My New “TINY” Lakeside Cottage

While I have hinted that Mr. Mobile Cottage and I have been knee-deep in another project, I now want to share with you our journey of transforming our latest Tiny Lakeside Mobile Cottage (referred to in future posts as my Tiny Lakeside Cottage)

Coming in a whopping 350 square feet, our latest renovation project has tested almost every aspect of our renovation knowledge and skill set and the journey is well from over yet.

While we LOVE our cottage abode I’ve been blogging about, we are landlocked in the city and yearned for a little place on or near the water that could serve as a secondary home.  Then one day, I saw an ad for a sad-looking, but permanent RV located on a lake that with proximity a little over an hour from our cottage.  While I knew it might potentially be just the little escape we had been looking for, convincing Mr. Mobile Cottage that it was worth looking at took some coaxing.  But being a good sport, he reluctantly agreed, and the rest, as they say, is history.  Smitten with a gorgeous lake view, we quickly scarfed up this tiny abode and hoped for the best, after all, it was being sold, AS-IS!

Our lake view!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best way to describe this tiny place is that it is an older RV permanently stationed now with an enclosed carport, shed and lakeside porch.  Needless to say, being only 350 square feet, and never having renovated a space so small, this was going to be challenging.  Couple that with what we have since discovered during our renovation and this might just be our biggest challenge yet!  But with a wealth of determination to make this into our dream Lakeside Cottage, we forged ahead with a strict budget and started the transformation.

RV outside “before” after initial deep cleaning and debris cleanup

Another view – YIKES!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both the inside and obviously the outside of this place needed a lot of work.  Shoddy renovations, a “leaning” RV and general neglect had left this lakeside gem seeing better days.  First, we needed to usher the critters that had decided to take up residence back outside.  A deep cleaning all around coupled with a hearty dose of bug bombs took care of almost all the critter problems, but the “additions” had not been properly sealed up, actually, nothing had been sealed up properly for years, thus water and everything else had been handed a “welcome mat” to come on in.  Twenty (yes, 20) tubes of caulk later combined with a ton of other work,  and everything for the most part is now sealed up .

We have a LONG way to go, but progress is being made and our tiny Lakeside Cottage is starting to come into view.  And while the budget has been stretched to the limit and we still have a ton of renovations yet to do, we are making time to enjoy our tiny lakeside cottage all the while contemplating how to complete the renovations on the cheap.

With that in mind, I wanted to leave you with a picture of the freshly painted exterior of the tiny cottage to give you an idea of some of what we have accomplished thus far.  Taking simply what was already there and reinventing it, coupled with 2 gallons of gray and one gallon of white paint , our tiny escape has started its initial transformation.

After painting and “reworking” lattice!

Even with the massive amount of work this tiny cottage has required (and what we still have to do), we have no regrets on purchasing this tiny cottage.   With our renovation vision of this tiny space slowly becoming reality, we are looking forward to being able to “escape” to our lakeside cottage and loving every minute we are there!  Stay tuned….many more reveals coming soon!