The Day Job

Aside from being a neglectful blogger, I also have a paying day job.
Which is actually the main reason I am a neglectful blogger.

My husband and I own and operate a vacation home rental business.

Sounds glamorous right?

It isn't.

A guest left this mess behind.  Guess who got to clean it up?

It's very hard work.
We manage about 20 homes and are responsible for making sure they are clean, lawns are mowed, insects are treated, repairs are completed and that guests, as well as owners, are happy and content.

Also we live about 2 hours from where we work so from March through September I spend a couple days each week traveling back and forth.

But there are perks.

Reckless photo taking while driving over a 2 lane road across the lake. Also my windshield is very dirty.

View from a recently added lake house.

View from one of my 'offices' every week whilst mopping 10,000 square feet of hard concrete flooring.

Still one of my favorite spaces.  Even though my photo skills are terribly lacking.

And now for some shameful self-promotion...

If you should find yourself in Texas and need a place to stay near a lake that is almost equidistant to Dallas and Austin, I invite you to check out the vast assortment of vacation homes we offer:
www.cabinsonlakewhitney.com

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Lake House Tour: Pine Cabin Before and After

As I have mentioned before, my husband and I own a vacation home rental business on Texas' beautiful 

Lake Whitney.

While we own a couple of the homes we rent out, most are owned by others and we manage the maintenance and renting of them for vacationers.

We recently began renting one of our homeowners homes from him so that we could continue renting it out for vacation purposes.

Since it's a rental we are limited to mainly cosmetic changes to make it our own.

I posted a little about our updating progress on that home here and here.

In addition to that limitation we also have to keep in mind that the home will undergo constant wear and tear by guests who spray soda on the ceilings and explode food in the microwave and then let it dry in there, children who touch doorknobs and everything else with sticky candy fingers and drunk people who can't remember if the lovely wool plaid blanket was already here or if they suddenly grew some taste and brought that from home.

It happens.

We also used a lot of the existing furnishings because we were lucky enough to have the homeowner rent it to us fully furnished (since he had already been renting it out through us as a vacation rental.)  

It's a really large home and having to buy all new furniture would have been very costly.
 I also like using what I already have as much as possible because it's environmentally efficient, too!

So, keep in mind...

This is NOT Thom Filicia's lakehouse!

Our lake house is located in a country town smaller than my daughter's high school where many of residents no longer possess all of their own teeth.

It's a simple country lake house with simple country lake house decor.

With some cool vintage items tossed in along with way too much Ikea to make it a bit more fresh and modern.

But, it's a lot of fun to hang out here with the fam and play Scrabble, and tetherball and drink wine and practice twerking at the end of a long day of working at the other lake houses!

Sean T and me at Pine Cabin

Scrabble and wine (and some duck face)

Early morning tetherball

Without further delay, I give you the BEFORE and AFTER photos of our new lake house, 

the Pine Cabin.

We didn't change any of the front yet but I might add some native, drought and deer resistant plants and a small bistro set to the tiny porch that is to left of the front door.

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER - Amazing, right?  Yeah, so, nothing really changed because you can't do much in here if you can't paint the bananas out of those wood cabinets.  So, naturally, I just added a couple of rag rugs.

Living Room BEFORE - That's a lot of blue and beige!

Living Room AFTER - I really wanted most of the seating and accent tables to be easily moved so that large families staying here could put them where they would be most convenient to whatever activity they were enjoying.

Living Room AFTER - Still on the look out for a pair of matching chairs for this room and some artwork

Bathroom BEFORE (and a great photo of my mom looking horror struck!) - Post about this room with details here

Bathroom AFTER

Bedroom 1 BEFORE

Bedroom 1 AFTER

Bedroom 2 BEFORE

Bedroom 2 AFTER - Obviously another side table is needed and better lamps

Bedroom 3 BEFORE

Bedroom 3 AFTER - Still have some plans for this room including a shelf and some artwork above the bed

Bedroom 4 BEFORE (and a shameless yet unintentional plug for our business)

Bedroom 4 AFTER - My FAVORITE room in the house!

Bedroom 5 BEFORE

Bedroom 5 AFTER - It's hard to tell form this photo how cute this room is but when it's finished I'll try to get some better angles!

2nd Living Room BEFORE

2nd Living Room AFTER

2nd Living Room AFTER

2nd Living Room AFTER

2nd Living Room AFTER - Yeah, this is a big, L-shaped room so you needed to see all the different angles to really get a feel for it.

Dining Room - No changes here but I may add a rug and/or some artwork down the road

Deck Overlooking Backyard - We only added the patio umbrella but I would love to add some potted plants that require no care whatsoever - do those exist???

The Backyard - We added Adirondack chairs around the fire pit and recently added a cushioned hammock, tetherball and horseshoes.  It's like a backyard bonanza for old people!

Even though this isn't necessarily intended to be a post about using what you have or working with a rental home, I still hope this post will help inspire readers who are either renters themselves or who have less than ideal furnishings to explore ideas on how to brighten and freshen what you already have without spending a fortune.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

    

Small Town Lake House Summer

We have exactly 5 days left until the kids are officially on summer vacation.

For my kids, summer is the most magical 3 months of the entire year.

And they don't even care that summer in Texas is hotter than volcanoes in hell!

For me summer is complete madness.

It's the busiest time of the year for our vacation rental business.

And the stress can be re-lent-less.

But, for some reason, I am still enamored with the idea of summers spent in a small lake town...

Old farts that drive old trucks

Junk shops flea markets on the side of the road

Tiny churches (with handicapable parking spaces on the grass?)

Tiny cows...also called GOATS

Sparkling lake water

Tree tunnels

Mimosa trees

Tiny lake house cabins

with front porches and porch swings and stump tables

Backyards with fire pits and hammocks under shade trees

Doesn't it all just feel so simple?

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Lakehouses & Country Houses Are Not Always Relaxing

Last night around 10:30 I finally got around to reading a few of my favorites blogs.

Coincidentally, 2 of them were about lake houses or country houses.

You can check them out here and here.

Most people associate a lake house or country house with escape and relaxation.

Such is not the case for me.

We own lake houses.

In the country.

3 of them to be exact.

Plus 15 others that we take care of for other homeowners.

That's because my husband and I own a vacation home rental business on Lake Whitney in Texas.

Actually, while I was reading Jenny's and Bailey's posts yesterday it was at the end of a 12 hour day that my mom and I had spent at our newest lake house getting it RE-ready for rental (more about that later.)

 

Our 6am selfie

One thing to note...my Mom had just spent 2 days (one of which was Mother's Day) helping clear massive amounts of branches and brush at one of our other lake houses.

Not exactly a day at the spa.

Relaxing at the lake house is a rarity for us.

Here is how we spent our day at the lake house yesterday:

My car loaded with a 'few' items - this was with ALL seats down except the front ones we were sitting in and I didn't even include the photos of the attached trailer that contained multiple bed frames and mattresses.

My mom painting the formerly green and pink sponge painted bathroom.

One of the 4 bedrooms we are sprucing up - it's not quite finished but I am really excited about how this one is coming along!

We have big plans for the HUGE backyard!  Just the addition of this table and umbrella made a huge difference.  And made me want to stay and drink wine while watching the little deer wander through the yard.

We still have lots of work to do before this place is 'finished' but it's coming along nicely.

After being gone all day yesterday I came home to a total of 66 emails/phone that had to be addressed so extra time is a precious commodity right now.

I am hoping to share before and after pics of everything once we are done but it's our busy rental season so blogging, unfortunately, is low on the priority list.

But, keep checking back or follow me on Intsagram for up to the minute lake house updates!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney