Kitchen Makeover

Our OB kitchen is a cute galley kitchen with cabinets and counters that are in great shape. Their only drawback is their strong yellow color. The walls and ceiling were painted a gray color with brown trim.

When we considered painting the room, we sought a color that would soften the yellow cabinets. We went with a "blue" shade of gray by Benjamin Moore called Feather Gray. We chose a darker shade for over the counters to resemble a slate backsplash. With the bright white ceiling paint and soft Decorator's white trim, we were able to create a bright kitchen while softening the strong yellow cabinets. We are very pleased with the new look.

Bathroom makeover

One of our goals for the Fall was to clean the inside of the house and hopefully get a fresh coat of paint in one of the rooms. We spent the first 3 weekends cleaning, with the help of Liz and Gracie. It is always amazing just how great things look after a good scrubbing.

We were able to paint the bathroom and kitchen. Here is a "before" picture of the bathroom. It was a "white" with brown trim, loaded with towel racks and hooks. There was a small cabinet mounted on the wall next to the toilet and a flat, cheap mirror over the sink.

We removed the towel racks, hooks, cabinet and mirror. After filling all the holes, we sanded and washed the walls in preparation for painting. We started by painting the ceiling an ultra bright white. It brightened up the room instantly. Next, the walls got two coats of a Benjamin Moore Feather Gray and the trim got 2 coats of a beautiful Decorator's white.

Lastly, we assembled a space saver for over the toilet to help with the storage shortage. Barry bought a great, multi-color window valance called "Cottage" that matches well and adds some color to the room. We put back the towel racks, including a new hand towel ring. We did not mount the mirror back on the wall in hopes that we could find a new medicine closet. Actually, we are going to look for a vintage medicine closet to clean up and install.

The bright new colors create a clean, fresh feel to the small room. Creating our own look makes the cottage more ours and not like we are visiting someone else's.

From the Ground Up

The cottage was built on a tent platform. There is a crawl space but no foundation. The piers are brick and mortar or cement blocks spaced several feet apart and on the corners. The are some supports that have been added over the years.

The poor foundation has led to sags and uneven floors.

There is a floor furnace which is affectionately referred to as an "Hibachi Heater" in the Campground. When it was installed, a hole was cut in the floor and the furnace dropped in. They left the floor joists hanging. This was more than 20 years ago. The floor has sagged considerably over that period.

The pictures in this posting show the floor furnace as well as some of the supports, One that you can see is actually a tree stump. There is also a picture of the side of the house showing one of the piers.

Kelvin Sims, a retired Facilities Director, came to the island to provide some technical support as we attempt to straighten things out. We began with the West side of the foundation. This is the left side as you face the house. We used two 20-ton bottle jacks to lift the sill. We also used some screw jacks we purchased from Ellis Manufacturing in Oklahoma City. There is a picture of the screw jacks that sopport the corner as the sill does not connect in the corner. We moved from the front corner along the side to the back corner. There is a picture of the pier near the back of the house that shows that we raised that section nearly two inches.

The West wall is now nearly level. Now we need to move toward the center of the house as everything sags to the middle. We will need to dig some holes to pour some footings so we will be able to lift the middle. We will also add support along the length of the sill so that some of the rises and dips can be straightened.

Remember the cottage was built on a tent platform with 3"x4" timbers spaced 24" apart with a single 3"x4" timber down the center of the house. This leads to the rolling effect of the floor.

The crawl space is between 13" and 18" deep. It will make digging quite interesting. We will begin our excavating next week.