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.