Beach House Update

The last time I was at the beach (with Doc and my folks), there had been no changes made to our lot.  No land-clearing, no construction, not even a port-a-potty set up.  Nothing.  It still looked like the big clump of brush that we purchased a few months back.

But then my brother and his family took a vacation in the area in June, and he sent us these pictures.

That's a construction site, y'all!  Have you ever been so excited to see a port-a-potty?!  I know, me either.

I definitely had to look closely at the pictures.  In any normal neighborhood, it would look like we're building in someone else's front yard.  Those houses you see aren't too far from the street.  It's definitely our lot, though.  In this neighborhood, everything is a zero-lot line, so no yards.  That's actually the back of the houses our new house will bump up to.  Let's hope the neighbors are friendly!  It could get awkward if they're chillin' out on their back porch while we're swimming in our pool.  (Did I tell you about the pool? We're gonna have a pool! A tiny one, but a pool nonetheless.)

My mom did a drive-by of the lot when she was in the area at the end of June, just a couple weeks after my brother.  She snapped these pictures.

Awwww yeah, we've got a floor!  Sort of.  Since Doc and I are 1/3 owners, that means that only every third board you see in those pictures belongs to us.  And those are mighty nice looking boards, if I do say so myself.

The floor framing was pretty exciting, until we received this picture this week from our builder.

WALLS!  So exciting! 

And according to the builder, they should be working on the tresses (is that the right word?) for the roof as I type.  Woot woot!

Now things might start getting a little stressful, as we've got some decisions to make. 

First up: paneling.  We're thinking about hanging some horizontal paneling on a couple of walls, one in the living room and one in the dining room.  Stop cringing - it's not the same dark vertical paneling you're picturing.  These would be wide planks running horizontally, and maybe white-washed a grey-ish color.  Or something.  Who knows?  Here's one kicker - the wall that we'd like to do in the living room runs through to the kitchen since it's an open floor plan.  That means one wall of cabinets will be hung on the paneling, and the other side will be on sheetrock.  Will that be weird?  Should we turn the corner with the paneling and do the other wall too?

Here's an inspiration photo that's similar to what I'm talking about.

Can you see the paneling on that back wall?  Kinda subtle, but adds a nice texture, right?  And I think it makes it look cozy.

Ok, so marinate on that for a minute while I tell you about decision number 2: corrugated metal.  Like I said, the living room and kitchen are kinda one big room, but they're separated by the kitchen bar.  It's not an island, it's a peninsula.  It's connected to the cabinets that will be hung on the panelled wall.  (Here's where I should draw you a picture, but I don't have time for that.)  We have picked out white cabinets and black granite (still subject to change, but it probably won't).  Initially, we figured we'd put white beadboard on the front of the bar but then we thought about all the little feet that will be kicking it and thought maybe white isn't the best idea for that spot.  Especially since you'll be able to see it from the front door and living room.  Following me?

We've been in several bars and restaurants that have corrugated metal hanging on the front of their bar, so we're toying with that idea.  Will that be weird?  I've seen so many rooms where people are incorporating industrial looks these days, so maybe this would be like that?  In my head, it looks pretty good, but I've yet to find a picture that matches what our kitchen would be like.  These are the best I could find.

In the first picture, the corrugated metal is so shiny.  If it were really like that, maybe we could put some kind of wash/glaze on it to tone it down.  I think it would look better with a baseboard too.  But not completely boxed in like the second picture.  In my opinion, having it on both the island and the cabinet doors is overkill, so that picture is a little much.  But at least you get the idea, right?

Ok, so that's what we're thinking about right now.  Obviously we still have lots of time since they're just now putting on the roof.  What are your thoughts - turn the corner with the paneling or just leave it with one wall in that room?  Are you a fan of the corrugated metal?  Have any other suggestions?

Lamp Brigade

Guys, lamps can get expensive.  Like, really expensive.  I'm not talking about little tiny lamps that you might set on a desk or on a bathroom counter, I'm talking about good, substantial table lamps that hold their own next to a big couch or bed.  Lamps like that can come with pretty high price tags. Take, for example, this beachy-looking caged glass table lamp from Pottery Barn.

Love it!  But for $159?  Holy schnikeys.  At that price, we'd blow our beach house budget after lighting just one room.

I hopped over to Target's website to find something a little more reasonably priced.  I found this Resin Bamboo table lamp for $99.99.

At 100 bucks a pop, that's still too rich for my blood.  We've got a whole house to fill, remember?

All that's to show that the little sources of light in each room that, if done correctly, add a punch of style can start to add up and, if you're not paying close attention, knock out a big chunk of your budget.  That's why when you find yourself walking into an outlet home decor store with a sign that says "All Lamps 60% Off", you grab not one but two buggies.  At least that's what my mom and I did.

First up, this twisty, curly branch lamp.  The picture makes the lampshade look like it may have a few wrinkly spots, though I don't remember seeing those in person.  Even still, replacing a solid white lampshade won't set us back the same way a Pottery Barn (or similar) lamp would.

You know what would be perfect with that twisty branchy lamp?  A white floor lamp with a twisty branchy lampshade. Lucky for us, we were able to snatch the only one in the store.

Don't worry, we plan on removing the plastic wrap when the time comes.

We've decided to use small pops of red in our living room as an accent color.  When I saw this lamp shade, I had to have it.  I know it's a bit on the bold side for some, but I think we'll be able to make it fit right in.  It doesn't hurt that it came on a big white lamp.  Who knows if that's the lamp it'll actually stay on, but either way, it was a good score.

Speaking of that big white lamp, we found a couple  more in the clearance section, I guess because they were shade-less.  Up close they have a few scuffs and scratches, but that's nothing a good coat of spray paint can't fix.  Won't these look great in a bold color with simple shades on either side of a bed?

Now that I'm thinking about it, I kinda wish we'd scooped up a few more of these.  Maybe they'll still have some when we go back.

Once again, I won't go into too much detail about specific costs, but I will say that we were able to bring home all 4 table lamps and the floor lamp for the price of the Pottery Barn lamp above plus ten dollars.  Shazam!

And, just for fun, we also bought these two little sailboats.  My mom and I have said from the beginning that our beach house will be beachy but without cheesy beachy decor - things like seashell mirrors, star fish knick-knacks, and vases filled with sand.  But, we just couldn't resist these.  Won't they look great with our twisty branchy lamps?

All these purchases are getting me really excited for the beach.  Mom and I are going to have to start pacing ourselves or we'll have this thing fully decorated before we even break ground!

Bargain Deals

Now that the secret's out, I can go into more details about all this loot we've been buying! Right now, my parents' garage looks like this:

Full of mattresses, couches, and other goodies all wrapped in plastic, just waiting for their new home.  Unfortunately, they've got a while to wait.

I mentioned a few days ago about my mom's and my spontaneous trip to a furniture store that resulted in me and Doc having to spend the evening in a Uhaul hauling everything we bought.  Now I can show you more details of just what all we purchased that day and brag about show off share with you about the incredibly good deals we got.

First, let's talk mattresses.  We bought box springs and mattresses for three queen-sized beds and one king-sized.  No, they're not top of the line pillow top mattresses, but they aren't bottom of the line either.  My mom and I both laid down and tested out several and we think they'll do just fine.  For comparison purposes, I looked up mattresses on Overstock.com (where you can buy things for cheap, cheap, cheap) to see how much they'd cost there.  I didn't do any extensive searching, but it looked like a set of queen-sized Serta mattresses would cost $433.99.  That price times three would get us to $1,301.97.  Add to that Overstock's king-sized Serta price of $799.99 and that brings us to $2,101.96 for mattresses.

We bought a couch and love seat set that are kinda hard to describe.  I'm not sure exactly what the material is that they're made of.  We originally wanted to purchase at least one sleeper sofa, but when you see a good deal, you take it!  So, we compromised on that and ended up with a matching set, neither of which are a sleeper sofa.  I didn't snap a picture of them before they got wrapped in plastic, but here's a shot of a couple throw pillows we kept out.

The color is weird.  When up against green, they look grey, but up against grey, they look green.  So we're calling them "no color" and working with them like they're a neutral.  Fingers crossed they blend in with everything else we end up buying.

Now, back on Overstock.com, I pulled up couch and love seat sets and this was in the results:

First, let me say that I don't in any way, shape, or form like the couch and love seat pictured above.  In fact, I think they're pretty hideous.  But again, without spending too much time searching and for comparison's sake, these will do.  They aren't top of the line but they don't seem to be the bottom of it either.  On Overstock.com, this fine set would cost $1,297.99.

Moving on to tables.  We lucked out and were able to snag a coffee-table-plus-two-matching-end-tables set.  They're all a slightly distressed black with brown wicker basket drawers.  Here's what the end tables look like (pardon the dust on top, it's in our wood shop right now):

You'll have to use your imagination for the coffee table, but it basically looks the same as the end table, just wider and with more drawers.

I couldn't find a set of three on Overstock.com, but here's a coffee table that's at least comparable:

Today, that coffee table could be yours for $354.99.  I couldn't find an end table on Overstock.com that even closely resembled ours, but you could buy these, pictured below, for $183.99 a pop.  That brings this not-as-cute-as-ours three-piece set to a grand total of $722.97.

As if three tables weren't enough, we also fell in love with a little cute red cabinet.  It could be used as a TV stand or a console table.  It looks very similar to this cabinet from Pier One, but without the weird Chinese dress (is that what that is?) on it.  Oh, except ours is much cuter with some decorative cutouts in the cabinet doors.

This cabinet from Pier One costs $399.95.

By this time in our shopping trip, our buggy was definitely full.  But when you're buying that much, what's one more thing?  At least, that's what I told my mom when I saw this painting:

I know, normally I would just try to copy it and do my own version of something like this, but y'all, this thing is BIG.  And, not only was it already on sale, but I was also able to weasel our sales lady into knocking off a few more dollars too.  Plus, we've already bought some cute fabric to have a blue and brown room so this is just icing on the cake.

I had a hard time finding something similar on Overstock.com (well, I didn't find anything in the first 30 seconds so I gave up) but I did find this print on Etsy.

At 20" x 30", it still isn't as big as our ginormous painting, but it'll do.  This canvas sells for $299.

So that's all we bought on that trip.  Let's add up all of our comparison items, shall we?

4 Mattress Sets - $2,101.96 Couch and Love Seat Set - $1,297.99 Coffee and End Tables - $722.97 Console Table - $399.95 Painting - $299.00

Grand Total - $4,821.27 (minus tax and shipping)

Now, if you ask me, that's a lot to pay for all of our comparable items since they're all pretty U-G-L-Y.  Luckily, none of ours are.  I can't tell you exactly how much we spent on our bargain deals for fear that my investment partners might get mad at me, but I'll say we spent about 85% of that grand total (with tax).  And ours are waaaaaaay cuter and probable better quality than these items.  Don't you just love it when you luck into good deals?  I know I do.

Florida Bound

The first weekend in November, we took a long-weekend trip to Florida with my parents and I told you I didn't take any pictures.  Well, here's the thing:  I lied.  I did, in fact, take a whole slew of pictures, they just weren't of us living it up on the beach or lounging around our condo.  I didn't take any of those pictures because we didn't do any of those things. You see, we had a busy agenda.  We were there to look at properties, and look at properties is what we did.  We saw ten properties in one day, which may not sound like a lot but trust me, it took all day and got very exhausting.  The next day we went back and looked at the properties we liked from the day before.  We took pictures and crunched numbers and drove around neighborhoods and got ourselves psyched up about the possibility of owning our very own beach house.

I didn't show you pictures back in November because I couldn't, but now I'm ready.  Of all the houses we looked at that weekend, this is the one we fell in love with.

Apparently, at the time, I didn't feel the need to get a good shot of the front of the house.  This is the best I've got.

But this house, the one that we affectionately called Flip Flop, stole our hearts right away.  Even with it's drab green color, hideous chocolate brown trim, and lack of an actual "front" (the front door is located under that porch you see in the picture, which is the side of the house), we could see so much potential in it.

The inside needed lots of work, but it still had so much we loved.  Things like wide molding around the windows...

...an open and airy living room and dining room...

...and this cute little nook at the top of the stairs that would be the perfect setup for a mini kids playroom.

Sure, it had it's fair share of flaws, too.  The kitchen had been completely stripped of all of its appliances...

...and the third story loft had a rotted-out door.

There were flaws that would cost us a pretty penny to fix, too.  Things like the exterior paint colors, bathroom upgrades, and a hole or two in the sheet rock.  But that didn't bother us!  Nope, by the time we loaded up the car and hit the road on our way back home, we were already wearing our rose-colored glasses and had hearts twirling around our heads.  We were in L-O-V-E.

My mom and I had the whole house decorated by the time we pulled up in our driveway.  We were so excited about all the fun we were going to have at our new house!  Only one problem:  we didn't actually own the house yet.

Here's where I should back up a little.  This little adventure all started with my oldest brother, a commercial real estate banker.  Having done a little work in the Florida area, he convinced us all that the depressed housing market there was something we had to get in on and take advantage of.  This was the time!  Obviously, it didn't take much to sell me on the idea.  We were gonna buy a vacation house!  In Florida!  We would be able to go to the beach any time we wanted and walk around our cute neighborhood and holy cow, just think of how tan I was going to be this summer!  (!!!)

When we returned from our long-weekend vacation, we shared all of our pictures and findings and calculations with my brother and his wife and made them fall in love with Flip Flop too.  By the end of the week, we had put in our first offer on our family vacation home.

This is where things started going downhill.  You see, Flip Flop was listed as a short sale (meaning the house was listed at a price that was lower than what the owner still owed on it).  Without going into too many details, I'll say that "short sale" should be a four letter word.  Steer clear of them, my friends!  For three and a half months we rode the real estate roller coaster of "They accepted!" "They changed their mind!" "We got it!" "They want more money!" and so on.

After three and a half months and more than a couple false celebrations, we decided to throw in the towel.  If they wanted more money for our dear Flip Flop, they were just going to have to get it from someone else.

Don't worry, this story still has a happy ending.  During our roller coaster ride we got pretty tight with our realtor and also made some new builder friends.  We crunched numbers some more and decided we could still take advantage of this market, we'd just have to do it a different way.

And that thinking is what makes us the new proud owners of this:

Sure, there's no three story, drab green house standing there, but it's our very own lot!  In Florida!  That brush that you see there is aaaaaalllll ours and we couldn't be more thrilled about it.

And look - a palm tree!

Our little lot resides on this charming little brick street.

Sigh...those little hearts are twirling around my head again.  This girl's in looooove.

Obviously we have big, big plans for our lot.  We're hoping things might get started on those big plans sometime soon.  Until then, my mom and I are cleaning our furniture stores right and left.  More details about some of the deals we've gotten soon!