Bracket Bonanza

In 1984, the Latham’s (previous owners) put a new porch on our cottage.  They removed an ugly double-decker, screened porch to install more appropriate porches for an historical cottage.  However, we felt that a Campground feature was missing from our porches.  We need brackets! 

Our cottage in 1890's

In 2014, we presented to the Architectural Review Committee an old photo from the late 1800's of our cottage with brackets.  We requested permission to duplicate those brackets and put them on our porches.  Upon approval, a local wood-crafter created our new brackets.  We have 10 brackets downstairs and 2 upstairs.  Due to perspective, we made the upstairs brackets 50% larger than the first floor. 

We chose to paint them 2 colors, Artichoke on the flat surfaces and Hot Tamale on the insides.  This year, we took them down, washed and sanded them and put several coats of new paint on them.  Because of all the rain, we did the work in our dining room!  Using small brushes, even artist’s brushes, we painted.  After painting a coat, we needed to wipe clean the spots where it bled onto the other color.  It was a time-consuming task that focused on the small details of each bracket.  The end result?  They look spectacular and we are thrilled to have them dress up our cottage.

Before brackets

With brackets

Maintaining a Cottage: A Painter's Dream

When we purchased the cottage back in 2009, our daughter, Melissa, gave us several hours with a color consultant as a housewarming present.  We met with Hank, our consultant, to discuss our color preferences and the colors of our neighbors.  He used vintage wallpaper books to find several combinations for us to consider.  We selected the one that included the beautiful red, which Wendy loved.  Hank recommended a brand of paint with which we were not familiar:  C2 Paint.  It is a Canadian paint that holds its color over time.  We are using 5 different colors:  Halifax(blue), Shaker @ 150%(tan), Artichoke(green), Hot Tamale(red) and Silver Screen(pale blue, which is the porch ceiling color).  Hank also recommended different sheens:  solid stain, satin and semi-gloss.  The varied sheens give different textures, depth and interest.  The house sides/shingles are solid stain, the trim is a mixture of satin and semi-gloss.  The posts are all semi-gloss.

It has been 8 years since we first painted our porch and the colors are still strong.  However, there are chips and dings that prompted us to paint the porches again this year.  Unfortunately, this rainy weather has presented challenges.  On those rare moments when it wasn’t raining, we were busy outside.  Not only were we busy, but so were our neighbors!  Three cottages in a row had homeowners busy sanding and painting their porches!  Owning a Campground cottage means painting something every year! 

Despite the rainy weather, we had a fun time dog sitting the Hahn’s dog, Mason.  He is such a great dog and a pleasure to have.  We didn’t enjoy walking him in the rain but his enthusiasm brought joy to the house!  When he left us, the house seemed empty.