Okay, you got me GOOD. lol. I was wondering who do these people think they are to demand a screened in porch? Nothing like fresh eggs, lucky you!

Now you have to show us a picture of the main house with the cottage behind it! Do you use the cottage? It's darling!

OMG! I was thinking "who are these renters and why are you letting them be so bossy!"

I dream of fresh eggs, so i think I'd be as accommodating as well.

And I love their names as well!

It all looks so nice!!!

I love this post! Your cottage is so charming and those changes you made look great. That alone was a treat. Then to see those cuties at the end! Wow, fresh eggs and adorable pets. I'm jealous.

Cuteness abounds! You really led us down the garden path with that one, Zipdee. :-) Please post pics again when the planting is done. What a treat!

Yep, got me too :-) Very cute tenants.

*LOL* Thanks for being good sports .. Glad you all liked the new renters as much as I do! :) I've always wanted a few backyard hens, my daughter's and I picked out Easter Eggers, so hopefully we'll have blue, green and possibly pink eggs. So far we've been enjoying them so much. They grow so, so very fast!! We picked them out 5 1/2 weeks ago as tiny, tiny fluff balls. I'm really excited to set myself up a potting shed too and have everything organized in one area, with my sink and potting table. Plus the whole area is going to look so much better when it's done, that shed addition always bugged me it was so blah!

Oakeyoak .. we just use the cottage for storage right now. If you look hard you can see kid's bikes hanging in the front window in this pic .. I need to put up some sheers. Next on my agenda is to put up a trellis on the left corner of the cottage, I planted a black eyed susan vine there and it will need something to climb on soon. I have a bunch of perennials I started from seed this spring, so hopefully next year I'll start to fill in these beds and the ones in front of the fence on the chicken run.

You can see the screened in 'porch' ( chicken run ) behind the fence here.

Here's our main house again, it's a much larger scale cottage type house. This is last summer, the front beds are totally different now. I enlarged them, removed the shrubs and planted 14 annabelle hydrangeas, with varigated hostas in front of them. I'm hoping they'll be big enough to bloom this year, so far they are growing really well.

That is so adorable. I was taken for a trip just like everyone else. I love pleasant surprises. Your house is so.... picure perfect. I love it. I also live in a small cottage. Yours may be larger than mine, but I hope to achieve the same effect with mine when I'm done remodeling in- oh, I don't know- 20yrs or so. LOL. I truly love my little cottage. It is a pyramidal folk style with four matching dormers for the rooms upstairs. I have been trying to think of a way to make it charming and now that I have seen yours, it has given me some interesting ideas.

I am so dying of jealousy over the tiny extra cottage, though. LOL.

zip I SO want to be YOU!!! I am totally smitten with your home, cottage and new tenants. You have the touch, girl.

Your cottage and house are both so pretty. Love the chicks. We use to have some laying hens. They are great and boy did they keep us in eggs. We had 6 hens and we'd get 6 eggs a day. We couldn't give the eggs away fast enough, we had so many.

Zipdee, everytime you post and i think, now that is just perfect, you up and do something perfect-er! I could live in your cottage very contentedly! and I am jealous I want annabelles so much! I put in some endless summers couple of years ago since they were so highly touted but they are a real fizzle. This year I am doing annabelles! Can you post a pic of your new garden? or is it already on a forum - cottage garden perhaps?
Oh yeah I was thinking she must be in a resort area to be able to set the rent that high that it makes up for demanding tenants!! good story. we want to see the eggs when they come!

Zipdee, do you by chance live in Savannah? The cottage looks just like one DD rented when she was in college. It was behind a big house very similar to yours, and was on a corner! I know the folks who owned it sold and moved to the country.

zipdee, I love your cottage, your tenants, and your home! It is all very charming and inviting!!!

I definitely fell for it! I love the cottage, your lovely home, and the chicks are adorable! I've been bugging DH to get some hens for the yard, he's not buying it. :(

Beth

I have always loved your home Zipdee, inside and out. The cottage is adorable - as are the tenants! I would love to see pics when the hydrangeas are blooming - that will be gorgeous!

tina

Zipdee - I have always loved your home, and it is shaping up to be even better this year. Great job!

Your three new renters are adorable. :)

LOL. While I was reading I was assuming this was a 'mother-in-law' cottage, or something similar for retired parents who need their own home, but require some monitoring and assistance and need to be nearby. I could not imagine strangers being so demanding.

That cottage is adorable and your solutions to make it blend into the homestead are great.

Now that is a fun post!
Diane

oh, what a hoot! (On a serious note, I seriously LOVE those doors on the renter's cottage.)

Your house, and your little cottage, are just picture perfect eye candy! You made great improvements with those windows and what you did with the doors. It's amazing how much character that adds. I'm sure that Hazel, Olive, and Clover will be very happy girls with their new digs.

What a fun post!

I'm drooling over your little cottage. I'd love to have one like that in my backyard as an artist's studio....imagine such a charming place to set up for my writing, sewing, and stained glass.

Drooling, I tell ya. Drooling.

I've just had a chance to sit down and read everyone's responses. Thank you all for the really kind comments! :) Also for letting me share our chicken raising and chicken house decorating adventures. Only some one from this board would really 'get' why I'm being so fussy about the chicken coop. ;) My DH thinks I've wigged a bit, but he's a pretty good sport and is always willing to help me out. Today is moving day, the coop part is done enough for the 'girls' to move in. Once my DD's get home from school we'll start getting the chicks in their new home.

I've been working on my potting shed part all day. Yesterday I painted .. today I put the shelves up, the wall sink is hung and I've been working on my potting table.

Artlover .. Nope, we're not in Savannah .. we live in the Piedmont area of North Carolina.

Cooperbailey .. I'm sorry your endless summer's didn't work out for you! I was a little worried about planting the annabells because this is a fairly shady area, the maples keep the area in shade all summer. I ordered them last year, over wintered them in pots under our back deck and planted them this spring. This is their third year .. I bought 2 yr plants. So far they are doing pretty well size wise, I only see smallish blooms starting on one yet though. I'm crossing my fingers that it's not too shady and I'll get blooms, not just foliage. I swear as soon as I get some blooms I'll take some pics for you. :)

Happyintexas .. I'm totally with you on using the cottage as a studio. The inside needs to be re-done, but it's on to-do the list.

Well .. it's starting to pull together in inside. The 'girls' have moved in .. they have graciously allowed another tenant we were already housing to share their new digs.

Everything that looks like it needs to be painted yet, does .. like the trim, doors etc. It's embarrassing to admitt .. but most of this has been put together with other people's cast-off, curb side shopping at it's finest. ;) All found objects .. The sink, the big crate under the sink .. which holds bedding and stall-dry, the french door, all the lumber for my potting table .. the top is a little bit of cherry flooring I found, the bottom is old decking lumber that I painted, the scrounged lumber for my shelving, my lights .. which still need to be installed yet, one will go above the sink under the the bottom shelf, one will go above the potting table under the shelf and the one that doesn't match will go above the blackboard door. Remember the black board door ? It was my kitchen pantry reject, that I decided not to use in there. Well it's the perfect size for in here, that door leads to the large part of the cottage. The green board up top is part of a sign I'm making to hang up there.

I still have a lot left to do .. I need to paint doors, trim .. the outside of the sink will be sanded down and re-sprayed with enamel paint. The floor .. for right now I think I'm going to pick a clay colored porch paint and paint it. Then pick up a 5' x 8' outdoors faux sisal rug to go on top of it. Plus I need to fill the shelves, make a sign and do more decorating.

Walking in through double doors, on the shelf is industrial cereal canisters I'm using to dispense chicken, chow, cracked corn, etc.

I need to make up labels yet :

Looking left into the coop .. it's chicken-vision :) The dogs like to sit here and dream.

Opening the door and it's Jabba the Babbit who has joined the girls .. he's loving it, they are still deciding if they made the right choice. ;)

Conspiring against Jabba .. he's really a sweet bunny, they just think he looks like a chicken eating moster right now.

Their screen porch beyond :

Looking left as you enter the double doors :

Sink bottom needs to be painted and I'm waiting for new faucets to come in before it gets hooked up. One nice deep bowl for watering, shallow one for cleaning.

Potting table beside the sink :

From run side, Jabba's house above where the girls live, he has the upstairs apartment on the one side :

Their heater for night time and their baby roost .. as they grow so will their roost and we'll add in nest. They have a 5' x 8' area in their coop. The Jabba's condo built above half.

Looking from the run side door, into the coop and through to the potting shed. Their run is 8' x 10'.

Zip, what a great place for the rabbit and chickens. I bet the dogs really do like watching the new tenants. My dog prefers rabbit watching over bird watching. LOL. Your place is very creative.

Well I am ready to share the space with the "babes" and "bunnicula" !! What a great use of curbfinds. You are so resourceful. I will have to NOT let DH see this or he will start wanting more amenities for his backyard DOG HOUSE LOL. I added a porch to his 2 yrs ago and a picket fence. This year he gets roses and clemmies and the purple lawn set...who knows what he might want if he sees the "girls" set up. You are a treat and so is your DH. Love it c

What fun! is the whole little cottage what you have shown us or is there more people quarters? I think your gardening area is so fun! and to have that big sink right there is so handy. Make sure you take pics so we can see it decorated.

Love, love , love the pics of your beautiful home, the renters cottage and your new borders!!! Keep the pics coming!
Lynn

Love your cottage and new tenants !!!

FREE is my favorite word, so aren't you clever! Things are looking good, and so is Jabba.

Where on earth did you get the food dispensers?

Do you soak the girls' seed overnight in water before feeding it? I ask because sprouts are way mucho much obstreperously better for them than seeds.

I am in Love!
OMG, this is gorgeous and you should be beaming right now for all you've done to create the most charming cottage for your new tennants.

When my time on earth is up, I want to come back as one of your chickies. :)

What timing. This was in yesterday's Washington Post home section:

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Chicks

Great chicken article! :)

Thanks so much everyone for taking a look a the pics and the wonderful comments! Yesterday and today I finished up a lot of the outside. I still need to add two fake grid on the windows and clean up a little paint over spray, but for the most part I'm done. I'm sure I'll still fuss out here adding stuff, but I need to get all the inside painting done first.

CB .. the rest of the inside of the cottage needs to be redone before it could be used for anything but storage.

Oceanna .. the cereal dispensers were off of e-bay. I bought them to go in the kitchen, then decided to use them for dog food and now have swiped them for the chicks and bunny .. they are really, really handy!

The window boxes are full of herbs for the most part, I relocted a little of my herb garden up here. Two types of tyme, two oreganos, sweet and boxleaf basil, parsley, rosemary.

The reason for the side shots is we have a huge weeping willow and I can't get back far enough to get the whole thing head on. This areas come a long way, it looks a lot better!

Just the cottage part .. I used some extra brick pavers and made myself a little step/porch.

It is just adorable, charming and you've done an amazing job! I'm sure your tenants are thrilled with their 'digs', you're such a good lessor!
Thanks for sharing all of the pictures, I thoroughly enjoyed looking at each of them.
Best wishes to all> Susan