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Cottage Conversations (and other ramblings)

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Hey there, my friends, I hope you had a great weekend. We were busy, busy here trying to get the house in order…still. Our 25-year-old a/c unit has been on the fritz since Friday, so most of our weekend was spent trying to figure out how to keep it running, in between doing other projects.

Beautiful vignette using color, texture and fresh flowers. www.chatfieldcourt.com

Anyway, I’ve been so busy getting the house set up that I haven’t shared the little (and big) things we’ve been doing behind the scenes to get our house up and running. I know blogs are here to show pretty and styled rooms but that takes a lot of work, and time, and we’re not completely there. I promised to share our journey, all of it, so I’m happy to fill you in on what’s been going on in our stone cottage since we moved in 8 weeks ago.

Our house was built in 1946 and came with an oil burner and all electric appliances. We brought our fairly new dryer with us from Chicago, and we love cooking with gas, so we knew when we made the offer on our house that we would be installing a gas line. This has, by far, been our biggest and most time consuming project since we moved in.

Hooking up gas lines in a 1946 stone cottage. www.chatfieldcourt.comIn true DIY fashion we did all of the inside pipe work ourselves. There was a bit of a learning curve, we’ve never done it before, but our new lines were installed and inspected (and passed…yay!), and our dryer is now hooked up. Next up is our new gas stove, that’s sitting in the middle of my dining room at this very moment.

Along with the gas stove, we bought a new dishwasher. The one that was in the house was really old, and moldy inside. Yuck. The new one went in fairly easily, after an unexpected trip to Home Depot, of course.

Hooking up a new dishwasher in the kitchen. www.chatfieldcourt.com

If you’re a regular reader of Chatfield Court, then you know that I’ve been working on the bathroom. We’ve had some vanity and paint issues so it’s taken me longer than I expected to finish. We are close to finishing though, so stay tuned.

bathroom before 4I do have a new addition to announce. No, it’s not what you think. 😉 My new sofa has finally arrived. We had it custom made and I was really nervous that I wouldn’t like the finished product. I’m happy to say that I love it and I can’t wait to give you a tour of our living room, even though it’s a work in progress.

New sofa details. www.chatfieldcourt.comThe kitchen island is getting a bit of a makeover, new paint and a couple of stools. It’s one of those projects that I keep starting and stopping but, as soon as it’s done, I’ll share it with you.

Kitchen island before it's big makeover. www.chatfieldcourt.comIf you follow me on Instagram then you’ve probably gotten a peek of my guest bedroom. (If not, you can follow me here). I’m still working on furniture placement in this room. Love the windows but there’s really only one short wall to put furniture against and my beloved pine armoire has taken the spot.

Guest bedroom with lots of windows. www.chatfieldcourt.comAfter looking at all of the projects I’m working on, I guess you could say that I’m all over the place. I feel a bit overwhelmed at times, like it all has to be put together and perfect right now, but I love this process and I’m trying to take my time and enjoy it. I rushed through our Illinois house and never really got to enjoy it so I promised myself I would do it differently in this house.

On another note, I wanted to talk about you, my fabulous readers. I have gotten so many lovely comments and emails throughout our move from Chicago to North Carolina, and I can’t thank you all enough. It’s been tough (really tough) to stay motivated and keep up with the blog when so many other things are going on, but I get a thoughtful email or comment, and it reminds me why I love doing what I do. So, I thank you.

One email I got recently was from Angela. She asked about our DIY platform bed (which is the project I get questions about the most). Anyway, we emailed back and forth a couple of times and then she sent me this…

angela bed

Isn’t it awesome? She tweaked it to suit her needs and I think she did a great job. Way to go Angela!!!

Thanks again for stopping in. I love to get your comments and, if there’s something you want to see more of or you just want to fill me in on what you’re your up to in your own home, I’m all ears. I hope you have a great week!

I have completed one space in our house, our small hallway, if you want to check it out.

Small hallway redo using gray paint and items from around the house. A big impact for little money. www.chatfieldcourt.com

Small Hallway Redo