How do you like my new floor?

 So how do you like my new floor? It's probably really only about 2/3 of my new floor at the cottage, but I am tickled pink that we've been given this money as Christmas presents. It gives me a lot more of our money to spend on other things; like the new dishwasher to replace the one that died on Christmas day and leaked water into the ceiling of our recently finished basement.

*scowl*

Not cool dishwasher. Not. Cool.

In cottage-y lake-y news, Mom and Dad drove past the lake en route to some Boxing Day sales and they report that the lake is showing some definite signs of freezing. I'll be trolling the message boards to see what the ice-fishermen have to say about the quality of the ice.

Oh, and the gingerbread man gift card? Scratch and sniff. Epic win.

See what happens?

This is what happens when I have a slow week at work because everyone is off on early Christmas holidays:

I finally had the time to enter all the cottage dimensions into my super-awesome software program. It's not perfect: I failed to measure the shower room, bathroom doors/window and the back hall/back door area. So, some of those measurements are kludgey, but they're close enough for now. At least it gives you a bit of an idea how big (or not) the rooms are. And, if you're crazy like me, you can cut out little to-scale furniture and virtually redecorate the rooms. Whee!

There's not much else to report on the cottage front. We were supposed to go to Oakville to see a lady about a boat last Sunday, but  the princess fell ill after partying hard at her dance-school sleepover and it didn't seem wise to stuff her into a car for hours on end.

Merry Christmas!

Is it so wrong...

Is it so wrong for me to want to pull the whole cottage decor from a gorgeous Italian glass pendant lampshade I spotted at Lowe's on the weekend? I love this lampshade!

It's tiny - about 6" in diameter at the bottom - but it's just so pretty. It's exactly what I wanted to hang over the kitchen counter. I figure 2, maybe three of them? Of course, there's no light fixture up there, so we'd need to add some octagon boxes, and to do that we'd need to run some new wiring under the cottage and remove some of the ceiling panels. And if we're removing part of the ceiling, we might as well do it right and replace the whole thing 'cuz it's so ugly... and suddenly my $14.99 lampshades will cost me thousands.

... but is that so wrong?

Boat update

Last night the Captain talked to the lady with The Boat.  It's still for sale. It's a '92 Bayliner bow-rider with a 70 HP Force outboard. Single owner, mostly used to putter to the island and back. Turns out the owner is on the other side of the island from us! She welcomed us to the island (nice!) and had lots of helpful information about Harris Boat Works, the marina everyone's recommending.

What I was able to glean from the conversation:
- New cover in the last few years
- new battery
- serviced every year at Harris
- something about the angle of the prop being changed.
- something about her having a new pontoon boat and that's why she's selling.
- never been used for waterskiing (though could be).
- Lady's in Oakville.
- recommends buying gas in Port Hope (ha.. I wonder where that is?)
- willing to uncover the boat for us to go look at it (provided it doesn't snow a lot before we get there).
- willing to store the boat for us this winter
- boat has four main seats, plus 2 can fit in the bow (= 4 kids). No bench seat in the back. Four can fit under the roof if it's raining.
- comes with a trailer
- asking $5K

The Captain could provide more detailed information, but he's unwilling to write about anything for me. Bum.

I think next weekend we're going to try to go look at it.

I wonder if...

I had secretly harboured hopes of making it out to the cottage one last time before the winter weather hit, but in light of the frigid temps and abundant snow, that's just not going to happen.

We didn't close the cottage this year; the previous owner did. I find myself wondering a bunch of "what ifs...". "What if the power was left on". "What if the front door wasn't closed properly." "What if any liquids were left in the cupboards that will freeze?" etc. etc. I'm also hoping the roof is well built, as there's no way we can get out there to remove snow part way through the winter. Eric thinks we could get out this winter (ski across the lake maybe? It's not *that* far from the landing <---of course it won't seem like that when we're trying to ski the distance!) but the former lifeguard in me gets all heebiejeebie when I think of venturing out on a frozen lake. I've seen the stats. I know how disorienting it is when you fall through and how hard it is to find the original opening in the ice once you've gone under. Nevermind the instant effects of hypothermia when you're stranded out in the middle of nowhere. I don't know. Seems like a big risk. Make I'm a bit too yellow-bellied to attempt it.

Spring can't come fast enough this year!

Bleh.

What a difference a day makes. Yuck.

Wishlist

OK. Here goes. A preliminary list of stuff we'll be in search of for the cottage. If you have, or know of someone willing to part with any of the following items in good knick and for low $$'s (or for free!), let me know?

- white fridge (not older than 10 yrs)
- white stove (less pressing than the fridge)
- lawnmower. Electric preferred, but we're not fussy. I have a hard time pull-starting a gas mower. *wimp*
- double sheet sets/ quilts
- pots and pans
- white bathroom sink
- bow-rider boat with trailer (obviously this wouldn't be a donation).
- chain saw
- bunk beds (single or double, or some combination thereof)

That's a start for now. Thanks!!

Prelude to a wishlist

We had our first real snowfall today, which makes thinking about things "cottage-y" seem a bit surreal.

Now that we have the keys we face the daunting challenge of deciding what to fix, what to beg-borrow-steal (well, maybe not steal) from friends, what to buy new, what to look for on Kijiji and at garage sales.

I think a little bell rings in people's heads when they learn you have a living space that needs filling and they start to wonder what they have in their house that they're not using anymore, but that you could actually use.

We've only been in possession of the cottage a grand total of 11 days and the generous people we know have already donated some lovely bedding, a gorgeous kitchen table and chairs, a water cooler (for those big jugs of water), and a T.V!

It's crazy. Crazy good, but still crazy.

The trick will be to limit the "penalty gifts" we get. I used to get penalty gifts every time I visited home after moving out for university. This was typically a cardboard box full of crippity crap: track and field ribbons from when I was 12, photos from grade nine, the first purse I ever bought with my own money. Stuff like that. Get-it-out-of-my-house gifts.

I think I might compile a list of goodies we could use, or are in the market for, and post that here on the off chance someone reads it and says "Hey, they're looking for a left-handed microwave*. I have a left-handed microwave sitting in the basement collecting dust! I should give it to them."

If we're fortunate enough to find any of those things without having to buy them, we can save our pretty pennies for the Big Jobs that need to be tackled (like the floor and the shower and...)

*to my knowledge, there is no such thing as a left-handed microwave.