Renovations/Exterior


We bought this little wood ski chalet when we were expecting our second child
and not a lot of money to go around for making it all..... pretty.

As you can see it is a little wood house and as you cannot see it is on a road facing the ski hills. So the location was ideal for a young growing family. But the problems with the design of the house both inside and out left me far from comfortable with the purchase. However, you know what happens at that point.....oh yah....budget! Budget seems to speak the loudest.

So with some reassurance from my father, the handyman, we moved forward with the purchase and we have been here ever since!

I love the colour blue but on the exterior of a house it has to be a particular blue for me and there was just too much blue going on for me all over this house. So our goal was to soften it up and make it fit in with the surroundings. Trees all around the property, a pond in front of the house and the ski hills in the distance. There were some pressing security issues that we knew we would have to deal with at some point as well. The deck was the first on the list. So, off it came and up went one much larger and more practical.
The old deck had the entrance to the house off the back of the deck which was awkward.


This has been one of our favourite renovations as we have enjoyed many mornings and evenings here. The x-design is one that is common to old farmhouses around Québec.


Second step was to replace the sliding patio doors with french doors. I also painted the shutters in a charcoal grey to tone down the blue exterior as well as adding another board to make the shutters wider. All of these were temporary measures but as you can see by the changing seasons, temporary can last awhile in renovations.









Since we now had a lovely front deck for eating and enjoying the outdoors we knew we would need screen doors. So, we had the screen doors made to match the wood french doors that we installed.
Apparently wood doors are not that popular so we paid very little for the French doors (650$which includes an internal lock set) which led us to buy two sets so that we could install some in our soon-to-be dining room.  That meant starting a proposed future project earlier than planned.  Yikes, that is not always good on the pocket book in the immediate but later on it served us well when we were ready to turn this room into a diningroom.
So, finally it came down to a new deck, new design....loose the "wings" on the side of the house, French doors, new and large window above the French doors, matching screen doors and no shutters. The latter was a tough one that actually saw our neighbours discussing in front of the house. But, that is an easy to do later if we choose. I have been tempted to place black shutters up but not yet convinced. If I do then they will need to be 'real' and not the fake decorative type.

Oh, there is always more you could do, but this completed the outdoors and meanwhile we were spending money indoors..... right this way

5 comments:

  1. This answers some of my "outside and how did you get there to begin with" questions and I look forward to seeing some "way before" photos of your interior. I'm enchanted with this house and think all your renovations are brilliant!

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    1. Ahh good, well there is still a lot to do on the exterior. I have plans for a proper entry but will need to save hard for that one. Hmmm...inside photos. I have some but few of them on my computer. You certainly do inspire me Jill to get my act together and record all of this. I will start scanning. They are quite interesting photos though since the floors were a mess in here with a bit of this and a bit of that...really crazy.

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  2. Is the room with the yellow fabric your kitchen... Lovely :)

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    1. In the kitchen tour you do see a room with yellow striped fabric and that is a pantry that we designed off of our kitchen. We do use it though for all the 'appliances' that it holds....toaster, food processor etc. So, yes, it is part of the kitchen.

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  3. That is a remarkable exterior makeover. I love that you accomplished such a great change over time and with a budget in mind. Your location looks so pretty.

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