Beach Tale: Carriage House Reveal!

A dear friend who currently lives in America’s heartland (waving atcha Linda H!) gently reminded me that I had NEVER posted the finished pictures of our carriage house construction project! 

For those of you new to this blog, last summer my husband and I donned our General Contractor hats and oversaw the completion of a 484-square-foot carriage house over our 2-car detached garage.  It was a learning lesson on ooohhhhh, so many levels, but we completed it in time for the Holiday Season.  So far we have been honored to have guests stay there and enjoy the beach lifestyle.  Upon our son's return home from his southeast Asia walkabout, he'll hunker down for a bit.  Then the big plan is to turn it over to renters to generate a little income to pad our retirement pay.  

But the important thing is, it is DONE and turned out very nice, if I do say so myself.  So upon the urging of my aforementioned friend I snapped a few pictures while it is still in its relative newness (bound to change after son takes up residence...) and am posting them for those of you curious as to how the project turned out.

So, this is where we started, with steps....

leading up to this....

And now, after a huge investment of time, energy, sweat, and money, (<<Drumroll please.....>>we have this:

Beach Tale: Hot Hot Hot

          For those of you new to this blog, I am sharing the trials and tribulations of our home improvement project to finish off the unfinished room over the garage ourselves.  It’s been a fairly easy journey so far as our role has pretty much been limited to scheduling sub-contractors and making sure the doors were unlocked so they could do their work.  But we were about to enter into the true “do-it-yourself” phase of this undertaking, and things were about to get hot.  And I don’t mean that in the romantic sense.  I mean in the end-of-summer-in-southern-Virginia-working-inside-a-small-space-with-no-a/c hot.  Here’s my video theme song for this segment: 

Beach Tale: No Hablo Español

          The theme song for this stage of the construction process is the Ritchie Valens classic, “La Bamba.”  In order to get in the mood, crank up the tune by clicking the arrow embedded in the image below:

         

          One of the requirements for graduation from my high school was four years of a foreign language.  The choices were French, German, Latin and Spanish.  I took French.  Years later, I can still “parle” with the best of them.  (Well, I can “parle” with first year students, as I know how to say things like “Le chien est dans la maison.”) Oh, how I wished I’d taken Spanish.  It would have helped me greatly during the mudding process.

          Oops, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Beach Tale: We've Only Just Begun...

          <<For those of you new to this blog, I am sharing the trials and tribulations of our home improvement project to finish off the unfinished room over the garage ourselves—without benefit of any professional counseling.>>

          So while I’m out making all the important decisions about kitchen cabinet choice, crews of plumbers and electricians have gotten busy back at the carriage house.  After all, what good is a beautiful kitchen if it doesn’t have power or water? 

Beach Tale: “Then I’ll Do It Myself,” said the Little Red Hen

          You remember the children’s story, The Little Red Hen?  The one where the little red hen asks for assistance but the other barnyard animals don’t want to help?  And what does the hen reply when they refuse?  Come on, I know you know it.  Let’s say it together on three.  One, two, three…

          “’Then I’ll do it myself,’ said the little red hen.” 

          We recently took that mantra to heart.

          With the purchase of our new beach cottage came a two-story detached garage.  The upstairs had the walls framed out and one lone light bulb hanging from the rafters.  The income potential is there, the separate-space-for-the-boomerang-child potential is there, the “man-cave” potential is totally there (plenty of room for leather sectional group, large screen TV,  a pool table or a foosball table, all with access to a full kitchen for cold beer and nacho/chicken wing preparation, and full bathroom in the event a shower is needed…I’m talking man-cave on steroids here!)…we just needed to turn it into habitable condition.