About Gina

 Hi, I’m Gina…

Welcome to The Shabby Creek Cottage!We began our journey of remodeling my childhood home in early 2009. We lived here for nearly 5 years before we finally got down to ripping out walls and installing floors. It’s been quite a journey, but it’s long from over!
My husband, Mr. SCC, and I have two girls, Lala and Bre. We enjoy our creekside life in our shabby little cottage. Our home is a calm, sweet place to be, wellll… unless there are skill saws buzzing during construction! We take on all of our projects with our own labor saving all the costs, but have the luxury of a custom home on a fraction of the budget.If we don’t know a skill, we learn it. If we can’t find what we like, we build it. We share all those adventures, straight from our  double wide mobile home – so if I can do it, you can, too!

 

I’ve been blessed to see my work grace the pages of some pretty amazing books & magazines – like Mom Blogging for Dummies, Brides Magazine, Casa Romantica, Romantic Homes, Nashville Bride, Somerset HOME, Somerset Homes, and Better Homes & Gardens. I’ve also had the honor to be featured on amazing websites such as Ladies’ Home Journal, The Huffington Post and The Graphics Fairy.

In addition to all of that – I wrote a book: How to Start a Home Based Etsy Business. Who knew this crazy remodeling adventure would take me on the ride of a lifetime?

FAQs What kind of home do you live in?  We live in a 1993 Clayton Homes Manufactured Double Wide.  It’s not very large, about 1600 sq. ft., but it’s big enough to hold all our crazy adventures.

How did you do your floors? Are they holding up? I came up with the crazy ideas of screwing 1×8 pine directly to our subfloors in 4 ft. lengths – then we stained them with MinWax Jacobean stain and sealed them with a satin poly. They’ve held up amazingly well for over 2 years. It’s still one of my favorite parts of our home! Some folks worry about cupping, but we’ve not had any major issues with that.

Did you really quit your day job in a year? Yes, I did! It was very fast, especially since I didn’t start this blog to make money, it was a hobby. After about a year of blogging (6 mos. of running a shop), I couldn’t keep up with my orders, blogging, and the pressures of a full time day job. I loved working as a journalist, but DIY is my passion. I’m blessed to be doing it full time! {I’ve stepped away from the shop for now, though.}

Do you have a question?
Contact me any time at 
gina@theshabbycreekcottage.com 

I’d love to hear from you!