I have this thing about painting. I would very much like to be the kind of woman that just goes ahead and paints some walls when she feels like it. But I am not. At all. I tend to procrastinate when I really need to paint and I never paint for fun. I think it has something to do with perfectionism. At least that’s what I was thinking when I finally painted the walls of the guest room this Sunday.
We’ve known D. was coming to visit since. August, so it should have been done a long time ago. But I first needed to accept (yes, there’s that word again) that the result would be better-looking walls, not perfection. And I needed to accept that I make a giant mess while painting. No matter how many precautions I take, I always end up with paint all over myself and usually over the floor also. But hey. We do have a shower (though it’s kind of cold this time of year – no boiler, less sun) and the floor is tiled, so easily scrubbed clean.
Anyway. Long story short, I painted the guest room.
D. was going to arrive on Tuesday. We already ordered the bed on December 29th, but the delivery service was having a Christmas break, so it arrived on Tuesday. I went shopping for curtains and bedding on Monday and I also did a second layer of paint that day, so we had to do all the decorating (and bringing all the books back in) on Tuesday. Yes, that’s cutting it close.
But it all worked out. When D. arrived, the room was waiting for her. And I really like how it looks.
Especially compared to what we started with last May…

Before:

We put in a window, replaced the bars and ripped out and replaced the ceiling last year.
During:

And this is what it has looked like ever since – until last Sunday:

But now it looks like this.

It still needs something on the walls and those books will be on shelves eventually, but for now, I’m very happy with it.

Last Sunday we managed to finally install the last ceilings in our house. That makes such a difference!

You’ve already seen the bedroom and the kitchen. A few weeks ago we worked on the guest room.
Before:

After:

And the week after that we did the entry room. (Please ignore the mess, working on it)
Before:

After:

Then things got to a halt. Tired, work, you know, life happening. But I really, really wanted those ceilings to be installed before we go to The Netherlands, because you know, it’s nice to return in a home that is just a little bit “done” instead of feeling overwhelmed by “the list” the moment we enter.
So we decided to stop waiting until we felt up to it and just get to work. And that was the right way to handle it.

We started with the big bathroom, because there was still a bat living there and I wasn’t too happy about it doing flybys early in the morning.
Before:

After:

Then we did the hallway that leads to the bedrooms and the small bathroom.
Before:

After:

By then I was really, really tired, but T. was on a roll and there was only that one little bathroom left to finish.

Before:

After:

Next step: lamps! We bought them already on Monday and I think T. will find time to install them next weekend. So excited about that. I know it will take a long time before our house is really finished, but ceilings and lamps are a big step towards the finish line. At least that’s how I feel about it right now. And it will be great to return to a house that has them after Christmas.

So, let me warn you first. Don’t let all those pictures of the view from our house fool you. We’re not rich people. We can’t afford to buy a beautiful perfect house in a resort.
We did get lucky and found a fixer-upper in our price range that has the most beautiful view and quite a lot of land. But that comes with a price.
Before you look at these pictures you have to ditch the idea of the Caribbean dream house. It will be, one day, but we’re on a very tight budget, so for now our efforts are purely aimed at making it acceptable to live in, not at design and style.
The house has been empty and neglected for years (we don’t know how long, but we guess over ten years). The owners did get rid of the thornbushes in the yard before putting it on the market and I suspect it has been sort of cleaned a few times. But most of the wiring was stolen, the waterpipes were taken too and there were bats living inside the house. That last part isn’t really worrying me, bats don’t like people, so they are already moving out, but they’re not the most housetrained pets you could have. So there are bat droppings all over the place. The place has also been infested by termites, wasps, bees and other insects over time and though those were all exterminated, the remains of it are still visible.

Anyway. This will be a great before to look at when time passes. Oh, also, these pictures were taken before we actually got the keys, so that’s why the front door is closed (we entered in the back).

So, this is the front room, where you enter the house. Those double doors go out to the front porch. See the bat droppings? Yuk! It’s also all over the walls.

When you come in there’s a bathroom/toilet to the right (so to the left in the picture above this one). It’s a nice size (there’s empty space to the right of the toilet, but a mess.

On the left (right in that first picture) there are these stairs. The left one goes up to the upper room.

They removed part of the floor to find a bees nest. The windows are missing, that’s why there’s wood in front of them.
I know… It’s a mess.
But this room has so much potential. It could be a master bedroom (there’s enough space to add a small bathroom), or a living room. We’re also thinking it might be a beautiful space for a home office.

Behind those doors there’s a big attic space, on a slightly higher level. The floor is where that wire is. We (we’re kind of tall) can stand up straight in about half of it, but we’re dreaming of raising the roof and opening it up to make a really big balcony. Someday. For now we need to get rid of the bats that seem to have moved into that space since we started working on the house.

You’ve already seen this picture, but that’s the view from this room. And that would also be the view from that big balcony.

When you go down from those stairs a few pictures back you find this little hallway. Two rooms to the right, bathroom straight ahead. Bat droppings again.

This is the small bathroom. No toilet, since the cesspit is on the other side of the house on a higher part of the lot (so connecting to that one won’t work). When we remodel this bathroom we might add a small cesspit on this side of the house, so we can add a toilet.

First (slightly bigger) bedroom.

Second bedroom. This where we entered that day. The window is missing and the bars are broken (they already were). When we got the keys, the first thing we did is replace those bars by more sturdy ones (from a window in the kitchen that you cannot reach without a ladder). We don’t want people to enter the house this way. We’re also looking for a window to replace the missing one.

Back to the stairs and up to the big entrance room.

This is the side porch, seen from the front. That door in the back goes to the big bathroom. The white thing is a water tank. It was full, so that’s what I’m using to clean. In the end I want all this gone and fill it up with plants and comfortable chairs.

Front porch seen from the side. You can see it’s a very big front porch, with an open kitchen at the end. We want to get doors for the kitchen, to be able to close it (you don’t want people to come and steal your equipment when you’re on the beach). You can also see part of the front doors on the right of this picture. Those will be replaced by sturdier ones. When we can lock the house safely, we’ll get rid of those bars on the front porch.

The kitchen, only five days before we got the keys. But one of the owners got to the house and took away the table, two of the chairs (you can see those in the picture above this one) and that lamp. They left behind a lot of other stuff (like the wine glasses in the green tub and a desk in the garage), so I don’t really understand why they did this. I would have liked to have that table and two chairs. They were weathered, but sturdy.
Oh well.

Our property (ending after the first row of trees) seen from the house (husband for scale).

And another corner (car for scale), with that amazing view (it’s even better in real life).

It will be so much fun to look back at these and see where we started!