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.