Our Minimal Mansion...on Vacation

Every year for my entire life, my family has taken a one week vacation to Fort Myers, Florida. Fort Myers is a special place for our family not just because we visit every year, but because we own a home there. Now, let me clarify, by "home" we are not talking about a beach house with a stocked mini bar and pool boy; no, we are talking about an early 1900's home that has been in my family for over four generations.

As you can imagine, the house has character. Within the house, there are four apartments, two of which my family rents out. One of the apartments is recently vacant, which we have decided to keep for our family to use. The last apartment has always been reserved for our family vacations and in past years has made a perfect spring break headquarters for countless college girls.







So why are we including a tidbit about our vacation in the MM blog, you ask? It's quite simple, really; we have a love for historic homes. Each year, my father takes a one-two week "vacation" down to Fort Myers. He spends well over half his trip working on the house. Anyone who owns a home knows that houses require your full dedication to maintain, especially when they are aged. Whether it is replacing screens, patching up walls or re-doing floors, the grand old Fort Myers house demands our family's full attention, vacation or not.



This year, Chris and I  wanted to help out as much as possible with the house. We love it and we want to do our part in helping preserve it for the next generation (the pig and the shih tzu, of course). While Chris was busy replacing ceiling tiles and monitoring a leaking pipe, I decided to give the bathroom of the recently vacated apartment a little face lift.

The canvas I had to work with was quite dismal; it had been occupied by a single guy (no offense guys), so it was completely void of color and actually kind of "blah".  In addition, the bathroom also faced several challenges that come with any old house; chipping paint, old wallpaper in various places and nail holes that are likely decades old.

Here are a few pictures of where we started with the bathroom project:

You can see how I felt there was a need for a change here.









so....a couple quarts of paint and one trip to the flea market later:

And there you have it....and afternoon of cleaning, painting and sprucing and it looks a little more comfortable than before. It isn't grand or luxurious but it will do. As we continue to slowly rehab and preserve the Fort Myers house, I am sure that this will be further updated. 

Moral to the story: a fresh coat of paint and a few accessories and you just might have yourself a decent looking powder room. 

Old homes require work and attention but they return your love ten fold; this house has a story (lots in fact) and more character than any beach bungalow with a mini bar and a pool boy. It is our little "minimal mansion" away from the Minimal Mansion.