Living Large In Small Spaces - Living the (Cottage) Dream


Eleventh post in the series
My guest today is very, very special to me.  Although we only know each other through our blogs and emails, we have become dear friends.  It's pure joy for me to welcome Kim of Exquisitely Unremarkable to A Joyful Cottage today.  Kim's story goes to the very heart of what Living Large In Small Spaces is about. She's a great communicator, and  I know you're going to enjoy reading her words as you tour her charming cottage.  

By the way, I paid her to say all those nice things about me and my blog. ;-)


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I have been reading Living Large In Small Spaces each week since the series began. I was hooked from the start, however this was not a surprise. I know Nancy, and I was already a big fan of her blog long before the series ever began. It's a wonderful place to visit, a place I feel at home, relaxed and understood. I bonded with her immediately, through her words, before we even spoke, it was all in the name...A Joyful Cottage...wow. Powerful words.



  

Here was a woman who understood that living in a cottage, a very small space, could be a wonderful, happy, fulfilling experience and it could be a choice! Imagine that! There was someone else out there who thought, as I did, that teeny tiny cottage living was THE dream, not a mansion or a 4,000 square foot penthouse, but a home with room for just enough ~ a kindred spirit for sure!


  


So when Nancy asked me to share my own home, I was thrilled. We do not live in a large house, but we live here happily and by choice. It is not a starter or stop on our destination to bigger digs. While I am not certain about the square footage, I never cared to measure and we didn't buy our home through a realtor, so there was no requirement for the seller to list it, it's small! It was built sometime in the 1920's in a very hilly, summer beach community. Our particular home was actually built as the first year round structure in the neighborhood, big billing at the time, although we don't really see any difference between our cottage and many of the other bungalows that were specifically built for summer!


 

 The "year round" layout boasted a living room, two teeny bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen big enough for two people to stand inside. There was no dining area and the basement was covered with dirt. Fancy! By the time my husband and I bought the house, the basement had been finished, a dining room had been added, along with a master bedroom and bath. The entire house needed work, updating and an addition to make the kitchen functional, but we adored the home, its charm, its location and, frankly, its price, so we snatched it up.


  white+cottage+kitchens.jpg (865×753)


We were in love with the house and felt like we had hit the jackpot. I have to say, others were not so impressed by our choice. We live in the land of bigger, better, more and our new home was none of those things. It wasn't a big step up from our old home (which was actually right across the street~ I kid you not ~ when we moved, my husband wheeled our barbecue over!) which was only 900 square feet, but to us it felt enormous. More importantly, it felt doable.


  

I was a stay at home mom. My husband was a child of divorce and my mom was widowed when I was in elementary school. It was very important to both of us to try to keep me home with the kids, to give them something that neither one of us had growing up. While we could've afforded a larger home at the time, we liked that fact that this one was super easy on our wallet. For example, if my husband lost his job, we would be fine here, family vacations weren't something we would have to do without and debt was a word we wouldn't ever have to carry around with us and our young family. It also meant that we would be able to renovate the house and yard to make it our dream cottage and still not break the bank.

  

In the beginning, we tried to explain our reasoning to others, how we actually loved the cozy footprint, how we were generally all in the same small room hanging out anyway, that this was the dream house, but eventually we gave up. A guy my husband worked with asked if we could afford the house and when we told him yes, he told us "then it isn't big enough." We kept getting comments about how our "next house" will be the big one, as if this couldn't possibly be the goal. Even the kids' friends got in on the act. One little girl literally said, "This is it?" when we pulled into the driveway for a playdate.

  

Yes. This is it. Three small bedrooms, a living room, tiny family room and a kitchen. The furniture is all small in scale, nothing standard ever fits. Private conversations are very difficult to have. You can't load the dishwasher on a Saturday morning without waking everyone in the house and when someone sneezes, it's broadcast loud and clear. I live here with the people I love most in the world and being close to them is a gift. Why I would need any more room is beyond me.

  

Of course, after more than a decade here, people still ask if we're going to finally take that next step or build up. I have quit trying to explain myself. I just say that we are content here and that the house may be small, but it has a great layout and lives very large.

  

 Of course, that may just be our attitude!

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I love your attitude, Kim. Thank you for inspiring us with your story and beautiful cottage.

Kim is a writer, wife and mom who shares loads of great crafts, DIY projects, decorating tips, giggles and "a lot of red" at her blog Exquisitely Unremarkable.  Be sure to visit her for more inspiration.


Living the (Cottage) Dream was featured here -

Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth


Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces


See more home tours in the 
Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.

From the comments I've received on this series, many
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd 
love to feature your story, too.
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)


Sew 3 Scarves for Under $30 in 30 Minutes

Last Saturday I met with my friends for our monthly craft day.  We gather in our church, bringing whatever projects we want to complete. It's a great time of chatting and laughing while sewing, or crocheting, quilting or card making. We share a light lunch and someone gives a devotional.  I cherish this time with my gal friends, and always come home with an encouraged heart.

My project this time was Christmas presents.  I made three scarves in 30 minutes, and spent about $25 total on all three (a little over $8 each).



These scarves are so easy to make.  If you can  sew a straight line on a sewing machine. . .you're in! 

I'm going to show you just how little time and effort it takes.  

All three scarves were made with flannel fabric.


The first scarf I made is an infinity scarf. 





1. Start with 1/2 yard of fabric.  Open it flat and lay it out with the longest length left to right.  In this case the longest length is 43" -- which is the width of the fabric.





2. Now fold the fabric in half with right sides together.






3. Sew a 1/2" seam all the way down the length of the fabric on the raw edge.





4. You now have a long tube.  Press the seam open. 



5. Turn the tube inside out so that the fabric's right side is facing out.






6. Now starting at the bottom of the tube turn it inside out and keep working it up until the ends meet at the top.  




7. Now match up the vertical seams and pin the edges together all the way around, leaving a 3" opening.  




8.  You're going to need that 3" opening to pull your scarf through to the right side after the seam is sewn.







9. When you've got that last seam finished your tube will look more like an inside out sack.






10. Now reach through the 3" opening and pull the inside out.  You'll need to work carefully so you don't rip the seam.





11. Blind stitch the 3" opening closed and you're done!








You've just created a pretty infinity scarf  to keep for yourself or give away.



One scarf down, two to go. . .



If you thought the infinity scarf was easy, wait until you make one of these scarves.  It's like the first sewing project taught in school or 4-H.  B-A-S-I-C.

You're starting out the same way you did with the infinity scarf.



1. Start with 1/2 yard of fabric.  Open it flat and lay it out with the longest length left to right.  In this case the longest length is 43" -- which is the width of the fabric.



2. Fold it in half right sides together.  Sew a 1/2" seam all the way down the length of the fabric on the raw edge.





3. Turn it inside out.  Then fold in the raw edge of one end about 1/2" and press. You can see here how I'm working my way around the edge, turning under 1/2" as I go.



4. After you've turned it all under 1/2" give it a little pressing.





5. Now sew the top to the bottom with a 1/4" seam.  I use the left edge of my presser foot as a guide.


Repeat steps 3 -5 on the opposite end of the scarf.

Press and you're done!



You've just completed your second scarf.  Isn't it handsome?.


If you want to make another scarf, you'll have three scarves in about 30 minutes.


Note:  These are short scarves.  The brown and green ones were made for tween boys.  Obviously, you can make longer ones by sewing lengths together if you don't mind a seam, or buying more yardage.  Just remember to plan for the 1/2" seam allowance on each side.

These are so much fun to make I'm going to sew a longer one for Dennis in a buffalo check, and give it to him for Christmas. Shhh. Don't tell him.

I tried to make the instructions as clear as possible.  Let me know if you have questions, and if you make one of these I'd love to see it!

Living Large In Small Spaces - Joy In a Little Bungalow


Tenth post in the series




I'm happy to welcome Sue of the blog Impromptu as my guest today.  She and her husband live in a delightful bungalow that boasts a cheery blue front door and a white picket fence. However, it's not just the house that impresses me (although the transformation of their home is amazing), it's the verve with which Sue lives life in their little bungalow. I'll let her tell you all about it. . .

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When Nancy invited me to write a guest post for her series, "Living Large in Small Spaces", she asked if I would expand on the focus of Impromptu which is JOY. 

Well, it's a mindful decision I make on a daily basis; to be joyful, to see the beauty and good in all things and to indulge in what brings me pleasure, be it reading, writing, gardening or crocheting.  Life in my little bungalow; my real life dollhouse, is the centre of my JOY. 

front garden


back garden

The Decision

We lived in the country for eighteen years and loved every minute of it; the surroundings, the quiet, the privacy, a pond for swimming, and all the space - just a little under 2 acres.  What we didn't love was the commute to work every day which was over an hour each way.  Two plus hours on the road, five days a week.  We were exhausted, and we weren't getting any younger.  It was time to think about a change.


entrance


living room

The Move

The commute  wasn't the only issue.  The kids had moved on from college to jobs in the city and their sporadic visits weren't enough.  I missed them.  And once my son got married, we knew grandchildren would be coming and we didn't want to miss out on a single minute of that! So that was it.  We started looking for a small house that would be close to work and a reasonable distance from the kids.  We went from 3,400 square feet to 1,150 square feet of living space!


dining room


kitchen

The Adjustment

Sticker shock I think is what they call it!  The area we chose was very expensive and the only way we could afford to live there was to buy a 'fixer' (we were mortgage free and wanted to stay that way).  But it was only 10 minutes from work, we loved the small town feel, and it was right by the lake with shops, restaurants, you name it, at our doorstep!


my office/craft room/studio


master bedroom (crown yet to be installed)

The Work and the Bliss

We found our little bungalow after 3 months of searching.  She was in terrible shape, but we fell in love regardless - plus we could actually afford her; all 1,150 square feet of her.  She had very little storage, lots of charm, and needed a ton of work.  We gutted the kitchen and bathroom, replaced all the windows and doors (garage doors included) and landscaped the front and back garden .  

The basement remains untouched and is currently being used for storage.  We haven't decided whether we will finish it or not; it would be nice, but we really don't need the space.

So the hard work is done!  I feel like the house appreciates all the TLC we've showered on her.  "It feels happy in here", guests have told us more than once, and I agree.  It's a happy little house. 

guest room


bathroom

Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me to share my story.  I enjoyed looking back on the journey and the experiences of the last five years.  It's a wonderful thing this blogging community and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your friendship and warmth.

Sue

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Thank you, Sue, for sharing your charming home and life with us.  

To see more of Sue's wonderful cottage (including before and after photos of its aforementioned transformation), the gardens and her creative talent, visit her blog Impromptu


Joy In A Little Bungalow was featured here

Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth


Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces


See more home tours in the 
Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.

From the comments I've received on this series, many
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd 
love to feature your story, too.
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)


Living Large In Small Spaces - The Beekeeper's Bungalow

Ninth post in the series


One day while searching online for small home inspiration I came across The Beekeeper's Bungalow.  I instantly fell in love with this charming small home built by the owners Shawn and Jamie Dehner, and invited them to share the story behind it on Living Large in Small Spaces. I'm so happy they said, "Yes."  It's my great pleasure to welcome this extraordinary couple and their work to A Joyful Cottage. This is their story, told by Jamie. Enjoy!

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In our mid thirties, Shawn and I decided to undertake a homebuilding project. We had learned a lot from remodeling and books, and wanted to give it a whirl. The first home we built ended up being located in Maine. It was bigger than we wanted/needed and we missed our home on the west coast.


Once we moved back home we decided to design a house that was cottage-y and would fit well in the beach town where we lived at the time. The area is full of small cottages used for decades by vacationers and we wanted to keep that theme going with our addition to the architecture. We also didn't want to build too large again, which is surprisingly easy to do. To start the project, we built a tiny house to live in while designing and building the big house. We wanted to remember our East Coast adventure and so kept the style somewhat austere, but gave it a west coast bounce by painting it orange.





Since the time we lived in the cottage wouldn't be short and since we are big on cooking and do a lot of DIY projects in and out of the kitchen, we tried to give the tiny space the ability to perform for us. We included a micro-kitchen with big kitchen features, including a full sized fridge, space for a high end toaster oven, a small cooktop, and cupboards and cabinets for storing our kitchen essentials.







We also wanted a bit of a living room space that would allow Shawn to do his drafting work on the computer and space for our many books...no matter how small a space we live in, getting rid of all of our books wasn't an option! Above all, we wanted high ceilings in order to prevent a cramped feeling from resulting.





We also needed a clean, reasonably spacious and cozy place to sleep.





The overall project was really successful!  The tiny cottage became a neighborhood landmark and we got a lot of friendly inquiries about it. Once we moved into the big house, we used the cottage as a vacation rental (advertising through airbnb) and a great space for visiting friends.





Our next project was a bit more ambitious in terms of scale, but the overall floorplan was about 765 sq. feet. We called it The Beekeeper's Bungalow, since all houses need a name and we were stewarding several colonies of healthy bees in town. Our goal was to do nearly all of the work on it ourselves, so keeping it a cozy size (and not too high, as the "lead foreman" is no fan of heights!) was important.  We wanted to achieve a few other goals in terms of design; we wanted a traditional design and went with a bungalow type style.  We went with an 18 x 32 footprint and chose to build the house using a balloon framing technique that allowed for a very strong, one-and-a-half story building. We only hired outside help to shingle the roof, pour the foundation and check the electrical work.





We also wanted a big porch to sit on and watch the fireworks in the summer as well as to to enjoy some of the fall and winter days with not too cool temperatures but guaranteed abundance of rain. The porch was great fun to build. We chose to build up the pillars using scrap wood from the building/trim project and use contrasting paint colors to bring out the effects of the wood trim.










We framed the house over the summer and then set about finishing the interior.


While designing and building, we had worked with the ultimate goal of reselling the property. Since the area is one that attracts many second home owners, we knew that a palace wasn't required or even desired by many prospective buyers. We realized that a small space, well designed, would be just perfect for our needs as well.


The living room area was small but full of windows, the main ones opening to an expansive view to the west. The open joist ceilings, bright and white, added height to the room.






We included a propane stove and built a simple mantle around it using a big piece of lumber discarded at a building site. Shawn planed it down and it had a nice feel.




Shawn built out the deep jambs on the windows and made the sills nice and wide for cats to perch, vases of flowers to brighten things up and a generally substantial feel.





While framing the staircase surround, we added a built in that allowed for an "entertainment" nook  and made room for in-wall speakers. The stair case took up a lot of the space on the first floor but we made the best use of all of it. Aside from the visual beauty, there was a large closet under one part of the stairs and our laundry center was tucked under the other side.





The kitchen needed to be large enough for lots of great cooking to take place as well as to provide access to our back garden (where many of the ingredients could be freshly picked!). We included a clear glass door leading out to the garden and back deck. The glass door also lent a long visual line thru the house overall, a design technique we included to avoid the home feeling boxy or walled off. 





We built the fir countertops ourselves and sunk a huge apron sink in it, right across from the kitchen dresser that Shawn designed to hold my many large jars of grains, beans, etc. 








We built the framing for the cabinets to include the possibility for doors to be added later by ourselves or future owners. We found the galley kitchen to be a good fit for us. Lots of storage made it easy to keep an uncluttered look and yet store many kitchen tools and foodstuffs. We also loved the way the open shelving allowed for the display of bright and cheerful plates and books.






We included a first floor bedroom/office off the kitchen. Keeping the options open for usage made it helpful for us during our time there and left a variety of options for future owners.  




The other important design feature we included was a bathroom with enough space for a deep soaking tub and all the usual amenities. We built a big linen/storage closet into the hall so that the bathroom could be its own space. We found a tiny sink top with a nice Scandinavian design at IKEA and Shawn built a cabinet for the underneath along with a medicine cabinet.





Upstairs was a large bedroom tucked cozily under sloped ceilings and a big east facing window welcomed the morning light. One half of the second floor was much larger than the other to house a queen sized bed, closet, and cupboards for storage. The other half we envisioned as a cozy reading nook for rainy days or a space for art projects, with western facing windows allowing us to watch some of the dramatic winter storms. It was the coziest part of the house and really felt like a place away from it all.








All in all, we wanted to build a little cottage in our town that would compliment the location by keeping size appropriate but also incorporating a time tested style that could be appreciated by many. We chose natural but bold colors for the house exterior, thus the silvery green walls and the shades of purple in the trim, meant as a nod to the lavender that is one of our garden favorites. For the interior, we wanted to embody the brightness of a traditional beach neighborhood and so emphasized all the trim work with clean semi-gloss white. The walls had just a hint of blue in them to allow for some contrast with the trim paint. The floors we hand sanded and whitewashed with a natural stain.




Overall, the effect was to enlarge the interior while creating a sense of peacefulness. As a vacation cottage or simple home for a couple, individual or family, it was perfect - low maintenance, clean, bright and soothing. Everything that was necessary had a space. We were both intrigued by the many visitors, people from all kinds of different backgrounds, who frequently commented upon entering the home, Wow, this is really spacious! I was expecting it to be really small... . As they toured the house, there would occasionally be an incredulous, "How did you fit this big bathroom in here? That's amazing!" And this was very gratifying!


Last of all, we made sure to give the home a guardian by including a little hand cut mouse hole in the stair mouldings, a good place for Valentino, our resident (ceramic) mouse to set up shop.





It turns out that the Beekeeper's will not be our final home building project. We were delighted to find a small acreage, at last, that was in our price range, gets plenty of sun, and doesn't require the clearing of a lot of trees or a ton of site work to get started. We sold the Beekeeper's Bungalow this past October and are now renting and designing our own home, which we hope to commence in Spring 2015. Our progress can be followed at our website, dedicated to free-sharing small home plans and projects, drafting small houses, and more, at thesmallhousecatalog.com.





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Thank you Jamie and Shawn for joining us today and inspiring us with your vision and creativity.

Do take time to visit Shawn and Jamie's beautiful website.  They have a great blog with loads of information about home construction and simple living; offer freeshare home plans designed by Shawn, as well as drafting and design services; and you'll see lots of photos of their work.  Check out the cute and fun "short videos" they've made -- they're sure to brighten your day. 





The Beekeeper's Bungalow was featured here.





Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series

 Living Large in Small Spaces


See more home tours in the 
Living Large In Small Spaces Series here.


Would you like to share your small space story 
or have your home 
featured  in this special series?
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for email address.)