A Very Modest Cottage

If you love vintage, cottages, and spent your childhood in a cottage on a lake or in the woods you have to read this book. It is a labor of love. Tereasa and her husband and brother work so well together giving live back to this lovely old cottage. It is a love story from page one. I shared immediately with a kindred spirit, who also loved it. I recommend this book to anyone who dreams of reviving that little old cabin on the lake.

Did you ever have a favorite place when you were a kid? A place that was always there through the years, reassuring you that all was still right with the world as you grew from childhood to adolescence, to adulthood . . . Did you ever wish you could keep that place, just as you remembered it when you were a kid? This book is about how someone did just that. First, in the interest of full disclosure, not only am I a coworker and friend of the author, I also contributed a very modest ingredient to this extremely palatable cornucopia of a book . . . and because of this I can attest to what a dedicated, focused worker the author is, making it no surprise that her sweat, toil and tenacity have produced such an appealing labor of love. This is much more than just a handsomely presented coffee table book; it's also a love letter to a forgotten era, a warm and engaging scrapbook depicting the realization of a dream, and a lively, living journal documenting the adoption and rebirth of a charming roadside hotel cabin from Southern Illinois into an environment seemingly preordained for it in faraway Elkhorn, Wisconsin. On top of the allure of the unique story, the author also possesses an inherent, professional flair for design that not only reveals itself in the absorbing visual presentation of the book (which she supervised), but also in the creatively chosen, period-appropriate accoutrements with which she has appointed both the cottage and its neighboring buildings in its new home, Camp Wandawega--well-represented in a copious array of rich photographs. She even gives us a vivid taste of what it's like to go along on one of her flea market flights of frugality by which she acquired some of the items that pepper these cordial surroundings. Her unassumingly witty writing style is equally engaging (this, I admit, was a pleasant surprise), perfectly complementing the arcadian images of Americana and intriguing antique tchotchkes which fill Modest Cottage's pages. It's a feast for the senses and the imagination, with an accent on the visual, a book to keep on the proverbial coffee table for repeated browses as well as showing off to guests.

This book is great - its a great advice weaved into a great storyline too. The pictures really bring it to life too - I want to go there! I loved it so much I bought a few other copies for my girlfriends because they'll steal my copy once they see it! Highly recommend buying it.

This book is so beautiful. Its super well written and thoughtfully designed. I rarely sit down to read a book cover to cover, but I could not put this down. I bought a copy for my mom for Mother's Day, but have decided to keep it (sorry mom).