Done Part 2

After my last post, Granny pointed out that I didn't have the outside changes documented, and she was right.  So this past trip, I got pics of the outside.  It is almost hard to believe it is the same house! 

Done

So happy to be writing this post, although it is a bit belated.  I am officially calling the beach house done and I think that we can say that Pete's Place is pieced back together.  More than just pieced back together, it is new and fresh and super comfy.  The pre-Ike house treated us well for many, many years and I expect nothing less of the new version.  Although I call it done, there are many more little projects to keep us busy over the years, but they are little and nothing that must be done the next visit (well, except replacing the thermostat and making sure we can get the AC up and running- but that is another story!)

So, here are some pics.  Pulled up some of the pre-storm and immediately after storm pics to show the progress (and dramatic improvement if I do say so myself!)

The Original Bedroom

 (the pre-Ike pics I took were not intended to ever be posted on a blog, so ignore the random stuff in the pics!)

This pic really doesn't do the damage justice.  

 Ahhh, all new!

The New Bedroom

Wasn't really a bedroom originally, just beds, mixed with the living room.

Complete mayhem.

Now it is its own separate space.  So nice! 

The Bathroom

See the bright light behind the soap holder?  Pretty sure that was outside light shining in.  Not normal.

 

The room is so much brighter and feels twice as big.  

The Living Room

More mayhem.

This pic doesn't do the room justice.  Thanks to Granny's decision to enclose the old porch, this room feels HUGE now.  And I am excited to have found an equally as comfortable couch as the one we had before the storm (the couch was the greatest furniture loss of the storm in my opinion).  

The Kitchen

 1st of all, look how small Addy is in this pic!  Adorable.  The kitchen, not so adorable.  

I didn't get good pics of the kitchen apparently.  The kitchen was disturbed very little actually.  Not sure the toaster moved an inch.  

New version is better in so many ways, it is hard to count!

The entire family has put a lot into getting us to where we are today.  I know that we are all excited to be "done" and are most excited to just be able to enjoy the place.  It is terribly relaxing down there and even though it can be a lot to pack up and get down there, all the stress of that melts away as soon as you open the door and smell that salty beach air. 

Carpet Is Here!

Hopefully this is the 2nd to last post to this blog!  The blog was intended to capture the story of rebuilding the beach house.  And I think that we are one post away from having the house rebuilt.  Getting carpet in the bedrooms the other week was a huge step.  It is so nice and cushy and just having the plywood covered totally transforms the look of the house.  It totally looks like a home now. 

Michael was a BUSY bee last weekend.  The goal was to finish all the little projects that were lingering so that the tools could come back to Houston and we could clean up the Home Depot section of the beach house.  Mission accomplished. 

Doors over both openings to the AC closet!! 

All the lumber and tools - gone!

OK, so what will the last post be?  Painted bedrooms.  I'm not 100% happy with the sample on the wall, a bit too pinkish for me, so need to do some more work, but in the meantime there is a bunch of caulking to do.  Michael is especially excited about the caulking!  Now, even after the bedrooms are painted, there is still TONS of touch up work to be done around the house.  But for blog purposes, Pete's Place will officially be pieced together and not only is it pieced together it has been dramatically upgraded as well!

Peace of Mind

After this weekend, we can finally hang out as a family on the porch and Michael and I can relax and not have to hover over Ella!!  The old railing was just not safe...I'm pretty sure that if an adult fell against it that they'd topple over, but little Ella could have easy fell through the big gaps in the railing.  No more though!  Michael and Dad knocked it out over the 4th of July weekend.  We are now super safe and I think that it looks fabulous! 

They even found time to make a gate for the stairs.  This is HUGE considering Ella is obsessed with going up and down the stairs.  Now our little monkey is stuck upstairs and we love it!  It is also great for keeping dogs from going up and down.  All kinds of latches on it so it easily tucks in when we don't need it closed. 

This isn't railing related exactly, but now the day lilies are safe and sound too!

Carpet Here We Come!

Flooring in the closets, trim around the closets and doors, and baseboards...next stop, CARPET.  Bye, bye plywood flooring!

For the 1st time...

in 30+ years, the bedroom walls at the beach house are white!  It is just primer and there is more painting to be done, but the hard work (for me at least!) is over I think.  Next is Michael's turn to trim everything out, and best of all, get it ready for carpet.  We had intended to just buy the trim down at the local lumberyard and at least get the baseboards in so that we'd be set to have the room measured once we pick a carpet.  But turns out the local store closed at 2:00 and Michael went down around 4:00ish.  We tried to support local business, but you've got to be open - Home Depot here we come!

Here are are newly primed walls.  It is amazing how much brighter the rooms are, feel a lot bigger too.  The small bedroom looks way bigger b/c we finally got all of the scrap lumber out.  Not a small project, and most is just piled in the storeroom downstairs, but nice to get the space back in the bedroom. 

Furniture Update

We have lived with the living/kitchen area a while and decided we needed a few more pieces of furniture.  We are super excited to have a nice new island and microwave stand.  Lots more storage and counter space.  The island also fills up a big empty space that we had in the middle of the room. 

Imagine a couple of bar stools here

Plan to buy some baskets to add some hidden storage.

I've been collecting frames for ages and finally decided it was time to take them out of the spare bedroom at our house and get them on the wall at the beach house.  A couple of them have pictures, some of them have temporary art that Addy drew, but time to dig through the family photo collections and fill up the empty frames!