Hooked On -- Getting YOUR beach house design advice!

I've come to pick your brains!
Read on, if you dare. . . .
or if you have lots of patience!

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Forty years ago, on a snowy February Sunday, my Dad saw a brief classified ad in the Sunday New York Times real estate section, and he took my mother on a ride out to eastern Long Island. My mother called at dusk: "Get your own dinners, kids. Your father and I just bought a beach house, and we're going out to celebrate!"

Since then, the house has gone from tiny beach cottage, to bigger beach cottage, to beach cottage with a sleeping loft, to completely-gone beach cottage with a new house in its place.

Today, I am hooked on getting your ideas about giving this house a mini-makeover.

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Thanks to Julia of Hooked On Houses for her "Hooked On...." Friday blog party! Julia also has a beach house blog, and I'm going to steal a look at that for inspiration, too.

Click here to see what others are hooked on this Friday!

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Take a look at this light fixture:

It hangs in the beach house dining area, and before that it was in my childhood home, and before that in my Grandmother's dining room. It is old slag glass, and I think its palette of soft creams and whites, with clear blues and greens would be a lovely palette for this house on the water. What do you think?

Please take a look at the pictures that follow (oy, there are a lot!)
and let me know if you have any insights, inspirations, advice or ideas!

Hop in the Jeep, we're heading out to the beach house.
It's in need of a facelift, and you ladies are my consultants!

Here's the right turn off the Main Road and onto the dirt right-of-way. Slow! Avoid the puddles.

Round the bend. You can just glimpse a little beach cabin to the left; my parents bought that years ago for overflow guests, but sold it when they built the larger house upon retiring. . .

Pardon the glare from the Jeep's windows!

We are finally here:

In we go, through the side entrance, into the kitchen:

Waterside homes are built "backwards."
The street or driveway side is the rear of the house; the side that faces the water is the front.

The ceiling fixtures are all real antique school house lights that my father re-wired. Lovely white glass!

There's a long empty wall in the kitchen, and we put Dion's ex-pen there for today. My mom had a table here, but it was too wide. I'm thinking. . . a moveable "island" that can be pushed out on the deck? Or a skirted counter, maybe only 18-inches deep, that will bring a cottage-y note into the kitchen, and provide storage underneath for chowder pots?

Take a look:

Here are some shots of the living-dining room:

And into the first floor master bedroom, visible at the bottom of the stairs, above.

The master is a soft pink.

It needs fresh paint, as does the whole house. The master bath:

The living room, from the master doorway:

(That's my clutter of paint color fan decks and notebook on the sofa.)

Walk out onto the first floor deck, look to the left, say Hi to the neighbors:

And to the right, past the dock, and out into Peconic Bay:

See that strip of sand in the distance? It's a lovely empty beach, great for swimming and kite flying.

Now... upstairs we go, and at the top of the stairs we find a sitting area.
You are not seeing double -- it is very similar to the one downstairs!

More pictures of the second floor, including up to the 3rd floor loft (favorite spot for children; they love bungee-jumping toys off the railings -- my Dad taught them how!).

There are also pictures of the three bedrooms, and the views from the upstairs deck:

And you see this old Southern pie safe, below? It is mine, and heading to That Old House one of these days. My Dad hates this piece - thinks it's junk. My Mom kept it in the basement in the winter house and I loved it even when I was a child.

Back down on earth, having taken lots of pictures and copious notes as to what needs doing, and what is fine as is. Howard and Dion take a moment to sit on the porch steps and look at the water. . . .

Inside again and Dion doesn't realize we've left his pen open and he's free to roam. I think he's tired; he had a good walk, and visited with a Golden Retriever, a Sheltie, and lots of human neighbors.

So -- that's our family beach house. It was for sale, but is off the market now and we are going to use it. My sister Peggy and I are coming up with some simple fixes, as it does need refreshing.

We're thinking maybe soft pale watery blue walls in living, dining and kitchen areas, white ceilings, filmy white draperies (maybe hung from metal poles, with grommets? rather nautical) and new flooring throughout the first floor -- possibly bamboo?

Does anyone have any experience with bamboo flooring?
Humidity is not a huge problem; the house is raised above the ground, and very airy.

Upstairs, new paint -- pastels in the bedrooms, maybe a buttery cream in the double height family room and loft. White walls are too stark in this house, I think; there are water views from every window, even the 3 bathrooms have water views, and the light is intense. But I do like colors that reflect light rather than absorb it.

Can you think of other palettes? Kitchen ideas?

Painting the cabinets is not an option -- my sister loves them as is, and so does my Dad. But we need new countertops, as the old ones are worn out. And what about that long empty kitchen wall?

Furniture is an issue as most of the good things are gone, into our houses or Dad's apartment. We'll use as much of what is left as we can, but we will need to add beds at the very least!

We need new deck furniture, too, and it must be HEAVY so it doesn't blow off the deck in a gale. There's a solid wooden glider on the upstairs deck, and it is lashed to the railings, because it used to skitter across the deck in a good stiff breeze!

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Back in New Jersey . . .

Alida and I have made excellent progress painting our porch furniture for That Old House! I'm hoping I can transform the Awful Truth porch (here!) into a thing of beauty by Monday. A glimpse of the wonders to come. . .

What? What?? Isn't red mulch the latest fad in gardening?

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On Wednesday afternoon, Anne and Alida returned from London where they'd had a fabulous time. And the very next morning, we took Anne to the airport to catch a flight to Guam.

Good-bye, Annie! Love the Prague tee shirt from last summer's singing gig!

Off she goes, luggage in tow, and her sister
trailing along to use the (ahem) facilities at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport. . . .

Turns out Anne was on the inaugural non-stop flight from NY to Tokyo for Delta Airlines, and got a set of commemorative chopsticks as a memento. Happily, Anne likes to use chopsticks!

Mr. Dion DiPoochy says all this traveling and decorating and painting sounds just too, too exhausting.
His recommendation is: take a nap.

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Thanks to Julia for hosting ... her "Hooked On Houses" blog is a favorite.

Happy Friday! I hope our rain stops before the weekend -- Cass