Designing Our New Cottage

Welcome Cottage Friends.

 

Did you notice the new look of A Joyful Cottage?

 

More and more readers had been asking if the pretty cottage in the old header was a photo of our home.

 

Old Header Photo

 

I explained that it's a photo I took of The Fawnbrook Inn in Allenspark, Colorado, where Captain and I were married four years ago.  The inn, owned by our good friends, epitomizes a charming cottage and was the inspiration for my blog's title.  At any rate, I felt it was time to revamp the blog and design a new header sans the original photo.

 

New Header Photo Collage

 

The new header is a pictorial status of our life right now.  If you've been following A Joyful Cottage the past year, you know we sold our Colorado cottage last July.

 

Colorado Cottage Christmas 2012

 

We then headed to Oregon and traveled all over the state for five weeks before deciding to settle in the northeast region. 

 

One of the beautiful ranches nearby.

 

We rented an apartment, and the hunt for a cottage began.  After making five offers on existing homes, we decided it would be best for us to have a cottage built.  We found a lot with an existing shop, and closed escrow on April 1.

 

The lot has an existing shop which will be renovated for Captain's studio.

 

Then we began designing our cottage.

 

 

Copious cups of coffee are consumed during the design process.

 

Captain, a retired architect, says we're designing our cottage together.  I bring him all my inspirational photos and ideas, and he draws the plans.  As far as I can tell, I've got the better end of the deal.

 

Would you like to see a bird's eye view of our new cottage? 

 

I thought so.

 

That's me in the yard waving to you. 



Captain drew and colored this rendering just for me to share with you.  In upcoming posts I'll give you an up close and personal look at the cottage plans, and I'll share the steps we took to get to this point.  You may be surprised at some of the things I reveal.

 

I'm sharing at these lovely parties:

Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings

Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House

You're Gonna Love it Tuesday at Kathe with an E

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

 

 





Our Apartment is inTherapy

After selling our home in Colorado and spending five weeks on the road in Oregon, we finally landed in a small northeastern Oregon town. In some ways it reminds me of the mountain town we left.

View from our previous Colorado home. . .

View from our current Oregon apartment:

Kind of ironic, don't you think? I never really thought of Oregon looking like this, but it depends on what section of the state you visit. The northeast portion is arid, with lots of sunshine and low humidity.

So now we're here, and after making two offers on homes in the region and neither coming to fruition, we decided to lease an apartment. At least for now. (We've been without internet service for a month, so blogging and social media interaction came to a screeching halt. I'm glad to be back with you.)

In my last post I invited you to join me as I turn our apartment into a home. I snapped the following photos before we moved in and began work on our new place.

After moving from a 640 square foot home, this 1,600 square foot apartment seems huge. With its 11' ceilings, wood structural posts and large windows, the great room has an industrial look.

 

The room is open to the kitchen (just to the left of the posts in the photo above).

 

 (The cutesy refrigerator magnets are no longer there.)

 

 

I like the cottagey bead board in the bathroom.

 

 

The bedrooms are large, but pretty bland.

 

See what I mean? Shaggy browny/tanny carpet.

 

 

But on the plus side I have a nice view from the bedroom that will be my home office/studio. And the deep window well suits me fine.

 

Notice the funky decrepit wagon outside. It needs a feminine touch. I wonder if I could cover it in roses.

 

 

Beyond the plain wagon is a better view.

 

 

I've been working on a lot of home decorating projects that I'll share with you in the coming days.

 

Hope your weekend is filled with joy.

 

 

Linking up with Friendship Friday at Create with Joy.

Fairtytale Cottage in Stayton, Oregon

Fairytale Cottage in Stayton, Oregon (Locals call this home "the castle.")

I feel like I've been MIA for over a month. Oh, wait.  I have.

In my last post we were in Yachats, Oregon, enjoying the sand, surf and ocean breezes. A lot of hours and miles have been logged since then, as we search for our next home. From my perspective there have been a lot of highs and a few lows on this adventure. And one major meltdown somewhere in Tillamook on the thirteenth day. (Sometimes a home body just gets tired of traveling.)

One of my highs was stumbling upon the enchanting cottage, pictured above, in Stayton, Oregon. I love everything about this place. The owners have a private bridge that crosses the creek and serves as a driveway to their garage. You can't see the garage in this photo; it's the dark arch to the right. The Stayton (Oregon) Daily Photo blog claims the locals call this home "the castle". I wouldn't describe it that way from what I've seen. A castle is extraordinarily large in my definition. But whatever you call it, it's definitely a beauty. Too bad it's not for sale.

The creek curves away from the property and becomes part of the adjacent idyllic countryside.

Stayton, Oregon Creek

We're currently365 miles way from Stayton, in the northeast region of Oregon, and still searching for a home. Although I have much more to share with you, I feel compelled to break the trip down into small posts like this one. To do otherwise may be like trying to drink water from a fire hose



Linking up with You're Gonna Love It - Week 66

Oregon Cottages



I am a total delinquent.  It's been over seven weeks since my last post. This is such a no-no in Blogland. I'm pretty sure blogger gremlins are going to show up on my keyboard and heckle me. I do have a pretty good excuse for my absence, though. We've been traveling, I had a three week writing assignment, we put our house on the market and it's now in contract, and for the past two weeks we've been giving away furniture, household items and bunches of other stuff to lighten our load. Oh, and I've been helping a friend with his new vacation home cleaning business. (Do I have your sympathy yet?)

We made two trips to Oregon: one in April, and one in May.  The charming cottage in the photo above resides in the quaint seaside village of Yahatz, Oregon, where we stayed in May.

When we left Colorado, our cottage was covered in two feet of snow. Sure it looks beautiful, like a Christmas card, but instead shouldn't we see a May pole on May 1?

I long to live in a climate where Spring actually arrives on time.  I like the Rockies, but our growing season is very short.  Spring comes in June.  Not good for a girl who loves to see daffodils in April.
The gorgeous florals in the front of the Yahatz cottage is my idea of a perfect May garden. Delightful.

The flower boxes outside our room at the Ocean Cove Inn brought a smile to my face. I love those little benches.

The room's back door opened up to these lovelies.

This was my first visit to the Oregon coast.

Its rugged beauty is very much what I expected.

After our house closes on July 1 we'll head back to Oregon for a serious look at real estate.  One of the towns that intrigues us is La Grande, home of Eastern Oregon University.  It's a small northeast town (population 13,000) with an abundance of cottages and vintage homes.  My blogging friend Connie at Crafty Home Cottage recently blogged about La Grande and its wonderful vintage homes .  I asked her if I could share some of the photos she took and she graciously said, "yes".

Here are three cottages from Connie's post:

Community Pride, La Grande Oregon.  Photo by Connie of Crafty Home Cottage:



Community Pride, La Grande Oregon.  Photo by Connie of Crafty Home Cottage:

Community Pride, La Grande Oregon.  Photo by Connie of Crafty Home Cottage:

These photos were taken in April.  See the flowers.  See the trees leafing out. See the green grass. That's what I'm talkin' about.

Be sure to stop by Crafty Home Cottage to learn more about La Grande and see more of the town's homes. Victorian, Prairie, Tudor.  They're all wonderful. Connie does a great job as a tour guide, with barns and the countryside thrown into the mix.

Have a great weekend. I promise I won't wait so long to post again.

Blessings,

Sharing with Friendship Friday at Create with Joy.