Robin's Nest Before, During and After

This has been a long time coming. A labor of love...with a little cursing and a lot of money thrown in.

We bought the cabin in September of 2009 (under contract at the end of June...should have known more drama would follow LOL). Here are photos from the first time our awesome real estate agent Nik Shewmaker took us to see it.  

from the street (I didn't take an outside photo I guess - this is the one from the listing)

 

 downstairs bedroom

 downstairs bathroom

 front deck

 living area from the upstairs landing

 the once awesome hot tub (it had a waterfall LOL)

 

the screened back deck with the hot tub

 the upstairs bedroom

the upstairs bathroom / vanity

 the upstairs bedroom

the kitchen area from the front door / living area

It had been foreclosed on. Little to no maintenance had been done on it since it was built in 1995. These were taken at the end of June 2009. We didn't see it again until the middle of October 2009. If I took photos that day, I can't find them. Let me tell you what we found. The roof had been leaking. The whole cabin just felt damp. The walls of the hallway were COVERED in white and green fuzzy mold. So were the doors. Frankly...I was petrified to sleep there, but I wasn't about to fork over cash for a motel room for the night either. Luckily we had spent the night at Mr. P's parents' home so it was only a 4ish hour drive and we had the majority of the day to turn this mess around. So we unhooked the trailer and went straight to Lowe's. 

Shopping list:

• Buckets
• Mop
• Murphy's Oil Soap - 2 gallons
• Scrub Brushes
• Razor Blades
• Windex
• Paper Towels
• Rags
• Sponges
• Broom
• Dustpan
• Trash Can
• Outdoor Garbage Bags
• Damp Rid. Lots of Damp Rid. (we actually still have it in all the closets)
• Gloves. Lots of Gloves.

I changed into my sexiest cut off sweat pants and paint splattered, holy (air conditioned) tee, some new gloves and it was off to the races. Opened the windows and cranked down the AC to try and dry the place out a bit and Mr. Paisley and I cleaned that place from ceiling to floor. Every inch of that cabin was scrubbed and wiped down. I kinda like the smell of Murphy's Oil Soap. Thank God the cabin is under 1000 square feet. Sadly...that's just the floor. I don't really want to know how many square feet we cleaned between the walls and ceilings and beams and doors and window casings. We were exhausted. But I felt less concerned about sleeping there. I did however insist that the blow up bed we brought be in the middle of the floor...away from the walls. The next day we unloaded the trailer and the truck. I had been shopping from the time we came back with the cabin under contract until the day we left to drive up there in October. House in a box! Mostly...
We went from the photos above to this...in 3 days. I know it was 3 days because my mom was visiting her sisters and they all decided to drive down to stay the rest of the week with us. Nothing like an impromptu house warming party!

 

from the street

 the living area

 the dining area

 the living area from the upstairs landing (wow...didn't realize how bare it was even after moving in a trailer load of stuff!)

 the front deck - I miss my little bench...it was much cuter than it's replacement

 the upstairs bedroom

the downstairs bedroom (set up for having 3 unexpected guests)

 voila! a light fixture in the laundry closet! (free - from my dad - it was brass...I painted it bronze)

 the stairs

 the side of the kitchen you can't see because it's behind that wall in the photo below

 the kitchen area (woo hoo...we have a dishwasher...but no other appliances LOL $50 on Craig's List baby!)

 the front door (note the curtain...that's what they looked like when they were at the Paisley Cottage - my mom didn't get crafty with them until her 3rd or 4th visit when I lugged my sewing machine up there with us - held up with random tension rods that I had in a closet at the Cottage)

 

the upstairs landing

 And here are the most recent photos. We have rearranged. Changed out. Cleaned. Stained. Replaced. Reworked. And mostly enjoyed....getting Robin's Nest to it's current state. It's not finished. The roof still leaks once in awhile. The floors need to be refinished. The sofa and loveseat are too big for the space. The lighting needs work. The interior doors need to be replaced, the kitchen counter is ugly. Some of the interior walls need more cleaning than Murphy's can do (water stains from the leaking roof). It'll come with time. It's hard to get a lot done when you're only there for 7-10 days at a time. Slow and steady wins the race. 

from the street - cleaned and re-stained

 the front deck

the front deck's new bench (free - made from a bunkbed my neighbor threw out and some scrap 2x4s from the shed) to replace the cute small one that someone stole. This photo is from last Winter.

 the upstairs bedroom

 the upstairs bedroom

 the upstairs bedroom (random shelf - similar, but not the same as the ones downstairs - this one happened to be in the Paisley Cottage when I bought it and it was in a closet - it's deeper than the others and shorter which bugs me. I bought a new one last week, ran out of time to stain it and get it up there...next trip!)

 the upstairs bedroom

 the upstairs vanity (old light fixture from remodeling the bathroom at the Paisley Cottage - it was a textured stone type sand color - I painted it black - free is good! I got the mirror for $35 at a thrift store - it was $70, but everything was 1/2 off - the frame was a lovely shade of 1980s salmon...amazing what some black paint can fix.)

 the upstairs bathroom (curtain is recycled as well - actually, all of them are - when the Paisley Cottage was "beach cottage" I had these chambray tab top panels in my family room, my awesome mom cut and spliced and added trim and hems and voila - all "new" curtains for the upstairs bedroom, the upstairs bathrooms, the kitchen and the living area!)

 the upstairs bathroom

 

the upstairs bedroom

 the stair wall

 

lower stair landing

 living area window looking out to the front deck

 living area from upstairs landing

 hallway downstairs

 the downstairs bathroom

 the downstairs bedroom

 the downstairs bedroom

  the downstairs bedroom

the downstairs bedroom

the fireplace - it gets changed all the time. No flat screen over our fireplace - we have old school CRT TVs at the cabin. The flat screens get stolen somewhat regularly from the rental cabins near us. We aren't there to watch TV so the old 32" CRTs are there until the die.

 the goose is sometimes on the fireplace...this is over the window in the kitchen/living area

the living area - free pillows from my Auntie Alyce

 the back deck and the less fancy, but working hot tub replacement

 new LED lighting on the front deck

new low voltage lighting in the front flower bed (they are little frosted glass "mushrooms" plus 2 spotlights, one lighting up the dogwood tree and one lighting the star on the chimney)

 the front flower bed during the day - see our new "log" edging along the road? Helps with the water running downhill - it's a small cedar tree we cut down after one of the storms last year. I change out the flag and the "yard art" with the season - gotta have a little whimsy in the mountains! (the mushroom lights hardly show up during the day)

and last but not least...you'll probably have to enlarge the photo - but we added an owl tree face to one of our trees across the road - our year round neighbor up there just noticed it 2 weeks ago - it's been there since the end of APRIL! LOL

In summary...

Before...

After...

We've come a looooong way baby!

All of the exterior stain, wood filler, and caulk were purchased at our local Perma-Chink office. The folks that work there are extremely helpful and knowledgeable when it comes to log homes. Many thanks to the staff at both the Knoxville and Sevierville, TN locations!
You guys rock!

I'm back...again.

Yes it's true. I'm back. The last few months have been a bit rough. More layoffs at work (thankfully I have made the cut the last two rounds of layoffs), Nichole's cancer fight  (from my previous post) - sadly, she lost her battle. She is missed terribly by many, many people.  A lot of vicious storms in East Tennessee - lots of trees down in the resort, lots of damage in the National Park - again, luck on my side - Robin's Nest escaped with only minor damage. We had little to no rain here in Central Florida early in the year and I must say, I have NEVER had so many allergy issues. My eyes water almost non-stop. I gave up on wearing eye make-up in December here in Florida. There have been some changes at Robin's Nest as well. The HOA is in full effect and frankly, it's going REALLY well! Some projects at the Paisley Cottage as well (when aren't there projects here? Really...). Mr. Paisley's grandmother passed away. My grandfather passed away. Sweet little Georgia Grace turned 2 as well. Two and a half! Can you believe it? She has quite the personality. She's also super smart (I know - who doesn't say that?) Here are some photos from the last uh...year and a half.  I know you can't really see her face, but i'm sort of iffy on plastering her all over the internet.  Trust me...she's super adorable ;-)

 Tebowing....Go Gators!

 Learning to kick the ball

  Stayin' Alive
(this was just before Christmas - I had just bought new cell phones and I couldn't figure out why the heck my pictures were blurry! Yeah...you know that protective film they put over the screen...and apparently the camera lens...Duh...)

  It's my 2nd birthday!

  I love to hunt for the Easter Eggs!

I love the beach! And I have super awesome curly hair! July 2013

Are you not dying?! *LOVE*

 

Baby time!

One of my friends at work is having a baby in a couple of weeks so I had a little shower for her at the office yesterday.

I took the day off of work. She was annoyed LOL. We don't work at the same location, but she was going to be at my location for a meeting and we normally go out to lunch together on those days.

Now you know I made a fancy list to pull this off for a weekday afternoon when I'm working full time and don't get home until nearly 7. I ran my errands on my lunch breaks. I had nights mapped out to hard boil the eggs, to cut the fruit, to make the frosting ahead of time. 

Yeah...so of course none of that actually happened. I did it all Thursday night and Friday morning. I was up until 3am, then couldn't sleep. Back up at 7:45 because I forgot I still had to walk the dogs and do the usual morning iguana ritual...not to mention get myself showered and dressed, pack everything up in the truck AND stop at the Dollar Tree to get balloons (yeah, totally should have done THAT Thursday after work...apparently EVERYONE was buying balloons at 10:30 in the morning on Friday and the cashier running the register and doing balloons was like 70. The guy in front of me wanted 6 misc. birthday balloons...and told her to pick them out. No lie...I was #4 in line and I was there for 30 min to buy 3 balloons and a Diet Coke because I was dyin' at that point.) I ended up forgetting the ice. Oh well...room temperature bottled water it is ladies!

I made fancy chicken salad on croissants, egg salad on croissants, lettuce cups with the leftover chicken and egg salads. Rainbow fruit kabobs with a cinnamon Greek yogurt dip, salad and vanilla cupcakes with pink icing.

Here are a couple of photos 

The balloons are tied to pink sippy cups filled with Kisses

Pardon my lopsided swirls...your first time with a pastry bag and being in a hurry are not the best combo for making fancy swirls.

 Egg salad - made with eggs fresh from the neighbor's chickens! Yum yum yum!

Chicken salad - ok I cheated on this one a little bit. I bought pre-cooked, sliced roasted chicken (sort of like Perdue Shortcuts) and chopped it up into smaller pieces before adding red grapes, slivered almonds and gala apple with a little Duke's mayo, S&P.

 

Nothing fancy here - typical American salad, lettuce, carrots, cabbage and tomatoes.

Different take on the paint chip strip napkin rings. I picked up some square paint chips and cut along the dividing lines and tucked in a napkin and the pink plasticware.

Fruit kabobs - red grapes, blueberries, green grapes, cantaloupe, and strawberries. They're on wood skewers stuck into a foam craft ring (wrapped in tissue paper and tulle ribbon) with a bowl in the middle to hold the Greek yogurt dip.

 She was surprised!

Here are a couple of the recipes.

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes by Glorious Treats
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting by Glorious Treats
Cinnamon Honey Yogurt Dip

Where oh where has the time gone. Why didn't school ever go by this quickly? Good heavens!

First up - I've been talking about it forever, and now it's 99% complete! My home office is done and it is Ahhhhhmazing if I do say so myself.

Kudos to Mr. Paisley for his hand in the layout design, and my mom for helping us paint just because she likes to paint. 

I'd  also like to thank The Container Store for having awesome products like the Elfa shelving system, Ikea - the store where everything has to be assembled - including the cardboard storage boxes, and BJ's Wholesale Club where I always score the most awesome crap on clearance. 

Now remember, the Paisley Cottage was built in the mid 40's. My office is one of the two bedrooms that are original to the house. It's VERY small and it's VERY limited on arrangement due to no solid walls! One wall has the door in the corner - which opens up against the double bi-fold doors of the closet. The wall opposite the closet has a large window - not centered on the wall. The wall opposite the door also has a large window...that isn't centered on the wall. So basically, I have 3 odd corners to work with and not a lot of floor space. Hence the awesome Elfa shelving system. If you can't go out...go up!

Sooo without taking any longer - here are a couple of AWESOME photos of my office "Before" - borderline Hoarder's worthy. Yep - I know. Ok, actually this is my living room - AFTER Mr. Paisley surprised me by completely emptying my office to paint. Thus, there are no before pictures. You just can't teach an old dog new tricks. Imagine my delight when I walked into this after being at work all day. Be thankful that these two bad cell phone photos are the only ones I have. The one on the left is taken from the doorway into the kitchen. The one on the right is from the doorway into the office...

My new office / crafting space!

Upcoming posts will have more detail...and better photos. For now, note that my office is a whopping 9.5' x 10.5' with no uninterrupted walls. The closet below is in the corner - behind the door (you can see a bit of the door frame and a hinge the left).

 

This is my craft desk space to the right of the closet - it goes all the way to the other wall...where it doesn't wrap around the corner because...there's a big ol' window.

 This is the bookshelf and misc. storage corner - to the right of the "big ol' window" next to my craft desk - this shelf does wrap the corner...right up to the what? Trim...of big ol' window #2.

Which leads to this photo where I should have cropped the glaring ceiling light out. This is the computer wall...this desk goes as far as it makes sense without being in the way of the doorway. You can't see it in this shot, but the top shelf goes right up to the door frame. The lower shelves and desktop are roughly a foot off the door frame. Don't want any hip bruises or head lacerations from just walking into the room now... ;-) I am also thrilled to have finally framed and hung up my awesome original artwork from Caribbean Soul. A friend of my mom's got them for me from his friend at CS knowing i'm a huge fan of CS and Jimmy Buffett. These are the two smaller pieces from t-shirt designs. I have two others that are poster size and actually on interfacing type material. Sadly - no wall space for them with this layout.

It was quite the challenge, but well worth it. We're still deciding what to put on the floor. Plus side is there's not much to move to rip up the carpet! Everything is on the walls with the exception of my two awesome vintage furniture pieces, the chairs and a few things i'm still working on.

It's true what they say - when everything has a home, it's easier to keep it neat and tidy. I'm also getting more exercise. Up and down my little step stool to reach my storage boxes to PUT THINGS AWAY...like where they actually go and not in a place that is convenient right at that moment. 

We will be adding a few more Elfa pieces soon - they have pull out shelves and baskets and I've got rails that go nearly to the baseboards. I had planned to put both of my printers on shelves so they were off the desktop, however, my laser is just a wee bit too big, so for now it's on the desk, but when I pick up the additional pieces it will get relocated to a pull out shelf below. 

It's been awhile - yet my first post is asking for money.

I have plenty to catch up on here, but this is more important. Back in high school I met a sweet, bubbly girl named Nicole. Today she's a happily married mom to three beautiful daughters...only now she's fighting for her life. She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and has been doing everything possible to fight it so she can get back to being the awesome mommy that her girls need. She's going to Germany for a promising treatment that isn't available in the US. A fundraiser is being held to help pay for the expenses and treatment. When she's here, we can help her with getting the kids to and from school, doing laundry, housekeeping and cooking because she's so physically drained from the treatments that she can't and because she needs to spend her time with the girls and her husband. Obviously, the whole crew isn't going to Germany with her - but we can help pay to save her life!

You can read her story here, as well as make a donation. Even if it's only $1 - it adds up!

Help Nicole! 

If you happen to be in Central Florida - there's also a local event coming up!

If nothing else, you can keep her family in your thoughts and prayers - it's free and appreciated :-)