Monday, July 7, 2014

Swiftly Moving Summer

I say this every year:  summer is flying by!  Why, just last weekend was the 4th of July and after the 4th it seems like within a twinkle, summer is gone.  It hasn't seemed like much of a summer here on the home front.  With the remodeling of our guest cottage (painting, flooring, crown moulding etc), 2 months have escaped with just one boat ride the entire season thus far and a whole lot of meetings with several general contractors, roofers and heating/cooling guys and have I mentioned how much electrical and plumbing we've done to the old guest cottage?

Of course this means I haven't been active in the auction circuit because, frankly, between time and money, auctions have had to hit the bottom of the totem pole.  I had hoped to go to an auction last week but that didn't work out.  There's one tomorrow but the weather doesn't look fantastic, but perhaps we'll try anyway because our booth has done well in the past 2 months!  Selling means we need to replenish and selling also means money in the pocket to replenish!  It's an addiction, I tell you!  Buy to sell to buy to sell to buy. . .  :)  It's a delicious addiction, I must say!

With that said, though, I haven't been away from vintage and antiques.  I spent nearly 2 months at the cottages and during that time we have purchased furniture and other odds and ends for the guest cottage by shopping in our storage unit (Ha!) and going to a few antique shops in Missouri.

Here are pictures from the last 2 months:



Looking through the kitchen window in Delavan Cottage to our Moonlight Cocktail Cottage next door.  We were way behind in leaf duty and my lovely husband worked an entire day wrangling the leaves so we could hire Stan to push them in the back 40 with his Bobcat!  :)

This is our cottage and after driving down one afternoon, I had to sit in the car to finish the "Happy" song!  I love this view and XM!  :)


The rest of the pictures are from the guest cottage named Delavan Cottage.  We purchased the vintage farm table and mis-matched chairs last Fall in Columbia, MO.  I love how they fit into the space perfectly.


I wanted a vintage table to go between these 2 chairs.  We found this sweet table in Lincoln, MO and underneath the writing says, "Wedding Gift 1941."  Isn't that fun?  The vintage Hunting and Fishing book was purchased at an antique shop in Walworth, WI.


The Motor Court sign is hung above the bedroom door.  The Old Man and the Sea picture was purchased in Wisconsin.


Not sure if I mentioned this, but Delavan Cottage is named after Lake Delavan, WI where my Dad spent his summers.  So collecting vintage Wisconsin pennants has become a passion.


We don't have many yet, but the newer ones are being placed on the ceiling of the screened-in front porch.


We drove up to Illinois to pick up my parents' bedroom set.  Since my mother passed away in 2009, my father has moved his bedroom downstairs and wasn't using this set any longer.  While it's probably not the most beautiful set in the world, it reminds me of my parents in a lovely way.  This set has been there since the day I was born and I felt it was the perfect set for Delavan Cottage!


My father loves boating and has decorated his home in a nautical theme in places.  He sent us home with 2 of the 3 ships for the mantle.  While out antiquing, we found the additional ship on the left hand side.  The large framed original painting was found in Lincoln and the adorable vintage lamp on the mantle was found in Columbia.


The lamp has a burlap shade.  All the rage of burlap has come around once again!

The bedroom had new carpet installed and then my parents' bedroom set went in.


We found the handmade vintage pond sailboat in Columbia, as well. My handy husband built the stand.  I have lots of luck shopping the antique shops there!


I picked up the vintage wood skis in Warsaw last Fall.


The large original painting was found last Fall and was originally slated to be the centerpiece of the mantle, but it fits in the bedroom much better!


I purchased the vintage camping awning lights on eBay two years ago to use next door, but never found a way to hang them.  They fit into the screened porch perfectly!


We purchased a new shed to put on this property.  It's become the "wood shop" and will be used to refinish primitive antiques and it's the go-to place to work on projects.  My husband is very, very excited!


We painted the shed at Moonlight Cocktail Cottage Betsy Ross House Blue a few years back, which is an historical paint color so with the blue left over our vintage rocker got a fresh coat of paint as did the 2 adirondack chairs for Delavan Cottage's front porch.



Our vintage motel chairs got a fresh coat of yellow paint, but they're not quite finished.  I ran out of paint!  :)  I love the color, though! Do you see the heart shutter on the tree?  A cottage a few doors down several years ago was getting a remodel and we found the shutters in the burn pile, so we rescued them!  :)  I may not be a dumpster diver, but down here in the Missouri sticks, I'm a stealth burn pile picker!  Haha!


This is the last picture before the construction crew arrives next week!  We're getting a new roof, new soffits and venting, drywall in the bathroom along with a built-in closet.  The kitchen will get a new pantry (yay!) and a double sink.  The front two windows are also going to be replaced.  I'm very excited!  My husband will be building railings for both doors out of vintage oars!  :)

After all that, then we can plan on landscaping.  It's really coming together and it's a great place to relax for our friends and family.  And I'm not going to lie, my husband and I have been spending some down time catching up on movies we missed on the big screen! After all, with all the work we've done, relaxing, at this point, is pretty high on that totem pole right next to auctions!