The Cape House

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!! Thanks go out to all our service men and women (past and present) who work hard and put their lives on the line everyday to keep us safe.

Yay, summer is unofficially here! To me, Memorial Day weekend means one thing....opening up our beach house for the summer. And by our, I mean my parents:) I'm pretty lucky...about 13 or 14 years ago, my parents fulfilled one of their lifelong dreams, buying a summer home on Cape Cod. And since its fairly close to where P and I live, I'm pretty much there every weekend during the summer. It's awesome....my mom cooks for me, I go sailing with my dad, we barbecue, drink margaritas on the deck, read on the porch, walk the dog down to the beach, mini-golf, go for ice-cream, even hit up the double feature drive-in movie theater!

So when Memorial Day hits every year, we are usually spring cleaning the Cape house since its been closed for the winter, dragging all the deck furniture out from the garage, working on the flowerbeds, fun stuff like that:) This year is a bit different though...because over the winter my parents had the house completely renovated! I'm talking gutted....added an addition (master suite), turned the garage into a new kitchen, finished the upstairs so its now a 4 BR house instead of a 2, and my favorite part....added 1 and 1/2 new baths (the house used to only have one). I'm so excited!!!

The movers are coming today to unload all the furniture that was in storage over the winter while the renovation was completed. I'm heading down there after work today (cross your fingers that I can get out early and that I don't get stuck in too much holiday traffic on the way there). I told my Dad to take lots of photos before they started moving everything in so that I can show you guys next week!

I'm going to have to conduct a thorough search through all our old photos (I'm talking shoe boxes at my parents house) to find some good before shots for you. But for now, I found this little gem of P and I, my brother and sister, and some of my cousins on my computer. Ignore us (we're the ones in front) and focus on what little of the house you can see (this is from about 4 years ago). The garage is now the kitchen and the screened in porch (that little section in the middle with the really old windows) has been converted into part of the inside living space which now connects the old main part of the house to the new kitchen.



Here's a shot of the new front of the house that was taken a few weeks ago. Since then the front door has been painted a colonial red (and eventually I think they will get black shutters). This is a completely new roof line and there were no dormers before. Excuse the terrible shape of the grass/yard, that will be one of our jobs this summer:) New natural Cape Cod shingles are always this light warm wood color when they first go up and fade and turn to gray with age.




Here you can see the after of the old screened in porch and garage. Right behind the white fence is a tiny brick patio which leads in to the new entryway. The garage door wall (new kitchen) has been filled in and now there's a cool new window with a copper roof. (Mom's Mother's Day gift this year was a 5 ft. long black window box from Grandin Road which we are going to put up under the window.)





I can't wait to get there tonight and see how everything looks!!! We're in for a major weekend of unpacking and arranging furniture but I think we can still fit in a few margaritas on the new, much larger back deck (pics to come)!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy barbecuing:)