My Sliding Door: If I Had a Million Dollars . . .

After I finished my Master's in Philosophy, but before I began my PhD, I started a second Master's degree but left in the first semester.  Now that I have finished my doctorate, I can say with the perfect clarity of hindsight that it was the right decision, but at the time I felt like I was floundering.  I have one delicious memory, though, that makes that lost semester totally worth it.  In economics class, our Eastern European professor was trying to explain some economic principle to us and to illustrate his point he asked the class, "well, if you had a million dollars, you wouldn't eat Kraft Dinner would you?" to which someone replied, "of course we would, we'd just eat more".  His total befuddlement as we all broke into song (and sang the whole thing) still makes me laugh.

Anyway, if we had a million dollars, we wouldn't have cheap plastic tub surrounds, would we?  Of course we would, we'd just have more!  This house, also on Lake Superior, is listed for a cool $998,500.  The design is said to have been inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, and built 17 years ago.  Here was my reaction as Hubby and I scrolled through the listing photos:

Someone loves purple as much as I love turquoise!  Hey, we need some Adirondack chairs.  

I'm happy to see that $1,000,000 gets a dock a lot less rickety than ours.  That view!

The front entrance has a kind of commercial feel, doesn't it?  It opens right into the kitchen, and with that raised area in front of the sink it feels like the receptionist's desk at my dentist.  With almost 3,000 square feet, I'd expect a little distance between the front door and the kitchen.

I think I drank the kool-aid . . . the knotty cabinetry seems strangely appealing.  With light marble counters, pale grey subway tile backsplash, and new hardware it could work without lifting a paint brush.  Or maybe that's just the part of my brain totally sick of painting talking?  

Hey, I want a cozy library like this, with close proximity to snacks and a view of the lake.  

The floor to ceiling windows are incredible.

The throw looks like it's trying to escape.  Does the home stager know it's not supposed to literally be thrown onto furniture?  I cannot get over how many gorgeous windows there are. 

Okay, lots more wood.  The Hickory wood floors are amazing because they lend an upscale rustic feel, but the wood beams make the ceiling feel really low - I'd want to paint those out.  You want to look out, not up.  Why do the people who design lakehouses in this area think that combining a dozen different kinds of wood is a requirement for lake living?   

It's a great size for a master bedroom, but I can't not look at the man.  Is he changing his underwear?  Is this some really famous piece and I've now revealed how uncultured I am? 

Master ensuite has lots of storage and insane view of the lake.  I could live with this!  Gold faucets like these make it hard for me to love the brass that's in again.  Yes, today's brass has more modern shapes and cool matte finishes, but I have too many awful memories of 80s decor.  I'll appreciate the trend from afar while I desperately clutch at the last remaining brushed silver anything I can find.

In the second bedroom, another throw makes a mad dash for freedom.

The second bedroom (and third bedroom) have ensuites!!  Fancy.  But what a let down with the cheap shower surround instead of tile.  It's like ours, minus the portal doors.  Is there a reason this is so popular here?  Is there a checklist?  Plastic shower surround?  Check.  A variety of wood species?  Check.  The tiniest kitchen ever, and let's make it a u-shape so it's even squashier?  Check.  [I ran with this bit for a while when I was making my commentary to Hubs, so you're welcome for editing it here].

And the third bathroom . . . 

Yup, we're officially painting the exterior of the house an almost-black grey.  It looks cute on their shed, which is probably the size of our place.

I'm so happy some of you expressed an interest in seeing other Lake Superior homes.  I certainly appreciate the company because it feels less like snooping if we're doing it collectively.  I don't plan on making this a regular feature, but there will be a few more to share as they pop up on the market for the season.  I dipped my hands in the lake the other day (my feet were ensconced in boots).  It was cold, but not pneumonia-cold.  I plan on swimming June 1st, come hell, high water, or blizzard.

Uncharted Territory

Even though my Mom's not into Mother's Day, I invited my parents over on Sunday so they could chill by the lake with us.  Hubby and I puttered, finishing up our somewhat secret kitchen project, painting kitchen shelves, and finishing off the paneling with trim (we've made great progress on the kitchen since last week, I can't wait to show you).  We chatted with my parents while we worked, and then later in the afternoon we took a break and all wandered down to the lake, and then over to the guesthouse, newly accessible since the snow (mostly) melted.  Strangely, none of us had actually been inside since Hubby and I took possession of the lakehouse last fall!  It's obviously not seeing use as a proper guesthouse, so my Mom and I took some measurements and plan to use it as our Etsy headquarters.  We're re-opening our shop soon, with gusto.  We've done well previously, but were never able to devote the necessary time to actually list all of our inventory (which keeps growing), or add the artwork and handmade home decor accessories we keep talking about.  We're so serious about it this time around that we even considered renting a studio space.  A local high school, which my grandma attended, closed down and began renting out rooms for businesses and professionals.  We found a cute stationary room we loved, with incredibly tall shelving and a view of Lake Superior, but the rent was a bit high for us.  We found a couple of spacious retro-feeling classrooms with attached prep rooms, chock full of storage, but they were even pricier.

Ignore the post-apocalyptic feel.  Some units were being vacated as I snapped photos, so they were incredibly messy.

That's how I came to offer up the guesthouse.  We're going to store, pack, photograph, and create in this wee space.  My Mom also has a sewing room in her house, but we'll use the guesthouse to paint and work on other ideas.  It has a lot of windows (that face the lake), plus a bathroom for convenience.  I'd really love to paint out the ridiculous amount of wood - all different kinds, in case you get tired of just one kind of woodsiness! - but for now we're going to rip out the sauna for storage and give it a good clean.  We'd like to get the shop up and running soon, so we'll tackle making over the space later - although we do plan to add new curtains, asap.  Not that I don't love the creativity of using a forest green towels.  While we were making plans, I thought I'd share some photos because I rarely, if ever, talk about the space.  Here's the tour (it's small, it won't take long):

We bounced around some ideas: paint the walls creamy white but leave the wood ceiling as-is (for a Chalet-look), paint everything a chalky, bright white (which is the Tanya-look), or try our hand at white-washing for a Scandinavian-look.  Yes, white's a theme (surprised?), but it really is good as a backdrop for taking photos.  The sauna door, bathroom door and front door (which I love better than the doors on the main house!) are all contenders for cheery paint colours or big ideas - even the bathroom and entrance area are fair game.  The Eames chairs I bought were intended for our studio space, so they can have a home here now.  My only criteria is that any makeover is cheap, because the ultimate fate of this building is up in the air. 

How would you decorate this space?  I'd love to hear your ideas (and feel free to deviate from the white on white with turquoise scheme I love so much)!

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Kitchen Progress: It's Panel Time! (Installing Modern Paneling)

On instagram you might have caught a peek of us installing the paneling.  Installation was pretty easy.  The trickiest part was maneuvering the 8 foot tall pieces (I have some ceiling spots that now require a little paint touch up).  First we did some job reflection and measured the space to determined how many sheets we'd need (6).  Once they were in our hot little hands, we did some more reflection and confirmed where we wanted the paneling to begin and end, where seams would fall, and where to cut holes for outlets, etc.  Hubby found a neat, but ancient, online tool which helps figure out how to cut a sheet of anything (like plywood or paneling) for a project.  We haven't bought a table saw yet (we really need one), so Hubs used a circular saw and a straight edge,on our old kitchen counter propped up on saw horses in the garage, to cut the pieces and then used a jigsaw to cut out holes for outlets and vents.  We wrestled the sheets indoors and applied PL Premium construction adhesive to the back, careful not to apply it too close to the edges that it squished out, but enough that the edges were glued firmly into place.

We fit them into place and then, holding them so they didn't sag or droop down, used an air nailer to secure the edges.  Using the air nailer was my favorite part - holding them in place was not.

We applied pressure all over the sheets to help to distribute the adhesive evenly.  Once all of the sheets were installed, we went around with a nail set and hammer to counter sink all of the nail holes so none of the nails were poking out.

Once it was installed, I wiped off the many smudges and grime with a magic eraser, followed by a damp rag.  Then I went over every hole with sandpaper to smooth it (some edges were rough) and smooshed in some wood filler.  For shallow holes I just wiped off the excess with a damp rag right away, but for deeper holes I filled them and then applied a second coat and sanded the excess once dry.

The paneling came primed, but it wasn't perfect so I logged some hours with a paint brush this week.  I think that I'm done painting (the third coat was applied late last night, so I should hope), so later today I'll remove the tape and drop cloths and work on trimming it out - especially in the corners.  The paint for the paneled walls was provided by CIL.  The colour is White on White (in eggshell for the walls).  Meanwhile, Hubby is building an open pantry for beside the fridge and then I'm sanding, priming and painting it and our shelves!!  The kitchen process bodes well for the scary pile of unpacked boxes, because much of it (too much of it) is kitchen-bound.

Because I removed all of the upper cabinets, I wanted the paneling to extend from counter to ceiling over the remaining cabinetry, and then floor to ceiling behind and beside the fridge.  I didn't want to visually chop up the space I painstakingly opened up with the deconstructing my Dad and I did.  I've been thinking, though, that it would have been easier not to install it on the wall beside the fridge because it's really difficult to trim nicely.  But it's glued on now!  Here are some more photos of the paneling, pre-paint:





UPDATE: One little thing we had to think about with paneling was to purchase box extenders because our outlets because really sunk in from the extra thickness:

We installed the paneling vertically, even though horizontally has a more modern look, because the fireplace at the opposite end of the open living area has vertically installed pine planks, so this way the two spaces - although they contrast with light and dark paint finishes - have a design detail in common and relate to one another.  This is also why I picked very simple paneling, as opposed to something like beadboard.  No one but you and I need to know that the sauna wood looked totally weird, and that I picked paneling because it was a cheap and easy fix after we trashed the walls.

UPDATE: Now that the kitchen is finished, I'm adding some info and pictures concerning how we finished off the paneling.  Between the sheets, the seams needed nothing more than paint to disguise them because they were so close together and the only thing that made them stand out were the unfinished edges.  In total, I brushed on three coats of an eggshell latex paint.

Our counters were installed to have a gap at the back to allow for the expansion of wood so to hide that we simple nailed in lengths of 3 x 1 (Aspen) which were sanded smooth and then primed and painted the same colour as the paneling, but using a semi-gloss finish.  Any other kind of trim could work here and if the counter butts up right to the walls, and the paneling is installed with a neat edge over it, I've seen kitchens were no trim has been added.  There is also the option of a small quarter round, or decorative trim. 

In the picture above you can see we used narrow cove trim to hide the corner seam which was too large to be covered by paint or caulk.  It was painted to match the paneling.

The top of the paneling really didn't need any trim, although something like crown molding would add a nice touch.  Because our house is far from square, there were a few tiny gaps along the ceiling which we hid behind very thin strips of maple, also painted and primed to match, and installed with an air nailer.

At the edge of the paneling, where the kitchen opens into the dining room, we simply caulked the edge for a cleaner look.  In the doorway, white plastic trim (the kind used in wallpaper applications) was applied with construction adhesive.

Around the window, a small piece of trim was added to build up the area where there wasn't paneling to prevent the window casing from tipping.  This was nailed in place and the casing was installed as usual and everything was primed and painted the same colour as the paneling.  Easy!

Truthfully, finding a nice way to finish off the paneling was difficult because the space is open concept.  In a more closed off room - with four proper walls - this would be much, much easier.  In the end, though, it looks okay and was a very thrifty option for covering the walls, which were in rough shape.

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My Sliding Door: Minty Fresh

Have you seen the movie Sliding Doors?  It's influenced my outlook on life more than a film should.  If you haven't seen it (go rent it!), the film follows two versions of the protagonist Helen's (Gwenyth Paltrow) life, made totally different by one simple, seemingly innocuous event.  Anytime someone around me laments a decision or something that's happened to them, I caution "sliding doors".  There's this tendency for people to think that the alternative is rosier, but I'm of the belief that a situation wouldn't necessarily be better if things had unfolded differently.  Watch the movie, I'll sound less batty. 

Last summer we stumbled across the lakehouse we now call home although it really wasn't the plan to buy a house then.  This place was so perfect though that we took a leap and bought it, even though it meant some sacrifices, like being rushed to sell and not making money on the sale of our townhouse.  Our plan had been to move this year, around this time actually.  I haven't, for a second, regretted our somewhat rash decision and when the sun sets on our piece of Lake Superior, I couldn't be happier or more at peace.  I feel very privileged we were able to realize one of our dreams.  Of course, things aren't perfect: we miss Ottawa and our life there, the lakehouse has some quirks (and we've had some unpleasant surprises), we're an hour from the nearest city which can be taxing and tiring, and our 8km long dirt road is treacherous some days (at least until the grader shows up), but we love it here.  Hubby, though equally contented, still trolls the real estate listings, looking at other homes for sale on Lake Superior.  I am secretly terrified of this, wondering if one day he'll find something better and it will be evident that we should have waited.  I thought it might be fun to share some of the comparable homes with you, every now and then, to see where we might have ended up - or not - had we dug in our heels and stuck to our plan.

Here's the first place, which is actually on the part of Lake Superior I wanted to be on, because it's only a 20 minute drive into town and closer to my parents.  It's near a bay that Hubby and I used to frequent for swimming dates in our teens and early twenties.  When I first saw the listing, my heart tightened.  I love the location, and the exterior is minty green.  It's similarly sized as ours, (maybe 100-200 square feet larger), but on two and a half levels.  Here's what I was thinking as Hubby and I scrolled through the photos:

Oooo, mint green!!

Awesome view, but not on a sheltered bay like we are, and Lake Superior can kick your ass, even in the summer.  Too cold to enjoy if it's too open!!  But look - that's the Sleeping Giant.  Awwww.

A proper entryway!  Think of the gorgeous credenza we could make . . . sigh.   Our tiny "entrance" is so useless and awkward when we come home.

Great potential and lovely wood floors.  We could paint the walls and beams white (of course), except for the stone.  I'd paint it dark grey like I did ours - it would help the TV blend in.  Is that the best place for it?  A mid-century sectional sofa in teal tweed would be perfect for the shape of the room.
 

Gorgeous view from the dining room - and look!  Is that light centred?  Luxury.

Dead space between the living and dining . . .but the dining room is spacious.  Room for a credenza?  I love having one, don't think I could give that up.

The kitchen is so similar to ours.  LOVE the additional windows and pot lights.  What a bright space, day or night.  We need more windows!  I would swap the pendant lights for two small George Nelson cigar pendants.  I'd paint the cupboards and not even tear out the uppers like we did.  The counter is neutral and looks to be in great shape - how nice.

That tiny piece of counter is too funny.

The master bedroom wouldn't fit a king sized bed.  Why does this house have so many weird angles and bump outs?
 

I would break a knee cap climbing into this. 
 

Vanity, why are you so small and awkward??

 Powder room, why are you so awkward too?  Pretty tile backsplash, though.



A-ha!!  This is where all the crazy angles from the lower two levels meet and collide.  Insanity.
 

Is that garage aqua???  SOLD.  It's got a guest space above, whereas our "guest house" (I use the term generously) is separate from the garage.  Fewer buildings to maintain would be swell.  Our yard is a jumble of sheds, a sauna/guesthouse and garage, plus carport.  This seems tidier and more well planned.

Overall, it's lovely, right?  What did you think of it?  There are things I love about ours that I wouldn't want to trade, even for a better location: more open concept, giant bathroom vanity, one level, tall ceilings.  But really, I could be happy here too.  You know what makes this place so much less enticing?  It's $200,000 more than our house was, and most definitely out of our budget!!  We wouldn't have been able to afford to live here.  Okay, so no regrets yet, but they're just beginning to list lake homes . . . shall we do this again?

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