Progress is noticeable at the beach house despite the small handful of times we’ve actually been there to work. Like most projects, we’ve uncovered some unexpected problems but we’ve also uncovered some pleasant surprises too. Our most recent project was framing the new walls for the back bedroom and bathroom.
In case you are new to the coastal cottage series, B and I bought a fully gutted 1930’s beach cottage along the coast of DE back in September. This 900 sq. ft. cottage sits just one house off the water in the most adorable “vintage” community. With nearly nothing left inside to salvage, we are creating a modern cottage with a mix of elements that we hope gives it a fresh and unique look.
Living about 5 hours from this project, our work time is limited. Progress has been slow. While this project will likely take us some time to complete, our goal is to have it usable by next spring and summer.
While we know the calendar says otherwise, we’ve been so fortunate with the weather each time we’ve been down there. Even though we are now onto projects inside the house, we’ve had sunny and relatively warm weather each trip.
Our most recent weekend was spent on framing the back addition for the new bedroom, bathroom and laundry area. This back addition on the cottage was added about 8 years ago. The original layout was very strange and didn’t make use of the space well at all.
After our first walk-through of the house together, B and I knew we were going to completely rework the floor plan in this part of the cottage.
Because none of the interior walls in this addition are structural, taking down the old walls and putting up new didn’t require any special permitting or structural work.
We had the floor plans I designed back at the studio so it was merely just measuring out the locations of the walls, building the walls and standing them up into place.
The general plan was to move the back door of the cottage from the side of the house to the back of the house and then create a hallway from the kitchen to the back door to give us direct access to the back yard. Doing this also eliminates the excess of wasted space that was created by the original layout.
The bedroom is just shy of 8 x 10. It’s small and we’ve had to get a little creative with the space. This room will serve as our bedroom during the first phase of the cottage renovation but will later become the guest bedroom. I’ll have more on the design details of this room coming soon.
You can see where we framed in a TV alcove in the hallway wall. It looks like an interior window right now but this alcove will eliminate the need to have any excess furniture in this small room.
The bathroom is also small but big enough to include everything we need. We’ll even have room for a stacked washer and dryer in the hall just outside the bathroom door.
The framing felt like a big milestone for me. We had a successful and productive weekend but it also started to feel like things are really happening.
Our next big project will be putting in the beam in the kitchen so that we can open up the doorway. I suspect we’ll prioritize some insulation in the bedroom so we have a warm room to sleep as winter gets even colder.
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