Our first visit!

Friday, Aug. 29 to Monday Sept. 1, 2014 Labor Day Weekend

It finally happened!  Brad and I have dreamed about having our own cottage for all 22 years of our marriage.  We came close to buying this cottage last year, but it fell through.  It was meant to be, though, because it came back on the market and YAY we got it!

We like this lake a lot, and know a few families on it.  The Daltons and their girls that I grew up with have been there for years.  Their niece and family are on the lake as well!  And our very close friends the Waffles have been on the lake for 2 years.  All great reasons to search on this lake.  Plus it reminds us of Lake Waseosa where Brad has gone since he was born!

We closed at about 1 which left much of the day for us to get settled in.  The former owners showed us a few things, like how to work the fireplace insert and some tricks with the boat.  I didn't really pay attention since those are Brad's areas.  They are super nice people, but honestly, I was just anxious for them to move along so it could be MINE!

We were lucky to be able to buy some furniture from them.  They left even more than they said which in many instances was good.  However, there was definitely some stuff we could do without.  Like a broken ladder.  And 4 completely full garbage cans with barely enough room to add our own garbage from the weekend.  But we ended up with some unexpected sheets and blankets, including a hand stitched quilt.  It's Amish country, so I wonder if it's made by them?  They also left....THIS.

It was there last year when we saw the cottage.  It plugs in.  It lights up.  There are stuffed monkeys hanging from it.  OK then.  The Dalton's granddaughter took it.  Yay!

There were some surprises throughout the weekend.  Like the water.  We had it tested and it's 100% safe to drink.  However, it's VERY smelly!  Like sulfur.  Very strong.  Some of those friends on the lake told us how to fix it, but Google has some other suggestions as well.  Not sure how we will work it out.  But it's really bad.  So there's that.

We were so excited to move in!

Back, by the enclosed porch

Looking the other way, lake on the right.  Fire pit area.

The other side of the back and porch

Let's take a tour of the inside!

One of our first projects.  This porch is fabulous, but had large storage cabinets where the couch is now.  The couch was across in front of the windows, facing the house and cabinets.  Not cool.  Now you can see the lake from the couch!  BBQ and table go outside, of course.  This was when we were leaving.

And by the way, that BBQ has a story of it's own.  We went to a local farm store and found a good deal.  But it's kinda big.  But of course, I am like "we can make it fit!"  So we buy it and of course it doesn't fit in our car.  We brought 2 cars up with stuff in them, and this was the bigger one.  No dice.  The good thing was 3 strangers stopped to try to help us in the parking lot.  We got lots of suggestions.  The bad thing was the employee with the screwdriver was the only one who didn't seem to understand which things we needed to unscrew.  Finally, after about 20 minutes, we had it in our car.  Brad got it back together, thankfully!

Let's continue.

Standing in the small entrance area.  Open kitchen/dining/living room.

View from the kitchen, hard to see but that is the lake outside!

Master bedroom.  The open window overlooks the lake.  The deck near the fire pit is outside there and Brad is already planning putting in a sliding door there.  The view of the lake would be even better!

Girl's bedroom.  Well, Lainie's, so far.  Lea prefers to sleep where she can't hear anyone breathing.  So she took the couch for the weekend.  We have another single bed to bring up.  Somehow.  In our small cars.

Bathroom.  The former owner made that stained glass window!  It's very pretty.  There is a lot of storage in there.  They left us some patriotic-themed items that they had.  It was a bit much.  Especially the toilet seat with the 3D hologram American flags on the lid.  My Canadian husband was not so impressed.  We toned it down a bit.

The house was pretty clean.  They cleaned out the fridge and cabinets really well.  The only thing that was really needing doing was cobwebs.  We bought a cool new vacuum with a hose and I vacuumed the walls and ceilings.  Funny how that didn't' seem like a chore!  It was fun, because it's OURS!!

Our view from the deck.  It was a bit gloomy out, but still so beautiful!  The big blue/gray house across the lake belongs to my other parents, The Daltons.  My parent's BFFs.  Bonus!  They know everything about the lake and the area.  And they have all the tools we needed for the weekend since we couldn't fit any in the cars!

We took a ride on our new (to us) pontoon!  It's old, it's worn.  But it's ours!  (Are you getting the theme, here?)

Awesome!

Boat dogs.  Just don't put them IN the water.

It never takes long for the girls to jump in!

Woo hoo!

So yeah.  Our boat has this ginormous dashboard.  Looks very impressive from the front.  But sit behind it and there are NO dials or controls.  Haha!

This happened a lot.  Jumping off our dock.  It's strangely short.  But a great platform for jumping!

There were several times over this weekend where I stopped and thanked the Lord for all of our blessings.  For this amazing place and for our chance to get to spend many years here.  These next pics show one of these times.

Wow.

More wow.  That tiny dot reflected in the water was a great blue heron flying by.

It was breathtaking.  Sure, there are many pretty places in the world.  But this is OURS.  (yes, that again!)

We got our sign hung!  This sign is from the cottage Brad's mom used to own. Brad grew up going there, our girls grew up going there.  We have immeasurable good times up there!  When the cottage was sold, we snatched up this sign.  It's been hanging in our garage for several years now.  We knew we would hang it in our own cottage someday!  We need to get one made with Stull on it soon.  We are calling this place Tamwood as well.  (Tam from Brad's sister Tamasin, Wood from Brad's real name, Braidwood.)  There was never a doubt our place would be Tamwood.

Perfect fit :)

The next day we took more boat rides.  Our lake, Smallwood Lake, is part of the Tittabawassee River.  It was dammed a long time ago.  We met a woman who grew up on the lake, and her parents built their house in the 30's.  Much of the lake is long and kind of narrow, since it was a river.  Right in front of our cottage, the lake opens up and is big.  Very cool for watching skiers and tubers!  (and those dang Jet Skis that I already dislike.)  You can boat under highway 61 and down the lake to the dam.  It's a great place to anchor and swim. 

On our way to the dam

Really?  Now a rainbow?  Perfect!

Walks on water?  Only for a split second.

Watching her swimmers.

Lily was taking a selfie, and I photobombed it!

Our girlies!  Having a blast together!

Our place from the water!

Good shot :)

Her pass-out spot

We had a nice 2nd evening and ended with a campfire and S'mores.  Of course.

Eyes closed, but I like this pic!  He is doing what he loves.  Sitting out by the fire playing his guitar.

Here we go again!  More of the same.  And it's fabulous!

Those are some good action shots!!

Lea landed one time with one leg in and one out of the tube.  She got stuck!  They cracked up and it was soooo funny!

Right before she got stuck.  Lainie's face!  HA

Serenity

Our last morning I got some amazing shots.  Another of those overwhelming moments!  It's OURS!!

The mist burned off and it was another pretty day.  We got pretty lucky!  Not much rain.  Only as we were leaving, and then it was a downpour!

This will sound funny, but one thing that we were SO looking forward to is leaving stuff up north.  As renters/borrowers, we always had to bring sheets, towels, everything!  Now we can leave what we want and not have to pack so much.  I was so excited to leave my hat.

It's the little things.

The place came with a washer and dryer.  They do work, however, not well.  I was very happy to be able to keep sheets and towels up, but the dryer would NOT dry!  It spun, it got hot.  But the lint was all over and everything stayed soaked.  Weird.  We are looking into replacing them, maybe with a stackable to save some room.  That was just one of those surprises that we knew would come up.  

We saw a canoe for sale on someone's beach.  We need a canoe!  It's the best way to explore the fingers of our lake, where our pontoon can't go because of dangerous deadheads.  So we pulled up our boat and talked to the owners.  This was the lady who grew up on the lake full time, her parents built in the 30's.  They were very nice.  We went home to get our checkbook and came back for a test drive.  Test boat?  Test float?  It's a nice, non-tippy canoe.  We struck a deal and towed it home!  While I cleaned up and Lainie was driving home a few hours before us, Brad and Lea took a nice, long ride.  He was very happy with our purchase!  Now if only I could talk him into buying that pop up camper someone else has down the lake...it could be more sleeping space for guests!  I mean, we only have 2 bedrooms.  We need more bed spaces!  :)

So that is it!  Our first weekend.  It had some hiccups but they were minor.  We are so excited to get back up there and spend time!!  Can't wait!!  And next time, our super close friends will be up at their place on the lake!  And my parents will be up visiting my "other parents."  It will be a great weekend!