Recent Progress at the Poplar Cottage
THE POPLAR COTTAGE
We’ve been making good progress on the Poplar Cottage lately and I wanted to share photos! This is a bit of a progress smorgasbord - exterior siding, bathroom finishes, and hardwood floors - but it’s sure fun to see it all in one spot. We’ve been enjoying the heck out of crafting this little home and are excited to share it with you today…
Hardwood floor refinish
March was all about finishing the hardwood floors on the main floor. There’s fir in the living room and bedroom and oak in the kitchen and bathroom, most of them original besides what we had to patch in. We rented an orbital sander and it took Garrett the better part of 3 days to sand and finish these floors.
The floors have 3 coats of poly on them. We originally planned to use a zero-voc Rubio Monocoat finish, but decided to just go with a durable polyurethane. Since this will be a rental and there are hardwoods in the bathroom, we just didn’t want to take our chances on a new product that we couldn’t monitor.
Trim and paint
paint | tile | door hardware | faucet
Speaking of the main floor bathroom…it’s coming along! The vanity needs hardware and paint (probably the same color as the walls) and we need all the little finishes. But it’s close! The big question is whether to paint the wood trim/tile edge or leave it wood. Thoughts?
knobs | sconce | hood vent | counters | plate rack | planked ceilings
I also repainted the kitchen walls and part of the ceilings in BM Swiss Coffee. Can you see the paint line on the ceiling? To the left is BM Simply White and on the right is BM Swiss Coffee. I love both but Swiss Coffee is just a little warmer and cozier and it goes well with the cabinet color (F&B Old White).
Exterior siding
Cathy’s overalls, henley | Garrett’s work apron
Now that the weather’s turned (mostly ;) we’re working outside on the cedar shake siding. What a project! Garrett found this Alaskan Yellow Cedar shake on FBMP and it’s beautiful. Tedious and slow to install, but beautiful! These shingles go on one at a time, which sounds obvious, but when you’re installing them, you really feel it. I’m fairly certain this is the most labor-intensive siding out there (sorry Garrett!), but it’s so dang pretty and we’re enjoying the crafted-nature of the install (and binging audio books on my earmuffs!) and thankful that these shingles should last a lifetime!
A lot of people have asked how we plan to finish the shingles and I think we’re going to leave them untreated, at least for now. They should naturally patina to a darker gray color - think New England coastal home. You can already see what one year of age looks like on the siding in the image above - the darker siding was put up last Spring and the lighter siding was put up last week. Over time all of the siding should age to the gray color shown below.
Like all things with this cottage, the siding is taking longer than we could have expected. But that’s okay. The joy of renovating is in the process, in crafting details, and taking care to do it right - at least that’s what I remind myself every time I lose patience ;)
Here’s what the exterior of the cottage should look like when we’re all said and done…
What’s next
And for those who are wondering, we’re still planning to Airbnb this property, but first, we’ll likely move into it temporarily while we do some of the major renovations on our new house. The Poplar Cottage is only 3 blocks away so it should be convenient and cozy for our fam for a little bit. And I love that that means we get to make furniture and finish purchases for this house both as a rental we plan to own for a long, long time and as a home for our family.
Right now I’m keeping an eye on FBMP, yard sales, estate sales, salvage stores, and the like for furniture and art mostly. We basically need everything in here and I want to end up with a mix of old and new throughout, so I’m starting early. Here’s our first purchase, a dresser for the downstairs bedroom…
That’s all for now!
xx
