MY BIG BEAR LAKE COTTAGE RENOVATION – PART 4
Hi there!
It’s been a while since I gave you an update on my Big Bear Cottage Renovation. As I have mentioned several times, the cottage is now finished and is available as a vacation rental here. But, since I wasn’t blogging when I did the renovation, I am taking you along on a sentimental journey of the process of turning this ugly duckling……
into a beautiful swan, which we now affectionately call The Bird’s Nest.
In the last post we left off at the window replacement stage, where I showed you my beautiful new Milgard windows going in.
After the windows were installed, the plumber got busy removing all the old galvanized pipes, replacing them with copper pipes.
And the electricians got busy replacing the old electrical wires with all new wiring.
Renovation is a very messy business. And, for some reason, most of the tradesmen are very poor at cleaning up after themselves. So, I became a one-woman cleanup crew. It is a thankless job!
I would leave the place sparkling clean one day……
only to return the next to find the never ending, perpetual junk pile. I got to know the operator of the local dump quite well.
So, as I was saying……once the electrical and plumbing was complete, it was time to insulate. Mind you, this cottage, located next to a ski resort at 7,000 feet altitude, had never been insulated! So we rectified that problem.
And we even added insulation to the ceiling and interior walls. I like my mountain cottages toasty warm in winter! The problem was that the insulation crew failed to follow my instructions to leave the ceiling joists exposed. I was mortified when I returned to find them covered in plastic!
I wanted the old wood, with its beautiful patina, to be reborn as exposed beams.
So, the ceiling had to be redone. It’s always something!
Finally, we were able to start on the drywall. Previously the walls had been made of flimsy plywood.
Now they would be insulated and drywalled for the first time in their 67 years.
The final process was to texture the walls with a hand-applied plaster coat.
And, as you can see, by this time the carpenter had delivered the custom cabinets, made to fit the galley kitchen to perfection.
So, stay tuned. In a future post I’ll show you how we tiled the kitchen and finished it to look like this!
Thanks for stopping in. Come again soon, ya hear!
PS – My Big Bear Lake Cottage is featured on Sunset.com! Click here to see it!
If you happen to live in the Big Bear area, here is a list of the contractors I used for this portion of my cottage renovation:
GENERAL CONTRACTOR | Hans Auer – 909-585-6348 (Han’s did the demolition for me. I acted as my own General Contractor but I highly recommend Hans)
PLUMBING & HEATING | Dave Manning – 909-273-9143 (Dave’s the best!)
ELECTRICAL | Andy Sturgeon Electric – 909-831-4438 (Very professional, great work)
INSULATION | Apple Valley Insulation – 760-244-8856 (They work all over the high desert & mountain communities)
DRYWALL | Steve Smith Drywall Company – 909-338-0948 (Steve also works in the Lake Arrowhead Area)
REAL ESTATE AGENT | Maureen Auer – Keller Williams – 909-866-4100
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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. All photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission.
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