The Little Cottage Project

June 10, 2014

Things have been a bit crazy since I moved back to California. While I’ve managed to squeeze in a few beautiful photo sessions, 99% of my time has been dedicated to making my new house a home. It is a little place we refer to as “The Cottage.” There are no real pictures to share yet because the “before” is a bit too scary to show without a complete “after.” However, I’ve been coming back to my blog to write about this first month of insanity and now I’m ready to share a bit!

Week 1: Let me paint the picture for you… purple carpet, holes in the walls, 600 square feet, a cracked faux fireplace, and no bathroom door. Can I repeat that last one? NO BATHROOM DOOR. Don’t worry, we should have one by next week, but when your guests come over and have to kick you out of your own house to use the restroom things become a bit awkward. We removed the old lawn and trenched to lay sprinklers and prepare for new sod. But once the weather reached around 95 we ditched the moving boxes and escaped to Sam’s parents house to mooch off their AC.

Week 2: After getting some white paint on the walls in the living room (to cover up the yellow that was used to cover blood red) “The Cottage” is beginning to look more like home. Half way through the week we discovered writing in the stairwell to the attic that reads “I hate you don’t for get that.” Annnnddd now all of our friends and family are too scared to go up there. We also re-arranged the dirt for the second (third?) time. Oh, and the bathroom door is coming next week, don’t worry.

Week 3: The rooms are beginning to have purpose. We DIY’ed a mantle for our faux fireplace and filled it with candles, and found homes for some cute knick-knacks from Home Goods. Living room: DONE. We built out last piece of Ikea furniture and vouched to never return… until next week. The most exciting part of this week was putting sod in the front and back yards so the neighbors could finally see we were making progress on the “ugly ducking” house of the street. We actually really love our new neighbors and sharing our old house woes with them. Sam and I have started a quaint tradition of going to the farmers market every Tuesday and picking up some plants from our favorite local farmer.

Week 4:   I have suddenly become very accident prone. It was the week of hanging kitchen cabinets and finally installing a bathroom door. This meant us being sink-less and counter-less for the whole week. Let’s see… I broke of sting of globe lights, broke a water glass (not wine!!), dropped a gallon of paint in the driveway, had a dishwasher fall on me (and was STUCK UNDER IT for a few minutes! Our walls are so thick that Sam couldn’t hear me yelling! We had no counter top and all I wanted was to hide some of the dishes that had been in our bathtub!!!), broke a plate, ran into a few walls, broke our picnic bench, and then finally my dogs and I got attacked by a pit bull. I’ve never been so happy for a week to be over.

It is now a couple of days into week five, but things are much different now. Sam started his full time job as a marketing coordinator and I am also getting back to business. We have a completed kitchen AND bathroom, and I feel incredibly blessed and excited to call this home. There is still a lot of home improvement and DIY projects left, so be sure to follow me on Instagram @jessicamwood and our hashtag #thelittlecottageproject to see what I break next.

Also, I lied, here are some pictures.

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[…] I started sharing about our first house, like this post from 4 years ago and little updates on our Instagram hashtag, I called it a “Project” because I knew there would […]

[…] apartments and our parents homes. Now we have finally settled into a home, which happens to be a tiny 600 square foot cottage, and there is barely room for the four of us. As in I can’t even see the floor next to our […]

Adorable. Keep it coming. Do video! Love this and wish I had the energy to do it.

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