What We've Been Working On - Part One

Hiya! I'm back again for a third blog post this week. I suppose I've gotta make up for my sporadic and, well, pretty non existent posts the last few months. Thanks for sticking around by the way. Moocho love comin' at ya right now.

Also, it snowed here for the first time last night! 

This was taken at 8:00 a.m. this morning before I even had a chance to finish my coffee.
There should be a medal for that, right?

Winnie and I were supposed to do some errands this morning while Coops is visiting with Grandma. However, the first time it snows up here there are always a million car accidents and fender benders since a lot of people won't have their winter tires on yet. So, we are staying home and staying safe. AND, I just watched my little cutie-patootie on the video monitor and she stirred and went back to sleep for maybe another 40 minutes. I just hit the nap jackpot baby!!!!!

So. What we've been working on. We're all over the map as usual picking little things from different projects and not really getting anything major accomplished. It really does keep things interesting. And it really does keep our house in a complete disarray all of the time. ;)

First, I've been raking. This is no easy task around here. We've got seven different varieties of mature trees in and around our yard. It sounds all awesome and beautiful until someone has to rake up all the leaves. (Uh, that someone would be me.) We were gifted with amazing fall weather the last few weeks. Up until today it's been warm and sunny enough in the afternoons to bring the kiddos outside and work a little bit at a time. 

When you're racing against time to get all of your leaves raked up before the first snowfall, you leave rice cereal crusted all over your baby's face.

See the picture below? See the grassy area with all of the leaves? I already raked that spot three times. THREE TIMES!!!!! At least my arms are getting a good workout?!?!?

Since the weather has been so nice I decided to get a head start on winter-fying my front windowbox. Remember when I dressed it up all simple and pretty a few years ago? Gosh I love that burlap bow.

My Winter Windowbox - A Simple Tutorial

My Mom and I dragged about ten yard bags full of pine boughs down from the mountain last weekend. Can you believe that I still didn't have enough? Who decided that a twelve-foot window box was a good idea anyway? Hee hee.

The start of my winter windowbox last weekend:

My frozen windowbox this morning:

Uhhh, I hope it warms up enough that I'll be able to finish it! I've also been toying around with the idea of adding a little bit of red to my arrangements this year. If you know me at all this is a big deal. Red or no red, the things that keep me up at night. ;)

So now let's skip to the holidays. I'm trying really hard to finish all of my shopping for the kiddos early this year. I'm also trying not to go too crazy. I love the idea of spending time doing holiday activities rather than spending a whole lot of money on material things. That being said, I still want Cooper's cute little face to light up when he sees the tree on Christmas morning, so I'm on the hunt for one of those new Paw Patroller things. People! These are sold out everywhere!!!!!

I will probably be stalking the aisles at Wal-Mart next week waiting for another shipment to come in. Also, I may or may not be willing to drive my cart over people's toes to get one. When you're the Mom of a Paw-Patrol-loving boy, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I just realized that I rambled on a lot in this post. I suppose I will have to break this up into two parts so that I can show you the destruction that's been happening in our interior side entry. 

To be continued!

P.S. Thank you SO MUCH to all of you lovelies who took the time to congratulate us on my last post about our new cottage. We are soooooo pumped and it was so nice of you to leave such nice comments. You are one of a kind. :)

Pinch Me, We Bought a Cottage!!!

The day we got the keys!
{Please don't enlarge this picture. Muffin top and bad hair alert. Hee hee!}

I think this is the first time in the history of ever that I've said I would be back soon with another post and I'm actually back soon with another post. It was the result of a) deciding to stay home in yoga pants instead of doing much-needed groceries, b) the magical occurrence of both kiddos napping at the same time this afternoon, and c) me being so excited to share!

In my last post I wrote that Alex and I were hoping and wishing that one day we would find an affordable cottage on the same lake as my grandfather's. A few years ago we had an offer on an old, outdated hunting cabin but lost out because of a higher bidder. I also shared how we were SO disappointed because we didn't know if and when another opportunity would come up. 

At the beginning of the summer we were sitting around with family lamenting about how we missed out on the other cottage and were really hoping that something else would come along.

We had heard a rumour that the cottage right next door to my grandfather's might be going up for sale within the next few years. We laughed and joked that we would have to scrimp and save for at least five years and then we only might be able to afford it. Let me explain. The prices for properties in the area have only been going up. Also, the cottage next door to my grandfather's had a big renovation completed about fifteen years ago which meant that it was in really good condition. It also had a few bells and whistles that we weren't used to at our place like running hot and cold water!!!!! an indoor bathroom with a septic system!!!!! and solar power!!!!! At our family's place we were accustomed to bringing drinking water from home, boiling water for washing dishes, carting pails of water from the lake, having no electricity whatsoever, using propane lights and flashlights, and (you might gasp at this one) using an outhouse. Hee hee.

:)

Well, whaddayaknow. About three weeks after that dreaming-impossible-dreams conversation, an ad went up on Kijiiji stating that the very cottage we were discussing, the one right next door to my grandfather's, was indeed for sale. Except it was listed for a price that was WAY over our budget.

Here's where a funny coincidence comes in. I actually knew the sellers, as I had practically grown up at their cottage.... playing cribbage and rummy, sleeping in tree-houses, and creating awkward synchronized swimming routines with their youngest daughter.

Alex crunched numbers for about 24 hours straight. We figured that if we drastically changed our lifestyle (no more fancy steaks from the butcher shop)(no more decor items ordered from Restoration Hardware)(no more all-inclusive trips to Caribbean destinations) then we just might be able to make it work.

We packed up the kids, drove down to see the cottage, made an offer on the spot, and waited for their answer. We waited for two very, very, very long weeks. Every time the phone rang I jumped out of my skin and scared both of our children. I made Alex check his email about every two seconds. The whole thing was extremely nerve-wracking. We knew there were other people interested in the cottage and so we were scared that we were going to be outbid for a second time.

Finally, we got the call. The sellers let us know that if we paid their original asking price (our offer was a bit lower) then they would sell us the cottage - even though there was a couple from Toronto willing to pay more than the asking price and with no conditions. They picked us.

They picked us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The purchase officially closed at the end of September and we are absolutely thrilled. We are so, so lucky to have such an amazing place to enjoy in the spring, summer, and fall. Cooper and Winnie will be able to experience all of the fun extended family adventures that I got to enjoy growing up because we are literally right next door to my grandfather's cottage. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump through the woods to get there.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of our new place! Everything that you see in the pictures came included with the purchase except for the kayaks (and the baby).

View of the front of the cottage from the lake.

Side deck and side entry.

The back of the cottage as you drive in from the dirt road.

The walkway leading down to the sauna, deck, and lake.

The view from the deck.

The living room area.

Another view of the living room area.

The kitchen area.

Another view of the kitchen area.

The loft over the kitchen.

Bedroom #1.

Bedroom #2.

The bathroom.

The dining area.

The view of the dock and the other side of the lake.

Alex and I made a deal with each other that we wouldn't discuss any changes that we want to make for at least a little while. You know, because of the whole $$$ thing. However, it's still fun to dream about the future so we already broke our rule and talked a little bit about pressure washing the decking and possibly adding a screened in porch over the side deck. It's all so very exciting.  

Oh, and just a random note. Up here in Northern Ontario most of us small city folk use the term 'camp' instead of 'cottage'. I refer to it as a cottage on the blog because I think that's what most readers would identify with. So in the future, if you hear me squealing, "I'm off to camp!" you'll know what I'm talking about.

:)

The Story About the First Little Cottage That We Didn't Buy

I think the name of this blog sort of speaks for itself. I kinda like, okay I kinda love, the whole cottage thing. 

Growing up, I was lucky enough to spend every summer at my family's cottage. {Well, except those summers when I was a moody teenager but let's try to forget about those, m'kay?}

The cottage my Grandfather built in 1965.

Our family's cottage was built by my grandfather and was pretty darn awesome. I have very fond memories of swimming, boating, hiking, sleepovers, suntanning, saunas, card games, birthdays, and campfires with my grandparents, parents, brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

Since we've been all grown up and stuff, Alex and I occasionally went down to visit for a day or maybe even a night. But things were starting to get a little bit crowded (and crazy) when we brought the whole gang and all of our gear. Yo, why do babies require so much stuff!?!?!?! Yo, why are our doggies so badly behaved!?!?!?!

One day we came up with a pretty outrageous idea - what if we tried to purchase our own cottage on the same lake? Sure it would have been much easier to purchase a cottage anywhere (there are dozens and dozens of lakes within driving distance from our home). However, we didn't want to be too far away from the whole crazy, big, fun, family thing that we had going on.

We thought our idea was pretty far-fetched because the lake we wanted to be on is located in one of Ontario's Provincial Parks. There are very few properties to begin with - and when they do go up for sale they are either sold privately to friends and family or they are snatched up by people from the big city (Toronto) who are willing to pay a lot of moolah.

So. We waited, waited, waited, and waited some more. We took boat rides up and down the lake staring longingly at different properties wondering if and when any of them would go up for sale. Finally we heard about an old hunting cabin that used to be owned by twelve men. When we went to go and see the cottage we were happy to see that it was a fixer upper. Being a fixer upper meant that we *might* be able to afford it, and there might not be as much interest from people who were looking for something move-in ready. The hunting cabin was also only ten lots down the lake from my family's place which meant a 3 minute drive, a 5 minute boat ride, or a really long swim. :)

After playing around with our finances for a nerve-wracking few days (remember that this happened not long after we bought our 2nd house - The Fixer Upper) we made our best offer. The seller accepted it verbally over the phone and we went to the lawyer to write up a formal offer the very next day.

We were so excited! We called all of our family and cheered and celebrated and of course I started pinning a million cottage inspiration pictures on Pinterest.

Since the seller was an older gentleman we thought we would give him a week to travel to his lawyer to sign our offer. Unfortunately during this time another couple came along and offered him considerably more money in cash. We were so, so, so disappointed.

Here are some pictures I dug up from Alex's phone. Remember..... it was a fixer upper owned by twelve dudes. There was absolutely no Cozy.Cottage.Cute going on at all.

The hunting camp that we didn't get.

The hunting camp that we didn't get.

The hunting camp that we didn't get.

The sauna at the hunting camp that we didn't get.

Cooper checking out the hunting camp.

Despite it's ugliness, the hunting cottage had an open concept kitchen / dining / living room and three small bedrooms. The property itself was beautiful and the view down at the water was amazing. We could definitely see the potential. Unfortunately it was not to be. Friends and family told us that things happen for a reason and even though I *might* have rolled my eyes at the time, maybe they were right.

:)

A month and a half ago we closed on the purchase of a different cottage RIGHT NEXT DOOR to my family's. The excitement has absolutely not worn off yet.

I'll share pictures next post, promise.