We never got around to doing our cottage update, simply because we didn’t have the most successful day renovating. We started by renting a couple of sanders to refinish the original stained pine floors. Unfortunately we listened to the advice of the Home Depot employee and took these ridiculously useless sanders, which acted more like vacuum cleaners with sand paper attached to the bottom.

The sanders might have done a decent job if the floors we perfectly even, but after 70 years of wear the floors were cupping. Basically meaning we would have to sand down the raised edges in order to get the grime in the middle of the board. There is a specific sander for this specific job, a drum sander which is the one I originally wanted.

You can really see the difference here.

So this Thursday we’re up again, but this time with drum sanders. The amount of work is pretty intense, so we might end up painting the bedroom floors white. The floors for the most part will be covered with beds and rag rugs so why make more work than necessary?

This week the whole family is going up to the cottage to enjoy the nice weather. I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!

Yesterday was our second trip to the cottage for more interior renovations. We removed all of the old linoleum and carpeting and spent most of the day on our hands and knees removing hundreds of nails. When I woke up this morning I could feel my knees buckle.

I assume people put layers upon layers of flooring over these pine floors in an attempt to keep the place warm in the winter, I just don’t understand why someone would go trigger happy with a nail gun to keep the linoleum in place.

This is about a quarter of one room finished.

You can start to see potential for some beautiful grain, next week we’re going to rent a belt sander to get rid of this excess gunk on the floor.

We got a bit excited and starting working on removing the kitchen tiles, something we weren’t sure if we wanted to remove.

It was by brute force the flooring was removed and by far the least enjoyable job we have done since starting. Not only did we have to remove the ceramic tiles, we also had to remove a layer of linoleum which was nailed to a sheet of plywood which was nailed to the floor with a million nails.

Originally I was considering putting in a whole new kitchen, specifically a free standing kitchen to make it less formal and more of a working cottage kitchen with open shelves, and racks for hanging pots and pans. After taking some measurements and mentally placing the kitchen I had in mind I realized my vision just wasn’t going to work. The space was too cramped.

The white kitchen cabinets already in the space are non-offensive, and even though I might have laid out the kitchen differently, the amount of closed cupboard space is very generous. The decision is to replace the tired blue counter-tops with wood and install the white ceramic sink from our old apartment. We’ve already done some updating by replacing the colourful fish hardware with nice simple black and white knobs from IKEA.

Still lots of work to do, we need to replace the office style drop ceiling with pine slats.

Here is that sun room again which we are going to paint the floors white to differentiate from the rest of the cottage. I guess someone else had the same idea because when we lifted up the floor we discovered it had already been painted. Hopefully with a good mop job, we might only have to add a top coat of white porch paint to clean it up.

Déjà vu! This was nearly the same opening photo from our first cottage renovation 2 years ago. You may or may not know that our cottage also has a matching guest cottage on the property that used to act as a rental unit when Juli was growing up. During the first renovation we focused on the cottage closer to the lake and it was more than enough to hold ourselves and our friends over the summer.

With the arrival of our baby we decided to start working away at the guest cottage so our friends and family have their own private space. It is going to a be a lot of work, but my brother Frank and I started taking day trips once a week to get the work done.

Our first step was to empty the furniture in the cottage, and box up all of the miscellaneous antiques to be sorted out after the renovation. With the recommendation from our neighbor we contacted a local antique dealer to visit the cottage and make an offer on the contents.

They gave us a reasonable offer and hauled away everything later that day. Originally we were just going to donate everything, but I’m so glad we called these guys, they were really nice and came to the cottage within an hour of contact.

The bedrooms are really tired looking, and all of the windows need an update.

The water tank in one of the bedrooms already has a decent frame around it, I think we’ll panel it up with some nice pickled pine wood.

There are some details we are happy to keep, including these beautifully oxidized copper sconces in the sun room. This room is going to be the highlight of the renovation complete with matching daybeds.

A view from the living room to the sun room.

We started pulling up the carpet, which lead to 2 layers of linoleum nailed to the floor with a million nails. Next week Frank and I will be on our hands and knees pulling them up one by one.

We still don’t know if we should sand down the pine floors, and treat them with lye giving them a bleached effect. Of course the other more simple solution is painting them white like the main cottage. Part of me wants this one to have more of a natural feel, as if the cottage was never really renovated, just smartly re-worked in the 60s complete with Aalto furniture, white plaster, and pine floors.

What do you think?

We’re slowing down any work to the cottage for the rest of the summer. Last year we worked all summer, and even this year we’ve done quite a bit to get the cottage a little more live able for our guests. It was getting a bit silly having the mattresses on the ground so we got some IKEA box springs with oak legs to bring them off the floor.

We installed some Muuto oak dots on the wall to hang clothes and towels.

We replaced the old ugly and broken sconces with AJ wall lights. It made a ridiculous difference and added a bit more modernism to the cottage.

We finally found a place to put our 50s yacht photograph (very George Nelson’s office in the 50s) and hung our MayDay light by Konstantin Grcic.

One of best things we found this summer was this beautiful sideboard by Peter Hvidt & Orla M.Nielsen. It’s one of the only cabinets I’ve seen to be made out of solid teak, and will hold all of our dishes and any other miscellaneous things we have that are filling our kitchen cabinets. The legs and tambour sliding doors are really unique, I still can’t believe it’s sitting in our cottage it looks fantastic.

The big apple print is by Italian mid century designer Enzo Mari.

We got the sideboard at the Queen West Antique Centre, which is where we got a lot of the vintage cottage pieces.

Still enjoying the cedar slats. We thought we were going to get a cloudy rainy day but it turned out gorgeous. Lounging, swimming and mass magazine reading.

Juli: I have been wearing the same bikinis since I was in my early 20s. Something had to give, they really are too small. SO, I finally headed over to Sandpiper’s in Yorkville as it’s the only bathing suit store I know of in the city (Bikini Village does not count for even one moment). I fell in love with two retro style suits, one full, one bikini and all I wanted to do was sit around in it all day. Love it. Feels so much better than squeezing into a teeny tiny itty bitty two-piece.

Medium rare steak served over a bed of arugula and Parmesan, drizzled with olive oil.

We were in a pocket of stars and sky while all around us raged thunderstorm war.

In the morning I was cooking bacon with tin foil on the barbecue for breakfast (yes it works and it’s not messy) and our old screen door didn’t close all the way when I went inside to grab my barbecue tongs. I came outside to find Isha trotting around cottage grounds with her feet walking on sandy soil and head moving everywhere trying to take in this big outside world. Luckily when I came to approach her she didn’t take off. I scooped her up and sat down on a chair and let her have a stare fest with the world until she got a bit squirmy, then I brought her inside.

She had a big day, and slept the whole car ride home.

There was something missing in the living room at the cottage. We needed a coffee table, but we didn’t want anything covering our rug, and we didn’t think that a glass table was that appropriate for a cottage.

The solution?

The Castor table designed by Hans Sandgren Jacoben for Askman. The two trays are reversible (white or black) and they are removable so you can bring them in the kitchen with you to easily carry a snack back to the sofa while watching Mad Men.

Isha is passed out in the background. So. Hot.

I think it needs a few books on the bottom…

Better.

We installed some birch shelves by Alvar Aalto on either side of the fireplace. They are looking fantastic!

Vintage Moomin character dolls.

Savoy vase with wild daises.

We installed a Bilberry pendant light aimed at the wall to the left of our fireplace. We don’t really have much lighting in the cottage and at night it can be really dark around here so the extra spotlight is a welcomed addition. Plus the light is so cool! It almost has its own face.

The concrete Sailor we purchased from Johan Pergenius made his long trip from Sweden to Canada. It arrived last week and we brought him to the cottage.

Thanks Johan!

Juli and I must be putterers because we always seem to come up with more projects to do while we’re at the cottage. One thing that always bugged us was the entrance way. It’s the first thing you walk into when you enter the cottage and you’re greeted with yellow knotty pine, a terrible light fixture, and an exposed coat rack.

The first thing I did was paint everything white and replace the ugly glass ceiling fixture (which seems to make an appearance in every apartment in Toronto) with a simple ceramic fitting.

Note to self: We really need to replace that old brown metal door!

Juli has been taking Japanese dress making classes and now she has a lot of confidence with the sewing machine. She made this great gingham curtain to hide our jackets and shoes.

Another quick fix was this simple doormat and cast iron door stop by Makoto Koizumi.

It looks just like a river stone.

We put up a little coat rack behind the door for another place to hang stuff. You can never have too many hangers!

Here is a picture of how the entryway looked before. Even with the sunlight coming in, it was still really dark.