Sammi's Summer House

Long before my favorite TV show,  Sarah's Summer House aired on HGTV, my good friend Sam was busy renovating her own summer home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts along with her husband, Scott. Their little cottage was built by Scott's grandparents and was in desperate need of some TLC. This is the state it was in before they got their hands on it. 

They spent fall, winter, & spring gutting it inside and out. Now it looks like this

Quite a difference, huh? 

Chris and I were lucky enough to spend a few days on the Cape with Sammi and her family a couple of weekends ago, and she was kind enough to let me share pictures on the blog.

Come on in, I'll show you around...

This is the view of the back of the house from the water. Oh yeah, did I mention the house is ON THE WATER?

Lucky ducks :) 

View from the backyard

They blew out the ceiling in the living room to make it into a cathedral ceiling. I love those beams. The wainscoting was made using wood from the original ceiling.

The side chairs belonged to Scott's grandmother. Sam had them recovered by prisoners at the New Hampshire State Prison. Yep, you read that right, there's a program at the NH State Prison that will reupholster your furniture for cheap.

The kids' room

Master bedroom. Sam found this headboard at a thrift store and re-covered it herself.

Kitchen

This chandelier is from the original cottage. It was an unidentifiable shade of yellow before and pretty gross. Sam spray painted it white and added navy blue shades. I'm obsessed with it. 

I'll leave you with one more shot of the water from their yard. That's right, FROM THEIR YARD!!!

Sigh...doesn't this look like a fantastic place to spend your summer? 

Thanks again, Sammi and Scott (and happy anniversary)! We had such a wonderful time! 

(Btw, today I'm linking up our old Kitchen to Remodelaholic)

We're Starting a New Roofing Trend

Yay. We are the proud new owners of a two-toned roof.
Do you think this will be the next new trend in roofing?

There's one small area from the street where you can see the top of our house and our new roof.
Our nice new roof that doesn't match the rest of our house.
The matching synthetic slate roof on the mansards isn't slated (no pun intended) in the budget  until next spring. Oh well.

Btw, I'm giving the readers of a' la mode a tour of our home today, including a never before seen picture of our kitchen in its current state. Yikes!

I'm truly obsessed with Shelli's design style. You've got to visit her home tour to see for yourself.

Memory Lane: The Exterior of Our Old Home

A year ago this week, Chris and I made the exciting (but scary) decision to put our house on the market to pursue our current home on Hazard Ave. Thinking about what we were doing a year ago has gotten me feeling nostalgic for our old home and all the work we accomplished on it. 

This is what the exterior of our old house looked like when we moved in. 

The first order of business was to have those monstrous looking shrubs removed! This not only improved the curb appeal, but flooded the main floor with afternoon sunlight. Soon after, Chris risked his life on a ladder to hang the shutters.

The following Spring, my Dad painted the front door red.

A few years later, we had the whole house painted. You'll also notice the window boxes that Chris installed, and the new window on the far left of the house.

Finally, here's the photograph that was used for our listing. By now, the shrubbery had grown in. We also removed the awkwardly placed rhododendrons and planted new flowering pear trees. 

Reminiscing the transformation of our old house's exterior has gotten me excited about the changes we've yet to make in our current home on Hazard Ave, like new paint, roof, & exterior lighting. It can only look better from here!  

Linking to The DIY Showoff

Blue Porch Ceilings

Ever notice how the porch ceilings of many historic homes are painted blue? There certainly are a number of them in my neighborhood, including my own house. 

It never occurred to me why a porch ceiling would be blue until we moved in couple of months ago and my brother asked about it.  Since then I've come across a couple of theories. 

One is that bees and spiders mistake the blue color of the porch for open sky and are discouraged from building nests and webs there. Another insect related theory is that around the time this tradition originally started in the 1800's, the ingredients used to make paint were toxic and that had the unintended benefit of deterring insects before they could enter a home.

Some say it is because a blue ceiling gives the impression of extended daylight as night begins to fall.

The most entertaining theory, however, originates in the South. The handmade pigment of this light blue-green color, referred to as Haint blue (Haint being an evil spirit of the dead), was formulated specifically to trick evil spirits into believing it was water. Apparently, evil spirits can't cross water and thus the home's inhabitants were protected.

Whatever the reason, we''ll keep our porch ceiling blue when we eventually paint our house. It is an easy way to stay in touch with our home's historic roots (and if it wards off evil spirits then that's an added bonus).

Here's a sample of some of the houses in my hood that have porch ceilings painted blue-green.

Are blue porch ceilings common where you live?

Note: For more information about Haint Blue, check out these resources:

Kitchen and Residential Design

Squidoo