🙂

So, what do you think?  Be kind.

The Christmas season is over and my decorations are almost all put away.

I had a lot of help from these two!

It was fun having family and friends visit over the holidays, and I was happy to get this great picture of my parents and my offspring having some killer meatloaf and mashed taters.

You’ll have to pry the recipe from my cold, dead hands! (Or just look up Ina Garten’s recipe on the interwebs)

The only sad news from our Christmas season is that we have not seen our stray kitty GT in several weeks.  We hope he’s found a family, but we have to be realistic and face the fact that he may be in kitty heaven.  Homeless cats lead hard, dangerous lives and even though he found some food and comfort with our family for several months, he may have met with a sad end.  Here’s the last picture I have of the little guy.

He dearly loved his friend Jim. 😦

In house renovation news, we’ve made great progress in this area.  I teased you with the fact that we were painting the exterior an “exciting” color, but alas I still can’t show you those photos.  The weather has been horrible and the progress for the outside of the house is going painfully slow.  I’ll be able to show you the finished result by mid-week.  Meantime, my neighbors have expressed some nice compliments on the color to may face.  Who know what the buzz is when I’m out of earshot.  🙂

The interior renovations are going great!  We’re very pleased with how the little house is turning out so join me on a photo tour of our casita…

The existing lighting was heavy and Gothic.

So we replaced all of it with lighter, brighter fixtures that look more “cottage” like.

We updated all the interior paint to a sunny yellow and minty green.

Upstairs bathroom.

We also re-tiled the fireplace which was decorated with a tumbled travertine. It was pretty, but didn’t reflect the new color palette I had in mind.

Before. Very nice, but too tame.

going…going…

My tile guy is GREAT! His real name has four parts to it and it’s very pretty, but I would never be able to remember it. Fortunately his nickname is BOOMBA. 🙂

Badda-BOOMBA!

The tile is green onyx.  I know NOTHING about tile, but I saw this in a tile warehouse reduced from $30/sq. ft. to $10!  It was so pretty and shiny.  I couldn’t photograph the amazing color properly, so come by and see it for yourself.  Each tile is like a little piece of jewelry.  The fact that I got it at such a great price makes it even better.

My handsome handy-man re-attached all the outlet covers and turned the electricity back on.

And Voila!

I think it really makes the living room sparkle.

Boomba also made a nice patio for us in the backyard from all the parking pavers we dug up.

Call me if you’d like this guy’s number. He’s tiling our backsplash next week!

I can contrast the change in the paint color with these two overhead shots.

Before…

After.

The new pieces of furniture were mostly flea market finds.  My mom did buy me the crazy lamp on the left. It came from Pier One and this cheapskate would not have bought it for herself.  Thanks Mom!

And thanks Jim, for not only bankrolling my little playhouse, but for spending the precious free time you have doing my bidding.  I’ll make it up to you somehow.  Riiiiiight. 🙂

Headlamps are so sexy!

Finally, here is a photo only ONE of my readers will “get”.

Come back to Amuhrica soon Tama. I miss your weirdness! 😦

Drumroll please…I can now show you the inside of our adorable little house!

Ta Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

This is the view of the living room from the front door.  The place is far from finished.  We are painting the inside and out and buying new furniture pieces and art when we find them for dirt cheap at flea markets and thrift shops.  The only NEW pieces we have purchased are the loveseat and of course all the beds.  Everything else is a flea market find or something we’ve used from our own casa.

This is the spiral staircase to the second floor–not for the faint of heart!

Our daughter and her childhood friend of 16 years braved the climb in their Christmas Jammies.

And here is the view from the top.

The house is a mere 900 sq. ft. so a conventional staircase was not an option.  The cottage was built in 2007 by the same guy who built our house. (Hi G.T.)  The fireplace is gas and I had to get a tutorial from the gas company guy to figure out how to work the thing.

The loft bedroom.

At the top of the stairs are two French doors leading to a surprisingly huge bedroom and full bath.

The loft has an interesting shape and really feels like two separate rooms.

I’m not exactly certain on how I am going to arrange the area, but it will have two twin beds and one of them will be made into a day bed for watching TV. So basically I’ll make a little sitting area and have a separate sleeping area.  The cable guy put in three boxes so there will be three TVs in this tiny little house.  A bit much right?  My pal Susna assured me that people who rent vacation homes expect a TV in the main area AND in all the bedrooms.  I know she’s gonna help out with my cable bill cuz that’s the kind of friend she is. 🙂

Door leading to full bath.

The color upstairs is a depressing gray.  I’m changing it to a warm ochre that will go well with the red linens and accent furniture. (I hope)

Upstairs bath.

I’m also changing the wall color in both bathrooms.  They’ll be a soft, minty green.  Both bathroom mirrors were missing so I just grabbed some mirrors from my house to hang temporarily.  I needed mirrors and towels and sheets and beds and such since I had overflow New Years guests staying in the little house for the past three days.  It was a very fast and frantic transformation from empty shell to a place habitable for three peeps.

Walk-in shower.

Our tenant left late on the night of the 30th and guests arrived on the 31st.  Jim and I had 12 hours to get the place outfitted with the comforts of home before they arrived that evening.  Of course nothing matched and the comforts were sparse, but we managed to make it work.

Of course it’s a pink coffee pot. What else did you expect?

The galley kitchen is small but quite efficient.

Hannah and Uncle Dave inspect the digs.

Directly opposite the sink is a closet containing a pantry and stacked washer/dryer.

My favorite room.

The master bedroom is HUGE and has lots of windows and a little window box. Although we will keep the yellow theme for the living room, kitchen and master bedroom, I’m having them use a lighter, softer yellow.  This is more of a “mustard” color and a bit too dark for the “beachy/cottage” feel I’m going for.

We’ll use one closet for housekeeping supplies and guests will use the other.

Well that’s all for now.  The painters come today to complete the inside and then tomorrow they begin painting the outside!  I’m not revealing the new exterior color, but I will give a small hint…It will be SHOCKING! 🙂

Happy New Year all!