Our "New" Place

This post is long overdue but here's the story of our moving adventure that happened this fall.

A long story short, our landlord passed away this summer, leaving us without a place to rent. We were fortunate enough, first of all, to find THE house in town that was not being rented out. And secondly, the owner of the house agreed to rent it to us.

Once, we had a place lined up, we were relieved but also a bit depressed over our new situation. We downsized from a four bedroom place to a one bedroom house, from 1200 square feet, down to 578 square feet. The roof on the new house leaked, the heat source wasn't in working order, it was (is) poorly insulated and was (is) so, so tiny. But on it had a few things going for it,
1) running water
2) a nice bathroom
3) a great view and
4) very affordable rent.

To prepare to live in the "beach house", as we so fondly call it, we did loads of cleaning, painting, fixing and installing. Thankfully, we had a lot of help from friends, strangers and family during this time. We were blessed enough to have many volunteers help us clean and paint and haul our things from the old house to the beach house.

I thought the best way to share the make over of our new house would be to show before and after pictures. Then it's just like Trading Spaces, or Extreme Home Makeover or something.

Kitchen / Dining Before

Kitchen / Dining After



Living Area Before





Living Area After

Since there was only one bedroom, C.O. removed the half wall you see in the "before living area" photo and put it in the bedroom so we have our own space and Harold has his own sleeping space.

Bedroom Before

Bedroom(s) After

Our area:


Harold's area:


The Bathroom from the start was really quite nice so it didn't require too much work.



Exterior before



Exterior After

We didn't have time or money to do much with the outside of the house. It really needs better insulation, siding and a new roof . . . that's all.

Now, a couple months later, we are settled and comfortable in our new home. It's not perfect, it's a bit chilly and the flooring is pretty beat up. But, we aren't homeless and no matter where we are in the house, we're close to the ones we love most. =)

--AnnMarie