10 Cuttin Sage

Today is a dreary, rainy day, but oh how lush and green everything is looking! Rain brings life and life brings beauty and creation. This Sunday afternoon has been a pleasant day of rest. If it weren’t raining I would be out yet again, in my losing battle of pulling weeds in the vegetable garden and flower beds. There is a never-ending competition between the good plants (those bought or sown, planned, and planted) and the evil plants (weeds, weeds, and more weeds of every variety, shape, color and texture).  The real war that rages, however, is with the honeysuckle that is attempting to literally (and I literally mean literally) overtake our 2 acre homestead!  I read yesterday that goats LOVE honeysuckle. I wonder if I could borrow or rent one for the summer and maybe FINALLY get the honeysuckle under control!  I mean, it’s getting to be a real problem! Here I go again, getting off track in my blog about a beach house. Oh well.. Today I’ve had time to think, which is...

Today I went shopping for the last few items needed to stock our beach cottage.  I was almost sad as I considered that we’re nearing the end of this project.  Even though we’re starting a new chapter of being vacation home-owners, the planning and design process is nearing an end.   We now have renters booked for 8 weeks this summer!  If we get 4 more, my husband says that we will have made a successful investment the first year already!!!  What have I learned in all of this? That I really love doing this. If we can make a “go” of this investment, I’m already thinking of the next one because I love to think ahead. The reality is, 10 Cuttin Sage won’t accomodate our family forever. We can go now and take our 2 daughters with 2 friends and fit very comfortably in the house.  After all, it sleeps 6. In the future, it will be 2 daughters with 2 husbands.  Someday there will be 2 daughters, 2 husbands, and grandbabies (hopefully and God willing)! Therefo...

Last Wednesday afternoon, April 3, we hit the road with a packed and loaded Tahoe hauling a packed and loaded U-haul.  I had a little vision of the Beverly Hillbillies  floating through my head as we headed down to Ocracoke Island.   After a night at the Orville and Wilbur Wright Days Inn Motel in Kitty Hawk, we got up early and drove the rest of the way to Ocracoke and arrived at the house around 9 am Thursday morning.  Fortunately we were able to unload everything before the Manteo Furniture truck arrived early afternoon to deliver the rest of the new stuff for the house.  God also blessed us by holding off on the rain until everything was inside the house!  So now I have inside photos and no one has to suffer through my feeble attempts at artsy photography anymore!!!!!! Almost ready to roll! Just arrived! New siding, new doors and windows, new shed roof!!! Living room photo  #1 Living room photo #2 Dining r...

Today is Maundy Thursday. In case you haven’t heard of it, it is the day of Christ’s last supper with his disciples and the night He was betrayed. It represents a day of solemn reflection on the horrific sacrifice He made to take the punishment for our sins. There is a feeling of patient anticipation as we wait four days for the Good News of Easter Sunday when all hopes and dreams are fulfilled in His resurrection.  I’ve learned lately that God often wants us to wait for things.  Sometimes having to wait on God makes our longing for things ever deeper. Sometimes the waiting is agonizing.  Sometimes the waiting brings tears and frustration. But always, if we allow it, waiting makes our faith ever so much stronger; and the bringing about of the thing dearly longed for is ever so much sweeter. As these interminably long days, when it seems like winter will neve r end, slowly turn into spring, we have proof that God always comes through for us no matter what.  His an...

Another thing I love (besides chairs), is paint colors! I think it would be a blast to work for a paint manufacturer, designing new colors and then naming them! I guess that would be an odd career to have, but I could really get into it! Now, the walls are almost all bead board in our cottage. To me, there is only one way to paint bead board walls.....WHITE!  Crisp, clean, fresh looking, white. Do you know how many different shades of white there are?? Hundreds.  Fortunately, I already have my favorite white. I chose it years ago!  It’s a Benjamin Moore color and it’s called.... Simply White!  Perfect name for a perfect color!  Not too blue, not too yellow, not too warm, not too cool, just right white!  It probably doesn’t make sense to rave about colors and then talk about white. But white is a color to me and it makes a very important statement in the decorating scheme.  With a clean white background, the colors on the furniture and artwork will ...

I’m so very excited about our new...old dining room set!  It's vintage Drexel Heritage, circa 1950’s. My parents bought it soon after their wedding; the first really nice set of furniture they purchased.  It is solid pecan with a blonde finish, it seats 6 and has a very cute hutch with it. The set has been handed down over the years to my big brother and his wife when they first set up housekeeping, then my little brother and his wife when they first set up housekeeping, then on to other extended family members and finally ended up in a storage unit for about 8 years.  My mother was on the verge of donating it to a homeless shelter, but I suggested keeping it in the family in case any of the grandkids needed it in their apartments, not knowing that we would soon be the new owners of 10 Cuttin Sage! We pulled it out of storage, had it lovingly restored, recovered the cushions with my new “fun” fabric and, VOILA!; trendy, vintage, dining room set!   The arm c...

Today is the second day of Spring, but it feels like the sixth thousandth day of winter! God gave us a little taste of warmth last Saturday, but winter came back full force the next day and it relentlessly won’t stop!!!! All I can think about is the next trip to Ocracoke Island and I hope and pray that the spring season will finally kick in when we go in April! There is good news:  the contractor is finishing up the inside this week and the painting begins next week!!!!  That means, the work will be completed in about 2 and a half weeks!  Our plan is to go down and finish painting the porch (that’s our job) and have furniture and appliances delivered and  basically start setting up the house for summer fun!