter.

 I can easily fit in my seasonal garderobe, by the sabbat, and my year-round Freedom Collection, plus the few pieces of party clothing I have. A true all-in-one wardrobe. There is still even some empty shelf space, but I´m sure it will fill up in no time!  =)

  It took a year to complete the project. It is painfully slow to get anything done when you have a one-year-old following your every step. =)
  I started last winter by making the shelf section. Then I let it rest over the spring and summer, until it crept back in to my mind last fall. The project got a good kick-start a few weeks back, when I was able to stay home alone for an entire weekend, and work on it without disturbance.
  Congrats to me, I did it!

  Now all I need to do is get all of my clothes sewn and ready, and I´m in for the perfect life... =)  Maybe not, but it is a delicious project to work on!

YULE LIGHTS

  Lights, evergreens and red bows are what I use to create Christmas spirit outside our house. Like this:

Garage windows.

This is the walkway to our house. My darling eight-year-old son built these flower pots for me this summer.

The front porch. (This is where we eat breakfast in summer, when the sun shines here directly.)

This oak was only my height when we bought this place twelve years ago.

Candles are the most beautiful of lights with their naturally twinkling lights. I just do not dare burn them anywhere too near our home (I´ve had two people I know burn to death in a fire started by a candle. Horrible.). A tree  by the driveway is safe enough.

  Now Santa can see well in our yard when he comes to greet us on Christmas Eve.  =)

DIY CUSTOM-FIT MAKE-UP STATION & CABINET

 My earlier (and successful!) experience with woodwork encouraged me to try a bigger project. This time I made an important, quality-of-life improving, piece of furniture I have been struggling with for years now: a working make-up station! Yes, yes, men don´t understand the importance, but us gals, we use it daily to achieve the best results in life, right?  =)   (I do think a neatened and somewhat stylish appearance affects the way we are treated by the world. And that goes for both sexes.)

Whenever possible, I put on make-up in daylight. Therefore the station needs to be in front of/next to a window.

There is a door leading to the upstairs balcony right next to my make-up table, so I built storage space for slippers as well. Now they´re not in sight all the time, and it´s easier to vacuum the floors.

Not a pretty sight inside, but so important in use, that I want to show this too. Hidden from the eye are electric extension cords, trash bag, and tissue/toilet paper for cleaning make-up brushes.

The mirror is from a vintage make-up table I had before. It was pretty, but too small and not handy. I saved the mirror, and placed it over the ugly (but necessary) air conditioner we have in our bedroom. The lamps are located at an ideal 45 degree angle above my face, to shine light nicely when I do my beautifying in the mornings ( this face does need a lot of work  =).

In the corner there was a nice space to add a cabinet to. Can there ever be too much storage room?

Now I finally have a proper place for all my sewing magazines and patterns!

In the feminine corner of our bedroom I have allowed myself to have a tiny bit of pink. Otherwise I keep it to the minimum, because I always think that if I were a man living in our home, I wouldn´t want too much girlishness around...

  The combination of these cabinets is made of glued wood panels, and attached together with small angle irons. I screwed the cabinets to the wall behind also, to prevent falling (maybe I don´t trust my skills enough yet...).

  Since I´m no expert, and all custom-fit cabinets need to be made by specific measurements to fit the desired space, I can not give detailed instructions. But go see Ana White´s page to learn more about the making of wooden furniture.She has done wonders, and is inspirational!

DIY CUSTOM-FIT CUPBOARD

  My latest adventure in crafting is woodwork. I often admire custom-made furniture, especially cupboards and cabinets, in magazine pictures showing off beautiful homes. Needless to say, I also love home decorating. Never could I afford to have a carpenter make custom-fit furniture for my home, no matter how beautiful and clever their work is. So I needed to try it myself of course!

  This is my first attempt ever; a cupboard to solve the storage problem in our tiny upstairs bathroom.

This restroom is mainly for nightly visits... The toilet is a "dry toilet", meaning it doesn´t recquire water to function. We wanted to minimize the risk of water leaks in our house, and chose this type of bowl instead. It has a fan, which keeps the odors away and runs with low power, and a plumbing pipe, which is connected to the normal piping. Works well, with no risks!

The spot behind a toilet bowl is usually a waste of space. Placing a cupboard is the only reasonable way to go, and it also mounts the toilet into the room nicely, not making it the center piece of the entire room. (I´d rather focus on something more appealing than a toilet bowl!  =)

In here will go my beauty products and morning drink: a cup of water with lemon juice (it won´t have dust land on the surface anymore!). There is still lots of extra space for future needs.

Spare trash bags, a proper place to hang a trashbag, and extra toilet paper. All in the right places, made just for them!

It´s all in the details. Lacing the edge of the top gives the whole bathroom a more romantic look.

Doorknobs are very important! They define the look you want to achieve. Here I wanted to create a rustic feeling, in respect of the original part of our house built in 1830.

   I can´t give specific instructions to make this model, because all spaces and needs are different. Just grab a paper and pencil, and start sketching away! Don´t worry about the details of making it all come true.  The idea and design are the most important things, and there are usually ways to get around challenges, should you face any in the making!

  Again, surf the net for woodworking instructions. An excellent place to start is Ana White ´s page! 

Have fun learning! I sure did, and am sure this won´t be my last project with wood!