Our IKEA Cottage

Last year, my landlord had some minor electrical work done on the house that I live in. He hired Pat Testa, a local electrician. I knew that Kevin and I would be shopping for an electrician come spring and I asked Pat for his business card. I’m so glad that I found Pat. We interviewed two electricians for this job. It was a tough decision because I liked and trusted both of them so much. But Pat is local. He lives only a short distance away in the Mulberry Point section of Guilford. We realized that he’d be only a quick phone call away if we had an emergency.

Pat met me at the cottage in mid-March. I told him – roughly – what we wanted done. The woman who owned this cottage previously shared this space with her mother – who was wheelchair-bound. The light switches and the switch for the air conditioning were in odd places, low to the ground, so that her mom could reach them. We decided to remove some of the switches and to raise up a few of the others. We also had to lower some of the outlets. And we wanted to add some accent lighting in various places. Pat was fabulous… very flexible and accommodating.

So… in the bathroom, we’re adding lights around the mirror. Pat wired those lights for us. I’m still deciding what lights to buy. I’m leaning toward this sconce – below – but haven’t made a final decision yet. It’s available at The Light Shop.

Pat also added a switch for these sconces as well. Plus we added an outlet next to the sink for blow dryers, curling irons, electric razors… whatever. We removed the overhead light from the bathroom because the ceiling is rather low and we didn’t want tall people bumping into the light in the middle of the night. OUCH! We wanted so very much to add recessed lighting in its place but it looks like it’s going to be tough. We don’t have enough room in the ceiling for recessed lighting. We bought Blixt recessed spotlights from IKEA but even they were too deep for our ceiling. Pat is trying to find us some puck lights but it doesn’t look promising.

In addition to the electrical work Pat did in the bathroom, he removed a very strange light switch from the bedroom. I called it “the lightswitch to nowhere” because it didn’t work. We had no idea what it was ever used for.

Kev ended up hiring Pat to put in a new service. We went from a 60 amp service to a 100 amp service. Our friend Pasquale took care of everything… getting the permit from the town… adding the service in only one day. It was – and still is – a pleasure to work with him. He’ll be coming back in a few weeks to install the outlets and switches.

Kevin closed on the cottage in August of 2007. So… before we began the renovations, we had a “Before Picnic.” Kev’s sister and her family came down from Middlebury to see the cottage in its “before” state. Then we had a fabulous dinner of steak, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and salad. We took a photo of the table. And I quickly took the “Before” photos seen here.

We didn’t begin any of the work on the cottage last fall. Now that spring is here, we’re making up for lost time. We gutted the bathroom and hired several professionals to assist us in our renovations. We’ve already made a few IKEA purchases… such as the sink and the under-sink cabinet. We bought the Hollviken sink and the Vattern cabinet with Lillan doors. Stay tuned. We’ll show you more photos and decorating ideas in the coming posts.