Merry Christmas Granny

We gave Granny a new outdoor light fixture for the beach house for Christmas and the gift also included installation, which we did this weekend.  Well, Michael did!  It is great to have the added light, the stairs are better lit and you could easily dine alfresco and be able to see your food.  We officially have more light outside than we ever had in the history of the beach house! 

Window Coverings

We gave Jean and Granny blinds and blind installation for Christmas and got them installed on New Years.  The sheers we had did the job during the heavy remodel work, but having the blinds makes the place look a lot more finished. 

Kitchen window (still need to take out some of the extra length on this one)

Eating area

West wall

South wall

Windows

Oh, we are getting so close to having the living area done. Sure, we may be caulking and painting for years to come, but most of the work that requires power tools is done!  Michael and I went this past weekend with the goal of getting all of the windows trimmed out (check!) and the rest of the molding done in the living room and bathroom (check!).  Michael got lots of caulking done and I started with baseboards and trim painting, which actually went way faster than I expected and wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected.  We are looking to having our handyman finish the paneling and the flooring in the bedrooms which will be a HUGE help, especially for Michael who has probably paneled way more than he ever wanted to!  Although he is quite good at it now. 

A cold front was blowing in from the North while we were there and it was so nice to lay in the bedroom at night and not feel like the house was going to blow away.  You could still hear the wind a bit, but not nearly as much as you would have before the storm.  No tree limbs hitting the window right by your head! 

Oh and another thing I did was put some bracing my my favorite green shelf down there so that it doesn't wobble and act like it is going to fall over.  Little shelf is beat up, but I love it.  May need a paint job soon, but it is just like new now that it has a bit of support!

OK, here are the pics...

 We also go the toe kick installed and the cabinets look all nice and finished out now!

Last pieces of trim for the bathroom ceiling.  Hung a couple of pics too. 

Flooring Part 2

Now we have it all throughout the living area - yeah!!!  It is so much nicer than living on plywood, looks great, we just love it and hope everyone else does.  We rearranged some furniture and did some more painting and caulking...just having the flooring done makes a HUGE difference. 

Another improvement since the last time we were there is the new couch.  Can't really see it in this pic that well, but it is super comfy, fits and looks great in the space.  Also really nice to have a place for everyone to sit now! 

A bit makeshift now, but I envision this being somewhat of a reading nook area or maybe puzzle table area.  Oh, we also hung some pics that Dad had donated to the beach.

The entire living area is pretty much painted.  Bit of touch up and second coat needed in some areas, but if you don't look close the room looks done! 

Painted wall with art. 

Flooring

Think we found some good flooring!  We took down one package and put it down - so much more comfy than plywood.  Now we are super excited to get it put down all over.  Everyone like the color?!

Goodbye Beach View

We knew it would happen eventually, but we only have one house to go before we lose our unobstructed view of the water!

Happy 4th of July

It was exciting to be back at the beach for the 4th of July!  Saw some great firework shows and fortunately the rain we'd had the week before from hurricane Alex was gone and the weather was dry, cooler than it had been, and nice and sunny.  And even more importantly hurricane Alex went into Mexico and not at the beach.  Let's hope we have the same luck the rest of hurricane season!  There was much more play than work this trip, but thanks to the hard work of our handyman/carpenter/contractor Drew we have a beautiful ceiling on the covered part of the deck and he corrected the structural mess that the previous contractor had made.  Looks great!

Michael did make more progress on the paneling...still just a bit more to put up, but we are almost done in the family room!