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?!

A Cottage Makeover : Progress

Remember when I scored this free playhouse last summer? This Spring, I was sick of looking at the tired brown house, so I decided that we were ready for a makeover. I made a quick trip to pick up some red paint and waited until we had some decent looking weather so we could get to work. 

When we first opened the red paint can, I freaked out. I was originally worried about this color looking too orange, but this looked way too pink and not what I wanted. Cora said she liked it and I knew she would love a pink house. We went ahead and painted the playhouse and decided that we'd love it one way or the other.

As a parent, most of my projects are done in 15-30 minute spurts and this was no exception. The red needed two coats and took me about four sessions. Cora helped with some parts of the red and cheered me on during other parts. Either way, a little DIY with Cora is always enjoyable.

I used the same black that we used on our interior doors. Cora wanted a dark green door and this black leans a little green in some lightings, so we both got what we wanted without having to spend any more money. Still on the to-do list is to paint the roof, paint the back side of the cottage, and do something fun inside. The girls love this little cottage, and I love peeking out the kitchen window and seeing this in my backyard.

A Little Cottage for the Girls

I've been looking at little playhouses for our backyard, but I found that all of the ones I like are a little too expensive for us right now (story of my life). On Saturday morning, I was on Nextdoor (it's like facebook for your neighborhood) to look at some messages and someone posted a curb alert for a playhouse.  They didn't immediately post pictures so I was thinking it was probably one of those plastic basic houses. A couple of minutes later, I updated the page and saw there was a picture. It was exactly one of the playhouses I'd been looking at!!!  FOR FREE!!! 

Curb alert things go pretty fast, so I knew I had to hustle to be the first one there. My mom was on her way to drop off Cora so I called her and arranged for her to go by and claim the playhouse. She said right after she pulled up and opened her door, another person looking to get it came by. She got there just in time.  It was fate! It took us a bunch of trips, but we got it home.

I spent the next couple of days spraying off the spiderwebs and setting it up (by myself... so proud). I love being able to show her that girls can do things themselves and she even pitched in a little bit here and there. I loved setting it up and picturing my girls playing in there for years to come.  

The plan is to lay out a little paver foundation in the back of our yard so they have their own little space back there. I would love to paint it red like our family cottage, but Cora is leaning towards pink right now so she'll need some convincing. I asked her if she wanted to keep the oven screwed in, or leave the table open so it can be more like a studio... Cora picked studio. Thats my girl! I'll get her help to decorate the inside and we'll have this fun little space for Cora and Ida to call their own.