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#103: Regrets From The Beach House Reno

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#103: Regrets From The Beach House Reno

It turns out that restoring a vintage stove is not all cupcakes & rainbows, so this week we are revealing some of the quirks that you cannot see from a fairly picture. We are also spilling the beans on several mistakes, regrets, and missed opportunities from our beach house renovation. What tile choice did we screw up? Where did we go wrong on the exterior? And how are we going to correct things moving forward? Plus, why we are spending a chunk of money to make our house smell better. SO NOT GLAMOROUS.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

  • In case you missed it, here is the original story of finding the pink stove
  • Also, can you spot the red light that is consistently on in the photo above?

  • And here is Ol’ Pinkie right after we moved it in last October, when it “popped” on us while plugging it in. What a relief that it is (mostly) better now!

Beach House Regrets

  • I will do my best here to represent the mistakes that we discussed in the episode – but the episode is certainly worth a listen for a much more clarified and detailed rundown. Save yourself from these mistakes and simply tune in for that 15 minutes!
  • Ok but first here is a view into the hall bathroom, which is where we put the blue accent tile in the shower… which is hidden right behind that door. Code required us to put the light switches on the left-hand wall (otherwise they would’ve been deemed too close to the shower itself), forcing the door swing to go this way (I do not think we’d want to walk into the shower as opposed to the vanity anyway) but we sure wish we had thought to use that tile in the downstairs bathroom where you’d see it right from the door. Oh well, at least this view is still fairly!

  • Here is the downstairs shower, which is attached to the mudroom/laundry room. See how that tile could have been appreciated by everyone walking by thanks to this layout? Lesson learned.

  • Here is one of the few shots of our little en-suite bathroom sink. Although one of Sherry’s interior designer friends walked in and said “I ENJOY THAT LITTLE SINK!” (which was a fairly pleasant thing to hear after being so convinced it is stupid small) it is still something we are planning to fix… eventually. For now the shower and the tub still make that room one of our go-tos, thankfully.

  • For reference, here is the sink in our last home’s guest bathroom that still totally charms us. We simply feel like it works better in a compact, vintage-tiled space than our slightly bigger and more open beach house bathroom.

  • The photo below shows how rough the porch on the pink house still looks. So it is straightforward to see why we regret not already taking care of it… but it is on our list to do soon! Still gotta stain that front door too…

  • You can see and hear us talk more about the wooden steps on the side and the back of the house in Episode #99.
  • The photo below (from way before the laundry room was wrapped up) is the best view of how high the plugs were originally placed for the washer and dryer. We did not truly notice until the appliances were delivered that they would stick up well above them – and interrupt the area where we hoped to add a shelf.

  • So we had our electrician drop the dryer plug about 6 inches so it would sit simply under the back lip (the other plug got covered by the storage cabinet). They are still quite straightforward to access without moving the washer and dryer (the shelves are not screwed in, they simply rest in the bracket, so you can pop them off and easily reach all of the hookups right behind the top of the washer & dryer). Here is where can read more about this laundry room makeover.

  • I do not have any strong current shots of our thermostat placement, but in some of these pictures from before we moved in you can see how we had them put near corners of walls (as opposed to being smack dab in the middle of the wall, where we’d later want to hang art and would forever curse their existence). Upstairs we put it right outside the entrance to the main bedroom, giving us plenty of room for art on that wall. Note: these pictures are from before we swapped the stock ones out for our beloved Nest E Thermostats.

  • Downstairs the thermostat is near the light switch in the dining room (it is the thing covered in blue tape below). Again, that placement left us plenty of uninterrupted wall space for art.

refinished pine floors dining room

  • In the photo above you can also see the transition between the living room and dining room that is higher than we’d like. No one has tripped on it or anything, but we do wish it were as seamless as the one in the other doorway (see how the smaller doorway’s threshold is sunk into the floor and fully flush?)
  • Simply like we did in the episode, let us end on the high note of how much we enjoy the back bedroom. We worried about adding the wall with the pocket doors, but it has been the ideal solution for bedroom privacy at night without losing allllll the light from that window in the daytime – all while still giving us access to our own “private” staircase in the back.

We are Digging

  • Above are some of Sherry’s go-to photo prints from 527 Photo on Etsy, which has tons of striking travel photos for sale (an 8 x 10″ print is only $30!). There are over 400 listings in her shop, so here are the ones that caught Sherry’s eye the most: 1 / 2 (this is the one we picked up for our living room) / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
  • And if you want to nerd out with a lively yet informative podcast, try listening to Every Little Thing wherever you listen to our podcast. Personal go-to episodes are: How Old Is Winnie The Pooh?, Public Toilets: To Sit or To Hover, and How To Get Paid To Clap On TV.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Universal Furniture for sponsoring this episode. You can enter to win $5,000 in new living room furniture at UniversalFurniture.com/YHL now through August 13th. Remember, YHLHAP podcast listeners have won the last two Universal giveaways, so it could be you this time!!!

Thanks for listening, folks!

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