Another summer, another advance in our church to cottage conversion. Ah the sweet smell of wood smoke in the air, the cool breezes, and the leaves turning colors of autumn. I feel it is also a time to assess our progress and plan for the coming year. What have we been doing? Here is a quick run-down.

Kitchen and Hall

Our cottage is infinitely more livable than when we arrived. Our biggest infrastructure change? The kitchen is complete! Oh and it works better than I had dared hope. Our little island holds treats and we’ve acquired stools for leaning, sitting, eating, chatting. Adding the stove was life-changing (or seemed so at the time). But the real improvement is the SINK! Yes, our outdoor dishwashing days are over (much to the disappointment of the local mosquito population). Don’t get me wrong, there was a certain pioneer feeling to washing dishes with a pan and a hose. Ha! You buy that? I am sure my blood volume has increased

Kitchen

since the sink went in and passing cars don’t stop to ask if we are having a yard sale anymore.

Space in use

Our guest room is definitely now a true guest room as we have moved our sleeping quarters upstairs. The only family member not enthusiastic about this improvement is Toby. He can’t really negotiate the spiral staircase to join us. However, this cottage takes “open concept” to new and marginally absurd levels so he isn’t exactly abandoned despite our altitude at night. Oh, and both the guest room and the bathroom have real, antique doors, beautifully remade by Erik. All totally trimmed out and ready for company.

Ladders

For our aesthetic project, we tackled the walls. We cleaned, filled holes, repaired, and painted. In case you don’t remember, the original state of these walls was wet and warped. No longer. Our 6 foot ladder didn’t quite get to our 14 foot side walls, of course. Feeling it was silly to stop there, we found a 12 foot ladder for rent for a week which allowed us to finish to the

view from the loft

Dining, Living, and Weaving

top (with some special high jinks around the kitchen – did you know you could put a ladder on the plywood temporary countertop?) The end wall will stay natural as will the ceiling because, well, let’s just say they look best that way and not discuss the 22 foot height of the ceiling for now. I know my enthusiasm for heights was challenged enough at 12 feet.

Sunflowers at sunset

It hasn’t been all work and no play – we’ve gone to the beach, walked with the dogs, cooked great food, biked, and even managed a jigsaw puzzle. Not much fiber in any of that, unfortunately. However, I tackled a new knitting project that has alternately been lovely and a real pain. Brioche knitting makes an amazing fabric, but I am still gaining my confidence laddering down to fix mistakes. No spinning, no weaving, but there is always tomorrow – just not as many of them as there were.

View from the loft

It is always a bit sad to pull out that last morning – I am sure it will be especially so this year now that the cottage is getting cozier. Still, the cool weather is moving in and, as much as our lovely fireplace provides heat, our cottage is not designed for winter. (We woke up this morning to a frozen pump.) So we will strike out across the continent once more and maybe manage to enjoy the last part of autumn at home before winter closes in there. Next year: the exterior. In the meantime, Toby would tell you he can fetch sticks on either coast.