Darkest Days of the Cottage Flip

Welcome back to another week of the real life soap opera that has become of this flipping endeavor. I thought the worst was over, but no. Mother Nature decided to bless our thirsty land with a blizzard…

California needs every bit of the precipitation and this winter landscape is a well composed sight. How I wish I could enjoy these days—cozied up in the cottage by the fire sipping cocoa and watching the snow fall, rather than cursing it for putting me behind schedule. Knowing that all of this work will give one family that dream, to be able to create those memories in this special place, makes it all worth it.

Still, it is a helpless feeling, being at the mercy of these uncontrollable factors, then having to depend on contractors to work overtime to meet your deadline, from 150 miles away as I stay glued to the live weather updates.

Overall I have remained calm by keeping things in perspective, which has become the single most important word to me over the past year. I am incredibly lucky to even have this opportunity.

And on that note, let us get into the story of this past weekend, shall we?

My gracious parents agreed to help yet again, and knowing the storm was coming, we decided to spend the night at the flip to save an extra hour round trip to their house, and avoid the potential of blocked roadways getting there.

After packing the car, stocking up on groceries and strapping on the snow chains, we made it up the driveway and stepped out into the deep, fresh powder.

I knew the painters were not able to finish on time, but I was also bummed to see parts of it not even primed and still no window trim. But this shade of gray is perfection.

It is freezing inside, so we turn on the heater and get to work.

I have my dad install the curtain rods (in the living room and Bedroom #1 upstairs):

While my mom gets to work painting the staircase landing:

And her sweet friend even comes by and offers to paint a dresser:

Meanwhile, I start on my laundry door makeover. I found this inexpensive screen door at Lowe's and thought it'd be the well suited candidate for a new sliding door for the laundry room.

After removing the mesh screen, I painted it black (in Valspar's Cracked Pepper, the official shade of black for this house):

And then… I was not able to finish, so you will have to tune in next week to see Part 2. Hint: it involves lace!

I also gave the floor mirror a quick update…

For my long time followers out there, you may remember the DIY makeover I did to this plain IKEA mirror back in 2014. It is still one of my all time favorite pieces and I'll never part with it.

It fits perfectly in that corner but between the white walls, ceiling, and white curtains I plan to hang, it was too much and would get lost in the mix. I wanted it to be more of a focal point but still have a soft appearance, so I grabbed a can of Maison Blanche's dark brown antique wax to see what would happen.

Magic happened, that is what. I brushed it on…

Then wiped it away as the dark coloring settled into the grooves, beautifully but subtly bringing out the details.

With that out of the way, I turned my attention toward a pretty little side table that came with the house:

Charming, right? It'll end up next to the chaise lounge under the window, as shown below:

But I was not feeling the red mahogany wood so it was time for an update. Painting is the easiest choice but I was in an experimental mood, so I brought out a can of Maison Blanche's Organza in Old Penny:

You may remember I used this to make my clawfoot tub legslook like oil rubbed bronze metal and fell in love with the product then, so I figured it earned another shot at making this table unique.

I am using copper as an accent color in the kitchen and wanted to tie it in to the living/dining area as well, and Old Penny was the well suited color for the job:

I had no specific technique or tutorial in mind, so I just started coating the wood to see what would happen.

It covered nicely but felt a bit flat, so I waited for it to dry and gave it a coat of black paint for some dimension.

Then I came back and lightly applied the organza over it, allowing some of the black to show through for a brushed metal appearance:

Oh yeah, that is what it needed. And here is the final product:

A vintage wood table with a metal look—love! The copper accent will be a nice layer to break up all the black, white and wood elements in the space.

Before calling it quits, my mom and I managed to tackle painting one more bedroom dresser and two twin headboards black.

I also aged a few brass hooks and hung them in the kitchen…

I was feeling okay about our progress that evening. My to-do list for the weekend was not yet halfway done but we still had a full Saturday of work planned and could start at sunrise.

As I was mentally going through the checklist while brushing my teeth outside and about to wash my face in the snow (we had no running water because the power had gone out the day before while the plumber was working on the pipes), the lights suddenly shut off. Pitch black and silence. Panic set in. I ran upstairs to notify my parents who were already in bed, then ran to another bedroom, shut the door to try and preserve the heat, grabbed a flashlight and huddled underneath a pile of blankets.

It was a night of intermittent sleep, and I woke up to a dead phone and snow falling from the window, which the car was now buried in.

We bundled up in our snow jackets and hats, grabbed flash lights and tried to finish painting touchups for as long as we could stand it. A call to the power company confirmed that the outages were major, widespread and that there was no way we were getting it back anytime soon. My dad began digging the car out of the snow while I came to the somber realization that I would be making the 3+ hour drive back home to the city after just a few hours of work, and far behind schedule. It was not my best moment.

Fortunately, as of today, the sun is shining and the power has been restored. I am heading back to the mountains early tomorrow with an extra long to-do list and a positive attitude.

This house might not end up exactly as I had originally pictured, but I am confident in my ability to come up with new ways to pull it off at the last minute. Either way, it is certainly an adventure and an experience I'll look back at fondly one day and laugh about these moments (just not for a while 😉 ).

Find out what happens in this weekend's saga by watching my live instagram stories or snaps! Or just check back here next week for a video & photo recap of the progress.

P.S.—If you are local(ish) and want to come to the open house February 11, shoot me an email at [email protected] for details! 🙂

Disclosure: Some of the products listed were provided via sponsorship—all of which I selected and fully approve of.