And the Walls ...Come Tumbling Down....

I have to say, putting this house back together has been more of a process than I anticipated. I have no power as of yet, although that is being worked on now. Someone had cut all the wires going into the panel box and stolen most of the breakers, so I was left with a big electrical mess to sort out. I have had someone here for the last three days trying to put it all back together with various components that we already had kicking around .

In the meantime most of August was scorching hot so I wasn't too motivated to do heavy labor and by the time night fell and it cooled off, I had no light to see by. So sad to say, not a lot got done!

 I have been drawing plans to design my dream home for years. It never looked exactly like this place, so I found myself just needing to hang out and spend time here feeling the place out and trying to visualize different ideas to see what I wanted to do next. I kept changing my mind every other day, so got kind of paralyzed and scared to start something. I've been slowly unpacking some of my boxes, trying to find all my tools and craft supplies. I have most of them out now, but won't show you the room just yet as I am waiting to find them all before I decided how to store them.

 The first project is to get the two front rooms done so I can set up a kitchen and living room.

This is going to be the kitchen. I stripped off the wallpaper that was on these walls. Two of the walls were wood paneling that the paper just peeled off. The other two walls, it was glued on tight. I managed to pull the paper off but it left a paper backing stuck to the wall. I mixed fabric softner with boiling water ( half and half) in a sprayer bottle and soaked the paper backing on the wall.


It just peeled off the wall after that with a little nudge from a plastic scraper. ( The white wall is the first one I did, you can see the paper on the floor. To the left where the wall looks beige hasn't been done yet.)

The room beside the kitchen had horrible plastic looking paneling with plastic ribs holding it together. It looked like mobile home paneling from the eighties or something, seriously fugly anyway. Armed with a crowbar, I pulled all the molding and paneling down. What a horror show underneath. The first wall I did, had this large wood paneling which I thought, ok I can work with this.

But the next wall was all styrofoam insulation

and this wall had thick cardboard like sheets of wallpaper glued to the wood.The different wall paneling you see here is all the back of the plastic stuff that was on the walls originally.

I could of cried.....as a matter of fact, I avoided that room for a few weeks after.

As soon as I have some more cash, I will be buying bead board paneling for the bottom of the walls and more paneling for the top which will then be painted sage green or burgendy( I haven't decided yet)

Then there is the upstairs ( sigh...)

I have one room set up as a bedroom and the door wouldn't even open all the way before it hit this wall.


The room behind that wall is a huge airless, windowless space filled to the brim with boxes of stuff. In the heat wave we have been having it was too hot and lacking in oxygen to work up there for any length of time. In desperation one day, I had a fellow come up with a saw and cut me hole in the wall so I could get airflow coming through from the other side.

Ahhhh , much better, light and oxygen!!

While he was doing that, I tore down the wall in front of the bedroom door, so I can easily access the space now and have some cross ventilation going on.

In the meantime, I am still searching craigslist for more material. I lucked out the other day and got all these tiles,vinyl and wooden flooring for free.

From this huge pile that was free to pick from.

I got tons of gorgeous blue tile for the upstairs bathroom and some nice mushroom brown ones for the downstairs bathroom. I also got cans of the adhesive and grout I needed to do the job. There was also some lovely tongue and groove wood and some bead board style as well as three different styles of vinyl flooring. In total, I probably got in the neighborhood of four thousand dollars of material for free, all because they needed more room in their warehouse!

So all in all, there was more deconstruction than construction done this month. That feels a bit frustrating to say the least but it had to be done so that things get done properly.
Has that ever happened to you, where you think you are just going to (for example).. hang wallpaper and find yourself rebuilding the wall first?

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The Marco Polo Room

The next project was the handmade couch that used to be on my boat. This couch had been hand crafted to the boat in such a way that it didn't have both sides finished or any support in the back leg area as it had been fitted right onto the structural ribs of the boat. I had spent a small fortune recovering the cushions on it and wanted to salvage it if I could. It's my goal to keep as much of the boat alive as possible and incorporate it into the cottage.

My friend Todd who knows  a lot more about refurbishing furniture than me came over to help me with this one. He cut some wood to fit on the open right side of the couch and added some structural wood to the back so it can support people sitting on it. I'm so grateful to him for his help. I love my couch and it fits right in my Marco Polo room. (named because it's full of my strange and varied treasures from around the world)  I have a ton of stuff that needs doing, so this isn't quite finished yet. I still have to sand the edges of the new wood and verathane it so it will be the same colour as the rest of the wood. However it is usable for now and I will get to it when I am verathaning other projects

I LOVE this chair. I found it at the flea market a few weeks ago and couldn't afford it but bought it anyway. It was just too perfect for this room. It is very low to the ground and is covered in a Persian style rug. It is very comfy and it's where I sit to daydream.

The other wall in my room holds my bed. I hung up a curtain in front of it that I can close when sleeping .

I found this old brass tray a few years ago that had been abandoned outside. I haven't made any effort to polish it yet but lucked out at the same flea market and found these wonderful carved legs to support it for only ten dollars.

This item is one of my pride and joys. It's a sand pendulum. I bought it in Glastonbury England about 5 years ago and it has spent most of that time in storage. I was so happy to stumble upon it the other day and get it set up. The black tray sways and swivels causing the pendulum to create spirograph type drawings in the sand. As my house gets rocked around by passing boat wake, it moves on its own without me having to give it a push. I love seeing what designs show up from the natural movement of the house. Its very mesmerizing to watch.

I will post more pictures from my bedroom at a later date. Right now its the only room half-assed set up and is my staging area for unpacking and sorting. I haven't begun to find all my treasures yet, so it is a room in progress as I try out different things to see how they fit in here.

I have to say, that the best part about moving is unpacking and finding all my favorite things. What are the things you have that define your home?

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The First of Many Projects!

The Shirley Metal Kitchen. This was donated to me by David. It is an old (1940-1950) metal kitchen sink and cupboard unit. As you can see, it was seriously rusty and decrepit looking when I first saw it.

EWWWWWW!!!!!

I thought for about a nano second, that I might keep the original sticky paper that was on the shelves, just to keep it original looking , but decided against that when I saw the fifty year old dirt under the edges of it. Out it came!

I then spent a few hours sanding the whole unit down with various grades of grit, until the rust was all gone. Then I gave it a good washing with TSP and hot water, followed by a good long hosing down. Once it was dry, it got painted with 2 coats of self etching primer inside and out.

For some reason the colour I chose isn't showing up in these pictures at all, but this is the cabinet with two coats of sage green colour ( which mysteriously looks exactly like the military green tarp that its sitting on).

I found these cute handles at Home Depot. I guess over the years we have changed the standards of how wide our handles are for cupboards. The holes in mine were for about a two and a half inch spacing, but all the handles I found were three inch. So unfortunately, I had to ( get David) to drill an extra set of holes to fit the handles.

So, its pretty much done now. I want to build a small wooden frame for it to sit on as the doors catch on the ground, then as soon as the kitchen is painted, it will be installed.

All this work has aggravated my bulging discs in my neck once again ( 3 times in one year!) Each time it seems to take about 6 weeks to resolve itself. The last time it happened , I spent over a thousand dollars on naturopath, chiropractor, massage, physiotherapy and acupuncture. Nothing works unfortunately. They all say the same thing, there is nothing they can do for me, I just have to manage the pain and wait for it to fix itself. So a few Advil and a Demerol, then wait for it all to kick in and I have about 2 pain-free hours to work with with before it all wears off. I then have to wait an hour before I can take more and it takes about another hour for it to kick in. Slowly but surely, I am making some progress. I'm off to paint the kitchen now, wish me luck, I suck at painting!

How about you, would you have taken a chance on this old unit?

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Linking to Serendipity Chic Design
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Big Fish

Funny , I live on the water but don't give much thought as to what might be swimming by. This giant guy was caught upstream. Im never swimming in here again!

Big Fish Story

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Collections -Pill Boxes and Snuff Bottles

What is it about the human species, that we love to collect things? Some people just choose one thing to focus on but the majority of us probably have a few collections going on at the same time. I know I do.

 My books are probably my biggest collection. I would estimate I have around 3000 books ( and those were just the ones I kept, I've read alot more than that!) Over time I have built a library of self sufficiency. I have books on gardening, raising livestock, herbal medicine, off-grid living, alternative medical treatments, first aid, arts, crafts, survival skills, self-help, spirituality and alternative lifestyles. I'd probably have alot more but most of my reading has been online for the last ten years which has kept me out of the bookshops.

Musical instruments is another interest of mine. Years ago when I lived in a large home in town, I used to host music jams twice a month. I had as many as 60-70 people at my house all playing something. My weapon of choice was the hand drum and percussion instruments like shakers etc. At one time I had quite a large collection of drums but sold ten of the best ones to pay for my van which at the time I desperately needed for work. I still have a handful of drums and a large basket filled with shakers and noise makers of all kinds. I also used have 5 guitars ranging from 12 string acoustic to electric and bass. They have long  since been sold off and I am down to one crappy thrift store 6 string. I can't really play any more as the callouses don't go over well in my line of work ( massage therapy)

I also have collections of painted rocks, candlesticks, funky lamps, cherubs, dishes and bells which will be the subject of other posts once my renos are done and I can finish unpacking.

Today's post is brought to you by pill boxes and snuff bottles.

The other day I was looking on Craigslist and found an ad for 14 pill boxes for ten dollars ( the whole collection, not each). I couldn't resist a deal like that so went and picked them up. I have one of those old printers drawers with tons of cubbyholes and I was looking for something small to put in them. These seemed like a good a choice as any. I also had a few snuff bottles and other tiny containers kicking around so rounded them up for a photo shoot. Here's my collection so far, now I have something else to keep an eye out for when I am thrifting!


I'm not sure if any of these are worth anything, but of the bunch these two looked the oldest

Here's the rest in the box they came in

This one is inlaid abolone shell ( or Paua shell if your from New Zealand) and mother -of -pearl

A teenie, tiny cloisonne apple that opens up

A beautiful tigers eye set in a heavily carved box that I don't think is gold, but it doesn't look anything like modern day brass

A small wooden box with a ship painted on it

The tigers eye again

A sea shell with a tin top

A beautiful enameled box

A very tiny woven basket

 This one is my favorite, a small silver box with abalone lid

Mother of pearl

Mother of pearl and abolone

A painting of a seated woman

Not sure what this stone is, Jasper maybe?

I noticed when I tured it around that the natural markings in the stone almost look like a painting of mountains and a valley

 This is the bottom of the same box, very heavily etched

A silver box I bought in China, love the heavy relief carving of dragons!

A bone snuff bottle that I have owned for over thirty years. If it wasn't an antique when I bought it, it's on it's way to becoming one

Bone and silver snuff bottle found at the thrift store the other day

A tiny container carved from a tagua nut

Small brass and enamel boxes with creme perfume in them

Now just have to find that shelf so I can display them all!

So what do you like collect? and why?

Linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday

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