Romantic Getaway!

December 17 & 18, 2010

Last weekend we were unable to make it to the cabin because of a mega blizzard. The Twin Cities got 1-2 feet of snow and it got super windy and cold. Strangely enough, Brandon didn't get much snow at all. Ultimately, we lost a solid weekend of time and work.We may not make the year-end closing we've been aiming for. The good thing is that we got some time at home together.

It was a long, long week apart. Sandy had a huge Single Mom's event at church on Tuesday. And Doug spent the week in Des Moines on a deploy for Wells Fargo Mortgage. We were so hopeful that our granddaughter, who was due on 12/12, wouldn't choose to make her grand entrance while he was away. Thankfully, she waited.  By midday Friday the 17th we were able to head north. We were really excited to see the sheet rock progress and get some work done in preparation for our family New Year's gathering at the cabin. We knew they wouldn't have the final sanding or painting done, but there's just something delicious about that first look at a place with its walls newly adorned! The images you've carried in your mind all along actually come to life!Ahhh! It was beautiful! Looks like they do great work.

The living room will be great. Enough room to spread out and hang out!

The main floor "Little Buddy's Room", as Doug calls it, is kind of small. We hope one won't bump one's elbow on the sink when one is visiting Little Buddy. But we remind ourselves that it's a cabin and it sure beats a five-gallon bucket, which has been our Little Buddy 's Room in the past!

That  reminds me of some of the funny terms that people use for visiting Little Buddy...Chris frequently says that he's going to "drop the kids off at the pool!" Not sure where that one came from!?

Doug placing the dura rock as tile underlayment

We needed to clean the floor and lay the tile this weekend in order to set the toilet and sink next weekend. Unfortunately, we had forgotten all of the tiling tools at home. Bummer! But like most jobs, you find you don't have all the stuff you need, and a "run" to the store is necessary. The scary thing is that since there is no Home Depot in Alec, we have come to know our way around the Menards in town. What are you gonna do? While we were there, we picked out the kitchen countertop. The goal was to find a cheap, stock laminate, anticipating that it would cost about $100. The cool thing was, the color/pattern we chose is being discontinued and was on sale. So, we got a 12 foot piece for $52 and the end cap for $3.50. That will cover the whole stretch of sink, dishwasher and base cabinets in the kitchen! In fact, we were so excited about it, we bought another piece for the basement where we'll have a little kitchenette area! 

The foyer is looking cool. Love the loft and balcony and skylight.

Much of what we had intended to do this weekend wasn't possible. We had hoped we could "device" the electrical outlets and switches and just cover them with tape prior to paint. It turns out that there would one more round of wall sanding and our outlets would stick out too far to to allow the use of the sanding wands.


Instead, we installed some outdoor light fixtures.
This one is on the front porch ceiling.

This one hangs over the mud room door...

And two of them are on the lake-side porch.

We did get the Little Buddy's Room tiled...

and little details like covering the roughed-in plumbing fixtures to protect them from paint over spray.

However, since we were able to take it all at a little slower pace, it turned into a semi-romantic getaway.

We set up our bed on the main floor and got to sleep in the warmth and quiet of upstairs living!

We even got a corner table at the bistro!

It's a beautiful place in the winter! We look forward to many more times of relaxing at this place!

The really BIG, EXCITING news though, is that at about 10:00 on Saturday night, when we had eaten dinner, put in a movie and layed down for the night, we got a call from Lauren that she thought she was in labor! We did the fastest, craziest clean up and reload of the car and trailer ever! We hit the road to head home in anticipation of our daughter and son-in-law becoming parents and us getting a new granddaughter! We prayed that the roads would be clear and dry and we could fly! They were and we did! We made it to the new North Memorial Hospital in Maple Grove by 12:30 a.m., just in time to be kicked out so Lauren could have an epidural injection! We were sent home so that she could sleep a few hours and we could do the same. And the thought of meeting our little sweety looking and smelling like "working at the cabin all weekend grunge" wasn't too appealing. We tried to sleep, but alas, could not. Sandy took a 4 a.m. bath and was ready for the call in the morning that said she could head on over to the hospital to wait and pray!

And wait and pray we did...........