We have engaged the first of our consultants, Pegi Miller from Himes Miller Design in Los Angeles is coming out to offer her advice and experience with our space planning and our kitchen and bathroom desgins. She is one of the best, and a good friend of Greg's from college.

Wrench in the closing. Apparently, there is a lien from the late 1990s that was never cleared up and officially, the village owns the property over a bill of $400! The owners need to have a quit claim deed issued from the village, which they will do at their next meeting.....on the 11th of October! We will not close until then.

wow, because of the proximity of Sunnyside to the water, It sits about 500 feet up a hill from the shore, there is only one company who will write an insurance premium for it. The insurance premium is over 100% higher than either our own house or our other cottage. Ouch.

The Bayside Historical Society provided me with period photos of the cottage before the trees were planted in front of it. (click to embiggen) It appears that the dormer windows were always rectangular. The interesting aspect I see is that in the photo on the right, the supports for the porch are different. In the left photo they are champhered with a cap and in the photo on the right, they are two support beams with spacers in between, which I like better. Also interesting to note that the railing is not gingerbread cut outs, but straight spindles....this will save us a lot of time and effort! Also note the small windows on the second floor and the use of shutters, which Greg had thought we should ditch, but which clearly show on both photos.

I decided to unearth the Gothic Revival architecture books in my library yesterday to take a look at the gingerbread ornament that was original to a lot of these houses. Interestingly, I found an 1837 design for a gatehouse by Alexander Jackson Davis, the dean of American Gothic cottage architecture, that someone recently used to build their house in Bayside.
But even better is Jackson's use of triangular windows in his triangular dormers. I could get really into doing this house up in the extreme, but I don't think we have that much money!!!

T- 2 weeks til closing. I just deposited half of the closing costs in the bank and am going to do the rest next week. I hate spending money, but I have to keep telling myself that this is an investment, it is not throwing money away.

Greg and I took the dogs and walked around Bayside today. We parked at Little Bohemia and walked from there, getting ideas and seeing how other cottage owners have done renovations to other cottages, some successful and some not. We got some ideas for the exterior. I think we settled on pricing out triangular windows for the four upstairs dormers.

Two of the dormer windows are currently blocked off and the other two have rectangular windows in them. I think that with proper windows the upstairs will have a lot more light. Notice the small window between the dormers under the eave? That's the one and only bathroom, set narrowly between the two dormers that open into the bedrooms. I think a good prism skylight right ther in the roof will do wonders.

Greg and I went over to Sunnyside yesterday afternoon to scope out the place. The last time we were there, Greg and I took measurements of every wall so that he could make measured drawings of the house. Greg has been working on a downstairs design of kitchen placement, new stair design, and small downstairs powder room placement and we wanted to go peek in the windows to see how the plan measured out. I've been through the house about six times, but we never really went over alone and talked about stuff. Even though the cottage was locked and we had to peer in through the windows, we got a better sense of where we had to go. We also talked about the exterior quite a bit...new paint scheme, etc. The nice thing about Bayside is that there are dozens of photos of how the houses used to look and there is a good historian who can help us find any and all photos of Sunnyside.

In typical Bayside fashion, we were descended upon by neighbors, eager to ask us what our plans were for the place. One gentleman came over and started telling us what we needed to do to the trees out front. I finally told him not to worry, and that we had everything under control. Also told him that by the time he returned next season, the cottage would be "spruced up." One woman asked us if we were going to "bring it back" and when I told her the outside wouldn't change much, she was crestfallen and told me that the house used to be so beautiful in the period photos. I would love to put it back to the original, but that would mean taking off the back of the house and the addition...something I am not willing to do, but will try my hardest to blend into the rest of the house.

I was turned down for a home equity line of credit to do the renovations. Apparently, contrary to what the news tells us, banks still aren't lending. Because I am self-employed, I pretty much deduct most everything I can so that I don't have to pay such crushing taxes. Since the art market collapse last year, I haven't had much luck in that department, so my two years prior tax returns can be described as a roller-coaster ride at best. I provided the bank with what I thought was a pretty good statement of my assets, including the real estate and the fact that almost everything I have is paid off...they were not impressed apparently, so we have to do some creative budgeting for materials for the cottage. I believe we have to sit down and make a list of priorities that need to happen immediately so that we will be able to rent the place next year. Some projects may fall to the "eventually" category like replacing the sliding glass doors with more appropriate ones, or replacing the bay window on the second floor with a door leading to a deck. Renovations will have to paid for in cash. I am determined to sell off a few things to help pay for them.

Woo hoo, facebook pays off! I posted a link to this here website on my facebook page and one of my friends wrote to tell me she and her husband had a storage bin of possible building materials taken from an old warehouse building they renovated in Rockland. We've been invited to come down and take a look. I am totally psyched as this fits with our desire to make this building as green as we can by using recycled materials. The interior of the house needs a few support beams downstairs underneath the master bedroom. About 18 inches was added to the end of the master bedroom upstairs at the same time they blew out the back of the house downstairs. The construction never properly supported the second floor, so I can go up to the master bedroom and wiggle my hips and the whole ceiling downstairs sways! The 18 foot open span downstairs needs some help!

New cottage acquisition, new blog.
I will be using this website to chronicle the renovations to the cottage, so come back often!

Greg and I just went to contract on "Sunnyside," a circa 1880s gingerbread cottage
in Bayside Village, Northport, Maine


Bayside is to the Mid-coast of Maine what Oak Bluffs is to Martha's Vineyard.

Both started out as Methodist tent-revival communities, both are now sought-after summer communities for multi-generational families and urban refugees who are looking for a quiet place to hang their hats for a week or two in August.

We are slated to close on October 2nd. I am very excited, for this is another great property to add our portfolio. Frankly, I need a project, since my business went South about the same time that Washington Mutual failed. I am going crazy trying to keep busy...but now I have to keep busy to get this place ready for the rental season next year.

I like Sunnyside for it's location. It is a well- situated cottage, having its original front doors opening onto Merithew Square with a great view towards other cute cottages.

This is the view from the front doors, the cottage second from the one on the right is now purple!

While the back of the cottage looks straight down Clinton Avenue at the Bay.

This is the view from the back deck, I have already contacted CMP so I can find out how to get the power lines buried.

The present owners expanded the cottage around 2002 and added about 200 square feet to the back of the house, facing the water, creating a really nice interior space, but giving us a challenge from the back to make the house look good.

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They did all the hard stuff: raised it on a foundation, put in new windows, tore out the interior walls and reframed the house from the interior. It is almost completely gutted, including the removal of the fireplace and the chimney.

What is on our plate now is to complete the gutting by taking out the remaining walls upstairs and the fireplace wall (non supporting) downstairs. Our plan is to open up the downstairs into more of a loftlike space so that one can see the water from the front doors. We need to insulate and rebuild the interior: New bathroom new kitchen, new walls...beadboard and v-match...to give it that cottage look. We have to repaint the exterior and landscape what bit of land there is around the house. I think the maple trees need to be trimmed out front towards the square.

The front needs a gingerbread balestrade. The corbels are painted fiberglass...they look real, and we'll probably keep them. With the new paint job, I think they will stand out so beautifully.

We will buy the place furnished, a time honored tradition in Bayside. There is a some great usable stuff in the house, but there is also a lot of stuff that can go to raise money to furnish the house in a cuter, more renter friendly manner. Like Little Bohemia it is my goal to make this house not only renter friendly, but when the time comes, turnkey seller friendly.
So, Columbus Day Weekend brings a giant estate sale to Bayside!!!

More soon!