A Cottage Makeover : Painting The Roof

I left off with the cottage makeover with most of the exterior finished. It took a couple weeks before I had a chance to work on the playhouse some more. I mixed up some of our door paint with a bunch of water and started with a wash on the roof. I worked my way around the whole house and did two coats over 30 minutes.

With most DIYs, my kids are nearby either helping out or working on something themselves. I set them up with some outdoor chalk paint (affiliate link) for them to play with. They spent more time putting it all over their bodies instead of on the patio, but it kept them distracted so I could get some work done. I love this picture of my messy kids creating in front of my half-done DIY... It is such a great representation the season of life we're in right now. Always making!

Unfortunately, I didn't know it was going to rain that day and it rained a couple hours after I finished up the roof. The roof still looks darker/grayer than the before, but I'm a little disappointed it isn't quite as black as it was right after painting. 

We still need to paint the back red, but we're getting there. Cora has also been asking if we can paint the inside, so I'm thinking that could be pretty fun for the girls to work on that together.

Sometimes, it feels a little silly putting so much time into making over this little playhouse when the to-do list for our own house is so long... but then I get a peek at the cottage from my kitchen window or while we're playing in the backyard and it brings a smile to my face. 

PS. Remember what this looked like before the makeover?!

Wisconsin Vacation Recap

Photo heavy vacation recap coming your way.... We spent last week at our family cottage and it was packed full of running around after the kids and enjoying lots of our favorite cottage activities.

Cora doesn't really remember much from our last vacation up here, so it was fun watching her rediscover how much she loves this place. We arrived around 9ish in the morning, had breakfast, then jumped right into all of our favorite activities. Cora wasted no time in catching her first fish and kayaking with her Uncle (remember when Cora was tiny and kayaking?!). Ida tried out the kayak, but was more content with dipping her toes in the water and lounging on the dock.

Around nap time on our first day, Cora asked my brother how long we'd been there and couldn't believe it when he told her we got there that morning. She said she felt like it's been forever.

During our first days there, it was Iron River's famous Blueberry Festival. We have never been in town during the festival, but have heard about it from family members. Sunday morning, we headed into town to enjoy the Blueberry Festival parade. I was expecting something similar to our hometown's 4th of July parade (firetrucks, kids biking, old cars, etc), but this was much bigger. There were horses, lots of trucks, decorated ATVs, giant pirate ship float, candy, and even people handing our cheese curds. Only in Wisconsin...

On vacations, I love our slow mornings. In our regular life, I'm usually running out the door right when I wake up, so I really enjoyed sleeping in, getting cuddles with the girlies, walking down to the lake, and having slow breakfasts.

When the weather allows, we spend the late morning and afternoon on the dock. Cora really got the hang of swimming this week. She was such a water baby and progressed so quickly in such a short amount of time. Ida liked the water some days and didn't like it others. She spent most of her dock time splashing around in buckets of water and making sand pies.

Cora heard the mention of s'mores and would not stop asking when she would get to try her first s'more. It took a couple days, but she finally got her chance and she loved them. She kept telling me "they're even better than they sound!" and "I never thought these could be so good!"

Looking back, I can't believe how much we fit in that one week. We also enjoyed a potluck with a lot of extended family, a hike, kayak and boat rides, a thrift shopping date, a visit to my aunt's cottage, and much more. I wasn't in the best mood a lot of the trip due to a bunch of different factors, but overall we had a great time. We loved spending time with my parents, brother, aunts, and uncles and Cora loved meeting a lot of her third cousins. It was fun to watch Cora fall in love with the cottage and see how much Ida enjoyed her time there. We're already looking forward to our next trip back.