We've got Wi-Fi!

We actually made it down to Our Beach Place on Sunday for the first time in months, and we're happy to say that you all have taken great care of it. Everything looks great. (And Irene did no damage - yeah!)

In the coming months and years we plan to do a few minor modifications. The first priority is to replace the couch. It wasn't nearly as awful as I was expecting -- in fact, it looks great! -- but we do want to upgrade it, perhaps as early as this fall. Our other future plans include replacing the carpet with some nice hardwoods or pergo, and perhaps a better TV. But all in all, OBP looks fantastic!

One small upgrade we made: we now have wireless internet for our guests. We have had a modem for some months, but we had not gotten around to actually adding a wireless router. Now we have. Now our guests can surf on the beach and ALMOST surf from the beach.

Boy, don't miss out on this great weather we're having

In case you haven't noticed (or in case you live in a less-moderate part of the country), the weather in North Carolina has been spectacular of late. All signs point to that continuing for quite some time. And then it will be summer. So, in other words, now is the time to book those Carolina Beach weeks and weekends (or longer, if your heart desires) at OBP.

Don't miss this opportunity to get a steal of a deal -- just steps from the beach.

Remember, if you are interested in renting Our Beach Place for just a weekend, week or longer, just email us at collards12@yahoo.com.

(Image from cape-fearguide.com)

New curtains, decorations and porch furniture

Because of the aforementioned snow, we didn't have a ton of things to do in CB over Valentine's Day weekend. SO ... we decided to make some improvements to the joint.

The biggest improvement was that we took down the nasty old, twisty, plastic blinds and replaced them with 4 panels of curtains.

You can see the "old" here (to the right) ...


... and here is the new (all four closed) ...


... and here (showing how "customizable" they can be).


We also added some shelves in the kitchen. And you can't have shelves without putting something on them.


We think we've done a pretty good job of making storage space in a space not meant for such.




New pictures/art were added to the walls in the living room and in the bedroom.














We also replaced the crumbling porch furniture with a set of nice, new 4 tables and chairs. Unfortunately, I neglected to shoot a photo of it.

And, finally, here's a shot of the glass tile work in the kitchen, of which we are very proud.


Remember, if you are interested in renting Our Beach Place for just a weekend, week or longer, just email us at collards12@yahoo.com

Happy New Year!

Unless your name is Taylor Swift, I can probably safely guess that 2009 was not the greatest year ever. Here's to hoping 2010 is much better.

At this point, we have quite a bit of availability for our condo at Carolina Beach. We have recently listed it on a vacation rental website, so we do hope it will be rented through much of the spring and summer, as it was last year simply by word of mouth. But Charity and I wanted to give you all a reminder in case you are interested in staying.

Here's the juice on the place (in case you've never read any of these posts before):

It's a 1 BR/1.5 bath unit right across from the beach that sleeps 4 (1 queen bed and a pullout sofa). Enjoy the ocean breeze from the patio, or walk just feet to any one of the three beach accesses close by (one literally right across the street). We did some updating to it last year but have since added a new hot water heater. The unit also has a brand new range, microwave and the rest of the appliances are updated as well. There is a pool on sight as well as cable TV in the unit.

Let me know if you are interested in staying there anytime this year. We will also rent it for weekends as well.

collards12@yahoo.com

New hot water heater!

Well, chalk up another "improvement" to Our Beach Place.

We replaced our hot water heater last week; the old one (not really that old, but still ...) was giving us fits. Our renters happened to wake up one morning to water leaking out of it. That is never good (especially when you're on the very top floor).

The good news is it was A) a sign that it just needed to be given the boot, and B) the good folks caught it early so we didn't have hot water heaters or people plunging to floors below.

Let us know if you want to 'get away' to CB

Just a reminder that our adorable (well, we think so) little condo is available to rent -- and at a VERY fair rate, we might add.

Just contact us and let us know about rates and availability. I should note that July and August are quickly filling up, and dates are getting fewer and far between in September though there are some free times in September and October, so act fast.

To recap: The place is literally 100 feet from the ocean with 3 public accesses within a short walk. (One of which is Freeman Park.) We have cable in the living room, a queen bed in the bedroom and a pull-out sofa.

And to those who have already enjoyed OBP, please share your thoughts here.

The place is 99.5 percent done

We've gotten the correct shade of yellow painted, so here are some new photos of the place. (We even added some orange Adirondack chairs to the porch, which the girls love!)

The renovation is (99 percent) complete!

Well, it wasn't easy, but we spent all day on Saturday putting the finishing touches on the Carolina Beach condo. Aside from a minor communication flub on the paint color for the living room, everything looks fantastic. (We'll be getting a brighter shade of yellow painted next week.)

Around 2 p.m. on Saturday the place looked like this:



































Finally, around 11 p.m., it looked like this:



















If you are interested in staying at our place, please email us. June is pretty much booked, but we have some weeks and weekends available in July, August, September, October and so on. Contact us with your interested dates and we'll "sea" what we can work out.

The place is literally 100 feet from the ocean with 3 public accesses within a short walk. (One of which is Freeman Park.) We have cable in the living room, a queen bed in the bedroom and a pull-out sofa. Also (not pictured) is a 9 feet-by-10 feet porch with ocean views.

Oh, and if the above shots aren't promising enough, here is a reminder about the pool and view.

A 'before' shot

Here is what OBP (Our Beach Place) looked like "before" we attempted to take it out of the 1980s. Stay tuned for the "after" shots.




And here's a shot of the view. Not too bad, eh?