Ta Daaa!

It is so gratifying to take a house from this (sort of like a lady without her makeup on):

To this:

Then finally shutters and the sign were added--even the crew working on the house from Horton Remodeling cheered!  Ta Daaaa!!

Source: janecoslick.blogspot.com

I feel like cheering too!  I'm going to enjoy this little triumph for a few days and then it will be time to call in my brother, Bill Griffin, a Savannah landscape architect to create a beautiful setting for the house.  Stay tuned!

It Must Be A Sign!

The Coral Cottage is getting all gussied up with shutters and a beautiful new sign.  Last week Leonard Miller paid a visit to the CC to create a sign for her.  I blogged about Leonard last week in this post.  Here he is--paint buckets in hand ready to get down to work.

Jane Coslick (who provided all these pictures--to see her blog click here)  also has him working on a surprise for us--here he is at work on it--can't wait to see it all finished. I love surprises!

Leonard has painted many cottage name signs at Tybee.  To see some other examples of his work click here.  He is so talented at lettering--doing everything freehand!  And now drum roll please....May I present.....

It's going to look like such a happy cottage!

Happy Birthday to Me!

What is a blog for if you can't write about something personal?  If you are wanting to read more about my cottage I'm preparing a new post with lots of good pictures of The Coral Cottage for Tuesday.   Or you can check out the archives to see if you've missed a post.

Today I'd like to share one of the best birthday parties I ever had and it was given by my children recently at the home of my youngest daughter, Meghan, and her husband Tom, shown here with their 9 month old daughter, Josey:

It's been a hectic year and I haven't seen my children and their families as much as usual so we decided to just do a family party--all of my kids but one (Jordan and his wife live out of state) and all of my grandkids came.  Here are a few members of the cast of characters:

Our oldest child, Jonathan, with his four kids and holding his niece Charlotte, 3 months old

Our daughters holding each other's babies...Kristen (on left holding Josey) and Meghan (right, holding Charlotte) with me in the middle

My husband Henry and I with our grandkids (L to R Madeline, Anna Kate, Charlotte, me,Josey, Henry, Ella, Tyler, and Violet)

Meghan decorated and set the table beautifully (more on that later) and everybody had a wonderful, noisy, happy to be together family time.  Everybody loved on everybody's kids and we did the usual birthday things:

Lunch--finally a photo that includes my wonderful daughter-in-law Lisa and my excellent son-in-law James

The kids table set with toys and crayons to draw on the tablecloth!

Gifts selected with love

Gifts made with love--Paintings done by the children for me to use at our beach cottage!

And of course, the birthday cake--this one was caramel--birthday girl's choice!

It was perfect. absolutely. perfect. 

Mucho thanks to Meghan who provided many of these pictures--she blogs at Loquacious Lady and I'm sure she would love for you to stop by. Do you recall a special birthday?  Tell us about it!

Someone Who's Artsy Smartsy

I promised you a peek at the Coral Cottage with the shutters hung.  Here is one with just the pair on the left hung.  It was such a sunny, warm day that the picture looks a little faded--sorry but it was lovely to enjoy a day in the 80's at the end of October!

I'm saving the other pictures until after I introduce you to the handiwork of Leonard Miller, an artist who is renowned at Tybee Island for making beautiful signs for many of the cottages.  Here are a few examples from other cottages with thanks to Jane Coslick for allowing me to use her images:

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You can see more of Jane's projects here and here.

 I first became acquainted with Leonard's art when I saw it painted on the dining room wall at a different cottage.  Here is that painting of the Tybee lighthouse:

Recently Leonard paid a call on The Coral Cottage to create a sign for her.  It turned out so well!  We've hung it on the front of the cottage and it looks great!   I'll show it to you soon!

Time to Accessorize!

Curb appeal counts and we have been working hard to make The Coral Cottage as gorgeous as she can be.  You can catch up with our previous progress by clicking on this link:  Coral Cottage Gets a Facial.

One of my readers commented that painting the house was like helping her into her party clothes.  I love that description!  Well now it is time to accessorize!

Here is the Coral Cottage in her party clothes:

And so the fun begins with a little metal awning over the front door.  It's amazing how a small overhang like this can change the house--it adds some dimension to a fairly 
flat facade.

Before

After

Better huh?

Horton Remodeling built some shutters for the windows and painted them a bright lime green!  They are dangling down below the windows in this next photo like a lady is holding them up to see if they work with her outfit.

What do you think?  Do you like them?  Thursday I will show you how they look across the front of the house...hope to see you then!

Home on the Range

One goal my husband and I have in restoring our beach cottage, The Coral Cottage, is to keep the old Tybee cottage feeling alive.  We want to update it and give it some pzazz but not make it so modern-looking that it loses its cottage appeal.

We wanted energy efficient appliances and so when Lowes had a big sale this summer, we bought our appliances.  Lowes has held them in storage until I called them recently to schedule delivery.  

There was one appliance we did not replace--the old range:

The range "before"

At the risk of dating myself, I remember my mother having a range like this in her kitchen back in the day when it was the latest thing!  It gives me warm fuzzies to look at it and think of Mom.  I decided that if the range was in good working condition (which it is) then I would see if we could find somebody to paint it a bright color.  John Horton from Horton Remodeling found just the person for the job and now the range is a bright turquoise!

The range "after" a coat of paint

All this beauty lacks now is her chrome which is off being polished up and restored thanks to our friend, Tommy McFarlin, who knew just where to take it.  He restores old cars and the chrome has gone to one of his favorite service shops in Atlanta for a facelift.

Believe me, Mom would approve!  She always did like a little bling!

Vicky's mom, Dorothy Griffin, relaxing with her morning coffee in April 2010

The Coral Cottage Kitchen Gets Paint and Cabinets!

Last week I showed you how The Coral Cottage kitchen looked "before" in this post.  After the drywall went up, the walls were primed and painted by Horton Remodeling.  Jane Coslick and I chose a pretty, watery blue called Bouyant Blue  SW 6483--it's a 

Sherwin Williams color.  

Then our kitchen cabinets were installed by Jamestown Designer Kitchens of Savannah.  They were the least expensive kitchen cabinets available in the store but they seem 

well-made and I am pretty happy with them! 

Here are the "before and after" pictures:

Before

After--gotta love that shiny counter edge!

Can you see the shiny edge on the counter top?  It looks kinda retro diner-ish.  Jamestown Designer Kitchens suggested it and made it.  This kitchen is small so it wasn't  expensive but it adds a lot of zip, don't you think?

Here's another view of the kitchen from a different angle:

Before

After--doesn't the white look pretty against the blue?

  It's starting to take shape!  Flooring and appliances--here we come!