We bought the lake house Friday, so now we're down to the final push of last minute carpet install and deep cleaning in anticipation of moving in all of the furniture on Thursday. I've been pushing aside and walking around new tables, beds, chairs, dressers, etc in the front living room and garage for the past couple weeks and I'm ready for it to be put in its proper place.
I've still got a few odds and ends delivering this week, things like monogrammed pillows and my custom lazy susan, but the big stuff is all labeled and ready to be hauled into its new home. This time next week I should be finished putting the finishing touches on the existing furniture/decor I rounded up for the lake house, and be out on the water in our new boat. Or jet ski. Cheers to a summer of lake house living with family and friends!
We've been in this weather pattern for at least a week now, where thunderstorms travel through our area after sunset. Last night was the worst one yet, with lots of lightning, rain and hail. But then it took a turn towards scary.
I was standing over near the fireplace in the front living room when I heard a high pitched whistling, screaming sort of noise. The wind was whipping the rain and light hail in the opposite direction all of a sudden, so there was definitely some sort of circulation going on rather than just straight line winds. Then I heard several loud cracks and a thud. When the next round of lightning illuminated the front yard, I saw that we lost part of a tree. Thankfully it fell smack in-between the house and older daughter's car parked out front on the pad off the driveway.
We had some golf ball sized hail that was reallllllly loud as it crashed onto the roof and smacked up against the windows. Thankfully, everything - besides the tree - seems to be in good shape this morning. The pool and patio area looks like a war zone, with leaves and moss everywhere, but I've already been out there cleaning it up with the help of the older daughter.
I get lulled into forgetting how dangerous the forces of nature can be, at times. I'm just glad none of our neighbors had anything similar happen in their yards.
I think it's some unwritten lake house ownership rule that you must have a custom lake sign either in your house, on the back porch or hanging off the boat dock. Here's mine. It's 40x25" and I love it and it's going in the eat-in kitchen.
I decided that I wanted a "real" piece of artwork in the living room. So I snooped around online and chanced upon this 24x24" painting by a Memphis based artist. She did a whole series of these canoes. I find it arresting, yet soothing.
Of course, no one else in my immediate family appreciates its blue vividness with the small pops of yellow. So I guess I'll wait until we get the lake house set up in about two weeks with all of the furniture in place and see if I still think this picture is appropriate for the space. I'm already wanting to be done with the decorating so I can move on to the boating!
After a whole lotta online shopping and watching video reviews, comparing prices and scouring boat manufacturer websites, we took the plunge and bought a lovely deck boat for the lake house today.
I love the blue and white exterior color. The interior upholstery is really nice. It can seat up to eight adults for sunset cocktail cruising. And the motor is 175 hp, so plenty of power to drag kids across the lake on a tube. I'm looking forward to getting it delivered to our dock in about two weeks!
At my age, I should know better. I have NEVER been able to craft or make anything cheaper than I would have spent purchasing it already done. I figure I've spent about $20 for materials over the price of the painted oars I found on Etsy. Meh, at least I'll have some custom oart-work the younger daughter created for me to hang in the lake house once she's finished.
Low key... that's how I like my holidays and celebrations. Today it was a group effort with my side of the family to celebrate mother's day. My sister whipped up three sides, my mother made one side and I bought the steak and shrimp to grill. Plus this cake.
Lord have mercy, we've got enough leftover cake to feed an army from our favorite local mom and daughter bakery. But it's delicious!
As you can tell in the pics, we were really casual. As in no make-up, shorts and a t-shirt comfy. Mother enjoyed having all four of the grandkids together. It was a lovely day, with gorgeous weather to be outside around the pool doing some grilling.
I don't know about y'all, but I never realized how much beach stuff there is out there on the market. It easily eclipses the lake. But I've decided there is crossover with decor, so have pulled a couple color palettes I'm picking and choosing from to decorate the lake house.
My three main colors are white, a sandy beige/light taupe color, and navy blue. My secondary colors are marine blue and red. I quickly discovered there's a fine line between nautical and our place looking as if it's decorated for the 4th of July all year.
Tomorrow the younger daughter and I are getting started on our oar project. I saw the painted oars as decor on a multitude of websites and Pinterest pages and decided that I really like the look for one of the bedrooms. It will involve using the hand sander and then trekking to our local home improvement store for paint, brushes and lacquer.
I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in terms of oar color design while searching options online to purchase outright, at least in something that's less than $100 for three coordinating oars. So I now have three plain oars in the garage that are ready to be customized with our lake house colors for the upstairs guest room.
The husband and I attended our house inspection on Friday and I fell even more in love with the lake. It's just so peaceful up there on the water. I'm already envisioning sitting out on our back porch below, visiting with family and friends.
I've had a great time shopping online for furnishing ideas to make the lake house our own. It's a bit of a marriage between nautical and farmhouse. A little navy/cream, some jute, and mercury glass will be making an appearance in most rooms. Hopefully by July 4th we'll have all of the essentials and decorating done so we're totally set for company. Until then, I'm sure we'll be hosting family while it's still a bit of a work in progress with the fine tuning.
This time last year, the college daughter drew me a pretty fish picture that I had framed and then stored away because I figured I wouldn't need it for a few years. Now I've just commissioned her to paint me the following sign below, replacing it with the name of our lake since the colors will compliment her fish pic and join it in the downstairs guest room. We're covering our bases with the usual lake critters.
After some debate, I decided to order this customized 25x40" sign below to go in the upstairs double guest room. I added our lake name and replaced skiing with tubing since that's what our girls love to do. I also purchased three unfinished canoe paddles for the college daughter to custom paint for me to accompany the sign. It's gonna be super cute, y'all!
No respectable lake house would be complete without some personalized stadium cups and can koozies, so the girls helped me tweak this design/colors before I ordered them.
Now that I've got a better handle on what furnishings need to be ordered for each room and where I can get what I want to make it gel thanks to Pinterest, it's time to start thinking about a ride for the lake. I vote for a pontoon or deck boat!
