My Cabin-Cottage-Cabin Addition!!!!

When I went to winterize my cabin, 
I gained a
whole nother floor!!!
Yippee doodle day!!!! 


Not that my 9 foot by 9 foot master bedroom wasn't spacious.....
or my crappy little bathroom wasn't an ablutionary delight.....
but the true gift to an interior designer is
A WHOLE NOTHER EMPTY FLOOR OF A HOUSE 
THAT IS MINE, MINE, MINE!
Now I needed to buy 
MORE STUFF!!!!

At the bottom of the
new stairs 
is the study.


I had
no good place
to install stairs to a second level, so I had to cut into part of my screened porch with a trapdoor entrance to the new level.

(This is another image I stole off the real estate agents website, so it's really blurry....)
Since the cabin is on such a steep hill, it was possible to go down a floor rather than up, and still be 
way 
above grade.

This view shows the new doors and windows of the downstairs addition.
(Another gem from the real estate agent....)


Before I added the downstairs,
 the cabin just had little square windows along the side facing the lake.....

It was just dirt under there, 
with a lot of spiders and creepy crawlies....


So when I added the stairs to the lower level, 
I had my carpenter make a railing out of birch trees from my lot.


I guess the wood was still too green (ya think???)
because a branch sprouted from one of the vertical posts
 after
it was installed on the porch......


I wish I had a picture of the way the trap door worked. 
To make it easy to open and close
 (because it was heavy), 
I worked out a pulley system with a counter weight. 
For the weight,
 I had a 
copper fish from a broken weather vane.
It blew off my house at the cape.....
(but that's another story....)

source
Since it was hollow,
my carpenter was able to add buckshot to make it heavy,
 and we hung it on a hook,
 like it had been caught right out of the lake!!!


Every time the trap door opened or closed, the fish went up or down.....
The trap door had to be really heavy because it was insulated,
 and was clad with both the flooring of the porch, and the beadboard of the downstairs room's ceiling.


So, back to the first picture.....

This little room was my drafting area. 
I set my portable drafting board on the table and worked my magic,
 as I looked out over the lake,
 wondering..... 
why I was working in a vacation house.....


You can see Winston outside the window, standing up at attention......
That bear never caused me a lick of worry.
I just had to 
Cuprinol him once a year.....

I discovered the floor lamp in a local shop and had the shade made with some vintage prints I found.

Not one to beat a theme
into the ground
but....
one of the prints was of a bear......
(in case you didn't notice.....)


I like mixing fabrics, so thought I would be 
very clever
and use two on the window treatments....

I fell in love with the star wallpaper from Osborn and Little.
Thought it was the
height
of style and flair,
so I used it in three different colors on the three downstairs rooms.
In case you can't tell, this one was
GREEN!!!!!

The hall tree was in an antique store in Wellsley MA for a 
#$% load of money.
I lusted after this thing.
And lusted....
And lusted........
Well it didn't sell.....
and it didn't sell.....
So the dealer finally was willing to 
deal!
('cuz that's what dealers are supposed to do!!!)

Yes, you're eyes are not deceiving you!!!!
THAT IS A VERY STYLISH 
FISH HAT!!!!
I am one fashion forward babe.....
I was years ahead of my time.....
This picture was taken in 1993!!!!!


Before I sign off for today, I just want to share one more shot of some of my bears.

OK....
one more.....

I swear,
when I went away for the winter, the damn things would breed.....
There's no other explanation for how I ended up with so many.
It's not like I buy collections of stuff.
(By the way, this Tuesday, I answer some questions!)
 (If I remember....OY!)


Latah Gatah 

Partying at:

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Lake Sunapee Cabin Continued.....

I AM LOOSING MY TINY MIND!!!!

First, I post the Tuesday Q&A on the wrong Tuesday.....

THEN I FORGET TO DO IT ON THE

CORRECT TUESDAY!!!!!!

OK, this is my excuse....

Ya see.....

'cuz I had done it the week before.....

I didn't see any point in repeating it THIS week!!!!!

(Are you buying this????? 

'cuz that's what I'm selling.....)

Anyway, I have SO MANY questions from you guys, I didn't need any more.

And while we're talking about this.....

WHAT'S WITH YOU GUYS, ANYWAY?????

You are asking me questions 

ANY #$% TIME YOU WANT!!!!!

Cut it out!!!!!

Just ask on the 

First Tuesday of the Month.....

@#$ #$% #$% #$%

Now lets get back to my cabin.....

I sold it 10 years ago.

Marion, one of my readers, informed me that my old cabin was back on the market!!

Isn't the internet great???

It's like we're all super spies.

So thanks, Marion, I never would have known.....

Before I winterized the house, and added another floor with a bedroom, 

this was the master bedroom.

A whopping 9 feet by 9 feet!!!!!

It was so little that the picture was taken 

by reflecting the room out of the dresser's mirror.

The ceiling and one wall were clad in pine v-groove paneling.

The other walls were open framing which were sheet rocked over

 when I winterized the place.

I bought some Ralph Lauren king size sheets,

 and stapled them over the sheet rock.

This was before I knew what I was doing, 

and did an amazingly bad job of it.

One of the wonderful things about having so much stuff in a room, 

is the mistakes aren't soooooo glaring!!!!!

(I was able to grab this shot off the real estate website, and I did a leetle editing....)

So there I was,

 standing on the bed, 

hot gluing gross grain ribbon over the  staples.....

when I burned my finger, 

put my hand in my mouth with the hot glue on it and burned my tongue....

lost my balance and started falling off the mattress....

and stubbed my right big toe on the back of my left heel, bruising it....

So.....

I hurt my finger, tongue, toe and heel, all in a matter of two seconds!!!!!

I AM THE QUEEN OF DIY!!!!!

I've snagged some more of the real estate agents pictures off her website, so I can talk about some stuff for which I didn't get shots.

I want to share what the view was like from this little paradise....

This is the view from the lower deck, just outside the new master bedroom

(which I haven't shown you guys yet....

You'll just have to come back on Saturday to see it!!!!!)

That's a sundial I set on  the trunk of a tree I had to cut down,

 so I had the tree guy cut it off at a good height for a pedestal.....

I can't believe,

 10 years later, 

and the new owners still have it in the same place!!!!!

This is the view down at the dock!!!!!

OY!!!!!

I had the stairs rebuilt, and had 

Adirondack railings 

installed.

They were made out of cedar fence parts. 

The carpenter who built them was a real artist. 

I gave him a sketch of what I wanted, and let him play around with each section, as he felt the wood wanted to go..... 

Down at the end, it you look closely, you can see the chain saw carved bear. 

I named him Winston, after Winnie the Pooh.....

I got a real workout on these stairs......

(every time I had to pee.....)

(whether I was drinking a lot of beer, or diet soda...)

(up and down, and up and down.....)

oy!!!

I mean.....

come on!!!!!

Look at all those STAIRS!!!!

Every 4th of July, instead of fireworks, the properties lining the lake would buy flares, with the proceeds going to the local fire department.

Then, at sundown, we would set the flares on our lakeside decks and docks, and light them.

The whole lake would be rimmed in sparking red.

It was

wonderful,

magical,

traditional!!!!

I owned this cabin for 17 years, and have a lot of great memories.

Spent weekends with a lot of guys......

but that was a distant time and place!!!!!

Now I go to Flerida, and stay out of trouble.

Less drama,

more DIY!!!!!

Latah Gatah

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Log Cabin Dreamin'

Sooooooo

as I was telling you guys....

When I bought my cabin on the lake, 

the kitchen was so dark I couldn't even take a Polaroid photo of it...

EVEN WITH THE FLASH!!!

So this is what I did.....

(Unfortunately, I can't find the pictures

 of the stove or sink area.

I know the photographer took them,

 but they weren't published, 

and they have DISAPPEARED!!!!!)

WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!

I just found it!!!!!!!

YIPPEE!!!!!

I'll show it down below.....,

now you have to keep reading....

bwa ha ha!!!

The stove area was published, I just misfiled it on this stupid contraption.....

I thought computers were supposed to make things easier????

My printer refuses to talk to my computer right now too.....

OY!!!

Now back to my story.....

I opened up the ceiling for a cathedral effect

 to make the kitchen feel larger.

The living and dining area were crammed into one space making that room feel less than gracious,

 so to 

fix the problem!!!

I created an eat-in kitchen by 

adding a bump out off the cooking space,

 alleviating the need to  nosh in the living room.

To allow as much sunlight in as possible, I had a glass ceiling installed over the built in seating banquette.

It gave the feeling of a greenhouse and supplied a lovely view of the lake from the cushioned bench.

Later, when I winterized the cabin, I had a second layer of glass installed inside against the first, to create an air cushion for insulation.

The chandelier came from my childhood home,

I think my siblings are still scratching their heads,

trying to figure out how I scored this light.

Well it's very simple!!!!

MY MOMMY LOVES ME BEST!!!!!

The living room fireplace backs up to the kitchen, so I thought it would be a great place to set the stove.

I found a wonderful cement face at a salvage yard and thought....

"Of course, this should go in the kitchen, 

doesn't everybody 

 hang a cement face over their stove?????"

I know, I know...

It's blurry, I had to blow up the picture from the magazine.

This was all before digital cameras folks.......

When we were working on this shot, the stylist felt that the side of the cabinet was too big of a white unbroken square....

So we taped a checked napkin to the side to look like a dishtowel!!!!

It's all smoke and mirrors......

I didn't want all built in cabinets, so I fit in some old waxed pine pieces.

They hold a $%& load of stuff and often are less expensive than stock cabinets because you don't have to pay someone to install them.

The floor is made from wide hard pine boards that were then painted to look like stone.

I drew out the shapes, and had my decorative artist at the time paint them.

She had a minny meltdown while she painted, and I had to talk her through the whole damn thing.

It was a 

very long

couple of days.

So that's the story of my kitchen in my Sunapee Lake cabin,

next post will be about some 

other rooms

in my cabin!!!!!

You guys are sooooo lucky!!!!!

Latah Gatah

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