Now You, Too, Can Stay in the Little Blue House!

Fall Colours at the LBH

We have some big news to share with you... you heard it here first!

We will be opening the Little Blue House (LBH) to guests starting in June. Our tiny Gold Rush home will be available to rent through Airbnb from June until September. We were hesitant to do this at first, but it is too lovely not to share.

Plus, we think that the revenue we generate through some seasonal rentals will help us to finish the restoration of the LBH. So, that is a good thing.

And, we are quite sure that guests will take care of our 122-year old cottage, and that they will love it as much as we do.

Please share this news far and wide, and we would appreciate it if you share a link to our listing on Airbnb with any of your friends and family who may be planning a getaway to beautiful Atlin, BC!

Here is a link to our listing:

Stay in the Little Blue House!

The LBH in September, 2019

Painting Pics!

Here are some more photos of the painting going on at the LBH. I'd say we are about 80% done!

Here is what we were up against, quite literally...

We used a product called Lead Out by Blue Bear (formerly Franmar). This is great stuff that when properly applied to lead paint, reacts to convert it to non-hazardous lead sulphide. I'd recommend it to anyone. It was expensive, especially to a Yukoner, but cheaper than going crazy like those poor Romans...

After applying the stripper, we wrapped the house in plastic to let it blister in the sun, as the Violent Femmes would say...

Then we unwrapped one wall at a time, and scraped the paint off. The coved part of the siding was tricky, so my husband suggested spoons. A couple of old ones did the trick. Our arms felt noodle-like the following day. 

Me!

Almost finished scraping the last wall...

While I started priming and painting the north wall, my husband set to work with the orbital sander and sanding blocks fashioned to fit in the coved siding. Before priming:

After priming:

After painting the north wall (left side of house) and large front wall:

Jeff and Riley, our Irish Terrier!

That's where we are at now. Our trusty carpenter has just added several new pieces of primed siding and some trim (much of the old corner trim was rotten where it was contacting the earth).

Next, we will paint those bits and the remaining walls, trim, soffits, etc.

I am keen to get this project finished!

New Blue!

We are getting close to being finished with painting. If you've ever painted a house, you will understand that the work is all in the preparation. It's especially so when you have 118 years of lead paint removal to deal with!

We have completed the north wall, minus a few pieces of new siding that will be installed (removed due to rot when the foundation was redone). We also completed the main front wall of the house. I will post more pics in the coming week. It was precarious work. 

The two walls in the corner "L" are primed and ready for the new blue. The south wall, which was the most weather damaged, has been sanded. We still haven't done any trim or soffits...

How does it look so far?

Bay Window Panels are Done!

We chose colours for the exterior of the LBH a while back... We were going to paint last summer & then we kinda got lazy. So we didn't paint the house. We actually sat around and drank beer. 

However, we designed decorative panels to go under each leaded glass window in our "bay window room," facing First Street in Atlin. Then our trusty carpenter built them for us! He installed them last week, and they look amazing!

It gives you an idea of what the LBH will look like when the rest of the house is painted. At least then it'll be finished on the outside, right? That is our major project for this summer. It'd be great if we could build a small balcony for the front door, too...

We are very happy with how the panels look. Way to go, Rick! Thank you!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I have a good feeling about this year. 2016! The past several months have brought much change, for the good... I believe I'm going to have more time to spend at our LBH this year, working on the restoration, and blogging about it. 😊

I retired from my career as an airline pilot, which was taking over my life... Now I am enjoying more time with my family, living in the present (more than ever) and also reflecting on what will come next. Work of some kind, but I don't know yet... Certainly I will work on fixing up our tiny, former brothel - it needs more attention!

I wish you health & happiness in this new year!

Antique Bed

I finally cleared out the back bedroom enough to assemble this vintage bed. I found it on Kijiji last year. It was a steal! My husband made a platform to fit inside the frame, as it came without support rails or slats. It's an antique European size, a small single. We had to order a custom foam mattress to fit it. It's in this corner somewhat temporarily. I thought I'd share it with you though, because it looks pretty nice, doesn't it?