The Grand Cottage Reveal and Q&A

The grand cottage reveal is HERE! For those of you who don’t know about this project, we’ve spent the last year renovating a small home into a farmhouse cottage as part of our plan to launch a Bed and Breakfast on the Farm.

The cottage is not currently available for rent to guests; we are only using it for now for friends, family and guests upon request. This is because we are working diligently on the exterior and landscaping, so we will absolutely let the community know when it is available for rent! For more info about the cottage, you can visit the Cottage gallery for more photos and updates.

Before Transformation

After Transformation

So, you renovated a cottage. What exactly needed to be renovated?

We stripped it down to drywall and subfloors; we even pulled out the popcorn ceilings. New ceiling insulation, and added onto to the ceiling trusses to support the new plank ceilings. We redid the lights in all the rooms, moved and added outlets and switches. We painted every wall, wallpapered the nook, resized a window, moved two other windows, painted and installed base cabinets, installed countertops and the kitchen sink. Complete redo of the bathroom showers, including plumbing and tiling. New toilets, new sink vanities, open shelving in the kitchen, LVP flooring throughout the whole house. Painted the window frames black, installed plumbing access panels for bathrooms. Baseboards, window and door trim, casing, crown-molding. New front and back exterior doors. Lots of little custom fine work. We stripped it complete down, so everything you see in the finished photos, we did it.

What were some of the pivotal moments that redirected the project?

At the beginning, I didn’t know how much I would do myself vs how much I would contract out. The quote for redoing the popcorn ceilings was $7k, whereas the cost of wood plank ceilings was only $3k, so I decided then that I was going to do as much as I could myself. That was a major change in the project with three main results: the whole project was 1/3 of the price, it took 2x longer, and I learned 1000 new skills.

Another thing that happened: after we finished the kitchen cabinets, Olympia and I were deciding about bathtub inserts or tile. I’d never done tile before, and the cabinets and ceilings turned out so nice, so we decided that we should push for high-quality build throughout. So it was time to learn tile! Instead of 1-2 days of gluing shower inserts into place, we had weeks of rebuilding walls, redoing plumbing, waterproofing it all, and installing tile. I’m really glad that we made both of those decisions because it improved the build and I learned a ton!

What was the most technically difficult part of the build?

Undermounting the kitchen sink on the laminate countertop. Laminate countertops have particle board base (sawdust glued together to make a hard surface) with a layer of laminate across the top. The particle board CANNOT get wet or it will bulge, mold, and rot, and you’ll have to replace the whole thing. These days, everyone undermounts with granite or quartz countertops, so I was scouring the internet to find 90s videos showing how to do it on laminate. I didn’t find anyone doing it directly, so I had to piece together a plan. I decided to route out the bottom of the particle board, stopping just at the underside of the laminate layer. This would leave me with no exposed wood but still have something to glue onto. Then I could completely route out the hole for the sink and have a lip on which to glue the sink flange. This meant we needed a stainless steel sink (porcelain is too heavy), and I also installed extra steel brackets to hold the sink flange to the underside of the laminate. The router was a new tool for me, so I screwed it up a few times, but I managed to piece it together on the third try.

What types of tools did you use? Did you have all these already?

I started with a DIYer’s toolset and ended with a contractor’s set of tools. I learned to splurge on the tools that I used everyday, such as the impact driver and oscillating multi-tool, while I could save money on more specialized tools that I used one-off. I did not spend the $10k mark that my brother joked about, but I did fill my garage to the point of needing to completely reorganize it. My favorite new tool was the router, and I’ve only scratched the surface of all it can do.

What was your favorite memory of the cottage build?

Church services are from 3 to 5 in the morning during the week, so when I got home it was often still dark. When I was lining up the holes for the ceiling lights in the main room, I turned off all the lights, laid on the ground, and pointed my laser level at the ceiling. It was pitch black except for two green lines across the ceiling, and I laid there moving and turning the laser very slightly to hit my lines. When it’s dark like that, time seems to stand still, and it’s just you and the work.

Were there any moments when you felt like the project was too overwhelming, and what kept you going during those times?

We were hanging out with some friends last week, and Olympia asked if anyone ever had the experience of being able to do something that you were convinced that you couldn’t do. Ya, pretty much everyday of this cottage build I felt that I was doing things that I couldn’t do. I constantly prayed for God to guide me. I faced new challenges that I didn’t know how to deal with, and somehow the answer would just come to me. I noticed a pattern that when I stopped praying, I stopped being productive, but as soon as I started saying the Jesus Prayer again, everything would fall into place. When I installed the floors I sang, “Glory to you, O God” without end, and I installed them in 3 days without needing any transitions, which I specifically prayed for. Of course I did my homework beforehand and made a plan, but things don’t always go according to plan. They did a lot for this build. So I was able to get through the whole thing by praying.

If you could go back and change one thing about the cottage build, what would it be and why?

I’m kicking myself for covering the kitchen nook wallpaper with shelves. I didn’t even think about it, but after I installed them I realized that this beautiful wallpaper was supposed to be the focus of the room and it got demoted to the background.

Did you have any help from friends or family during the build? If so, how did their involvement shape the experience?

Yes, definitely! I didn’t want to mud the drywall seams, so I hired my neighbors to do it. My friend David would come over about every week to help with things here and there; we may have been more or less productive together, but he kept me sane, and our friendship deepened through the shared experiences. My brother flew up for a week to help, and together we knocked out almost both bathrooms in a week, which probably would have taken me a month to do alone. Towards the end, I hired my friend Dimitri every week to help, and he was the perfect helper! He understood all my directions, he would watch me do something and learned to anticipate what I needed next.

How did you manage your work-life balance during the renovation, especially since it took nine months to complete?

My daily schedule became: go to Church in the morning, work on the cottage for a few hours, work my job, eat dinner, and go to sleep. Fridays and Saturdays provided the chance to work on the cottage for 12-14 hours. Friends and fun were relegated to Sundays and I tried to add an additional night or two to spend time with Olympia throughout the week. It was a very disciplined schedule, and I honestly grew a lot from it.

Speaking more about that, how did working on this renovation impact you personally?

I learned how much I benefit from focused work, from being able to devote all my time and energy into a singular goal without distraction. Obstacles and challenges came up, and sometimes I had to reassess and find a different way forward, but I always moved towards the end goal. In contrast, I learned how much my life is usually full of distraction: random ideas, always talking but never doing, and even vacuous relationships. Working so hard on a single project got me away from all of that. In the nine month renovation, I let go of a few friendships, I became disinterested in just talking about things, and I learned to see that most ideas are just distracting fantasies. Having experienced focused life and the benefits thereof, I can definitely say that I prefer it over distracted life, and although it looks less “fun,” it is so much more gratifying.