From Eye Sore to Dream She-Shed

In June we made the choice to move our little family from our home of three years, to a home in the country with ten acres and a pond.

  For the last few months, life has been a true adventure.  We've had to quickly learn how to deal with taking care of property, a pond, critters, leaves, tree branches....the list goes on and on.  

 It's been fun and a learning experience and I feel like we're finally making some progress and starting to settle in to life in the 'country'.  

Today I'm writing about a project I started in August.  

There's a little 'house' or shed on the property near the pond.  It was one of the features I fell in love with when we found this house.  I've always wanted a barn, that will come later, but for now I have this fun little 'pond house' that needed a serious makeover.

These pictures are from the listing and show you what I started with.   

This is how the inside looked before

Fast forward a few months.....I put a lot of thought into what I wanted this little house to look like  inside and out.   I began working on the outside first.  The outside seemed like the best place to start.

I chose a barn red color for the outside with bright white trim.  I painstakingly painted the exterior, which took me a week.  

The exterior hadn't been painted in at least 15 years and it ended up needing painting four coats of red paint. 

 I have a love/hate relationship with red paint.  I love the color, but painting this little house red was a lot more work and time than I thought it would be.  

Here's an in-progress picture.   

The little pond house, stands out now, rather than hiding in the shadows.

If I have any advice for you, it would be do your prep.  Tape and cover what needs to be protected, use a sturdy ladder and by all means please use gloves or your hands will end up looking like mine did!

This is how the exterior of the little pond house looks now.  It has new paint, trim color and lighting on the outside.  I added marquee lights around the outside of the house and now it looks like a shining star!

The color....I love the color!!  

Now, fast forward to the inside.   I'll be honest, I was dreading painting all this shiny, pine v-board paneling.  I talked to my painter and his advice was to tape and protect everything and use my paint sprayer.  

Here's how it looked inside before I started painting.

 This is how it looked after a few hours of taping up the windows.

 I should mention here it was about 1000 degrees and humid in September when I chose to paint the inside with no ventilation!  This was a JOB.....it wasn't pleasant, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Here's how it looked after a couple of coats of primer and bright white latex paint.

This is how I looked after I was finished with four coats of paint and primer on the inside.   

Words of advice, wear a hat, long sleeves, long pants and gloves.....do NOT wear your glasses when you're using a paint sprayer!  I completely forgot I had them on until it was too late.  Always wear a respirator as well when painting in a room with no ventilation.  

I don't have any pictures of replacing the flooring.  I ripped out the disgusting old carpet and laid a vinyl, plank 'wood' look floor.  It's perfect for this space and really lightens it up.

The hours and days and weeks of work were all worth it.   I couldn't be happier with how the little pond house, she-shed looks now!!  

Here she is all done and ready for her close-up

This is now a bright, airy, peaceful spot to sit and relax.  

The little pond house, she-shed is now a place to relax, watch the wildlife, listen to music, read or just hang out.  

This is my favorite view from the pond house, watching Hunter drive the paddle boat around the pond.  

This is my happy place.  Living here, surrounded by nature has been exactly what I needed.

Like anything I do, I dove in feet first and hoped I'd figure it out along the way. 

 I discovered a lot about myself while working on this little 'house'.  I hadn't taken on a project like this before. I loved the challenge of working on this from beginning to end by myself.  

Now when I look outside and see the little pond house I'm reminded of the hard work it took to transform this from an ugly ducking to a beautiful swan.  

 I was nervous every step of the way working on this project, but I knew in my heart it would look great when it was finished.   What once was a bit of an eye sore, is now a comfortable place to relax, kick back and take in the beautiful surroundings. 

I'd love to hear about your projects.  Tell me about a project that made you nervous. 

Thank you for reading!

Melody