Recently a friend of mine posted some pictures on Facebook of her 4th of July celebration...it included her family and neighbors spending the day at a pond near their house. And that triggered something in me... a longing to be near water.
Actually I wanted to spend the 4th on some form of water, but alas there is no Gulf of Colorado so a trip to the beach was out. And all the beaches we do (fresh water) were going to be way over packed. If we had a beach it would have been packed too. But this private pond thing... Hey! That's an idea!
Well, how do you get your own private pond? Well first you need some land. So I started looking for a place to stay near here on a lake... which got me on the path of looking for a cabin to rent on a lake.
And I found one! It was really nice too. http://mooselake-lodge.com/woolly-house-cabin-rental-on-lake/ Now one might think that hubby would be rolling his eyes at me on this idea...but he actually was very much in favor of it! He allowed me to get more info. But the problem with this cabin was that it was booked until mid September. And hubby couldn't get away then. SIGH!
So that led to thinking that in order to get a cabin to stay in, we might ought to just buy one. So I started researching that...and guess what...I found one of those too...actually quite a few but most of them were too big for us.
That was a problem with the rental cabins too, most of them were too big. One cabin wasn't huge, but it had been set up to sleep 10 people! Um we don't need something that big.
So I found a cabin that was nice and small... I was looking at first at two bedroom cabins, but ended up finding and falling in love with a little one bedroom cabin. It's so cute! Now I can't be sure, but it appears that the one bedroom is actually the entire length of the cabin and therefore might be large enough that we can fit two beds in there... a full size for me & hubby and a twin for Darly. And while that might not be ideal, for a vacation it works. (note: hubby is not rolling his eyes!)
Then my mind turns to furnishing this place... (yeah, I'm that crazy!) And I start thinking about what we have in our house that we aren't using. We have a couch in the basement that Darly keeps piling her toys on. We have a coffee table that right now is covered in plants in the kitchen. We have a kitchen table in my sewing room that I use for cutting fabric on, but hubby is gonna make me a new cutting table that is the right size, so this one won't be needed there. We have beds in the guest room and sewing room that aren't getting used cuz no one visits us. All that we'll need is chairs for the kitchen table...one garage sale or trip to a thrift store and we're all set! (note: hubby is still not rolling his eyes.)
Then came the question of how do we go about affording a second home...a vacation home? And I got to thinking that we wouldn't possibly be able to go to the cabin all the time, so there would be a lot of time where it would just sit empty... and loads of people like to rent cabins, evidenced by the lack of availability of that rental cabin we found. Why not rent the cabin? Hey! This is sounding awesome. Rental rates in that area are higher than most hotels charge (okay, I've never stayed at anything above a 3 star that I paid for!) And that rate even with paying someone to manage the place for us, more than covers the mortgage...maybe a bit of profit? and if no profit, if it just pays for itself then it's totally worth it. And the bonus of a rental management company... they make sure the pipes don't freeze in the winter! YAY (hubby is still for this!)
oh, the cabin I want isn't actually on a lake or pond. There is a creek though...and maybe we could build a pond like my friend's neighbors did? maybe. (*hubby rolls eyes*)
So I get this all figured out and I'm ready to make the appointment to see the place and drive up there, when Yahoo News puts out this story about how housing prices are expected to continue to fall and will probably be 20% lower in the next two year. TWO YEARS! :( That means we'll be waiting on this dream...and I'll be checking the website to see if this cabin remains available... but even if it doesn't there are others. oh well, I can wait...I think. :D
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 07, 2011
House Rules Revisited sigh
Okay, I'm quite aware that the way I run my house isn't the same as everyone else. (God makes us all different, our parents raise us all different...so we are all different.) I have a plan and it works for us...most of the time.
I feel very blessed that my loving husband was well trained by his parents and isn't a slob who leaves his dirty clothes all over the place. He also doesn't leave dirty dishes all over...or even leave the toilet seat up! I am hoping and praying that Darly will be equally blessed when she finds her soul mate.
Some rules we have around here are:
There are TWO acceptable locations for dirty clothing. 1) a clothing hamper (locations in each bathroom and in the child's bedroom) or 2) the laundry room. Clothing left in any other location will result in severe nagging and or the clothing not being washed.
If YOU are the one to use up the last of an item that needs to be replaced, YOU must write that item on the grocery list. You cannot tell the MOM that you are out of said item. She has too much to do to remember that you ran out of said item. (that reminds MOM that she should post a separate list for items that we don't buy at the grocery store.) If you don't put the item on the shopping list, don't expect for it to magically replace itself...unless YOU would like to make a trip to the store for it.
If YOU take something out, return it to it's original location...and DON'T expect the MOM to know where it is that you left it. MOM has a great memory, but she isn't psychic!
The reason we are revisiting the rules today is because of a conversation that began last night. When hubby returned home from work last night he noticed that Darly was doing laundry and asked if I had washed jeans. When I informed him that I wasn't doing laundry and that yes he still had plenty of time to get his jeans in the wash, he let me know that he wanted a certain pair of his jeans washed. I let him know that I would not be washing jeans that evening.
So today I decided that I should probably go ahead and wash our clothes as hubby had that pair of jeans he wanted washed. I collected the hampers and proceeded to start the wash...I always do the whites first as they tend to have the most items that need air drying and the heat from the dryer tends to speed this process along. However, upon sorting the clothing I realized that hubby's jeans were NOT in the hamper. Hummm? Where are hubby's jeans?
So I call him...he answers on the first ring. I ask where his jeans that he wanted washed are. and he informs me that they are hanging in the closet...along with all the CLEAN laundry! I question the thinking of hanging up the dirty jeans that he wanted washed. He explains that he didn't know when I would be doing the wash. Um I just don't get it!
Then he asks if I'm also washing towels. uh yeah, I don't save up for a special wash day for each item...if it's in the hampers, it gets washed. Taking that as a yes, he asks if I can go and get two towels out of a cardboard box in the garage and wash them also. He isn't sure which box. Wash day should NOT be a scavenger hunt! Oye! I shouldn't have called and just let the jeans wait until genius remembered to put them in the hamper...it isn't as if that's his only pair of jeans.
The other two rules I posted are just there for your amusement today...no one in the house has broken them recently, so there's no humorous story to go with them.
I feel very blessed that my loving husband was well trained by his parents and isn't a slob who leaves his dirty clothes all over the place. He also doesn't leave dirty dishes all over...or even leave the toilet seat up! I am hoping and praying that Darly will be equally blessed when she finds her soul mate.
Some rules we have around here are:
There are TWO acceptable locations for dirty clothing. 1) a clothing hamper (locations in each bathroom and in the child's bedroom) or 2) the laundry room. Clothing left in any other location will result in severe nagging and or the clothing not being washed.
If YOU are the one to use up the last of an item that needs to be replaced, YOU must write that item on the grocery list. You cannot tell the MOM that you are out of said item. She has too much to do to remember that you ran out of said item. (that reminds MOM that she should post a separate list for items that we don't buy at the grocery store.) If you don't put the item on the shopping list, don't expect for it to magically replace itself...unless YOU would like to make a trip to the store for it.
If YOU take something out, return it to it's original location...and DON'T expect the MOM to know where it is that you left it. MOM has a great memory, but she isn't psychic!
The reason we are revisiting the rules today is because of a conversation that began last night. When hubby returned home from work last night he noticed that Darly was doing laundry and asked if I had washed jeans. When I informed him that I wasn't doing laundry and that yes he still had plenty of time to get his jeans in the wash, he let me know that he wanted a certain pair of his jeans washed. I let him know that I would not be washing jeans that evening.
So today I decided that I should probably go ahead and wash our clothes as hubby had that pair of jeans he wanted washed. I collected the hampers and proceeded to start the wash...I always do the whites first as they tend to have the most items that need air drying and the heat from the dryer tends to speed this process along. However, upon sorting the clothing I realized that hubby's jeans were NOT in the hamper. Hummm? Where are hubby's jeans?
So I call him...he answers on the first ring. I ask where his jeans that he wanted washed are. and he informs me that they are hanging in the closet...along with all the CLEAN laundry! I question the thinking of hanging up the dirty jeans that he wanted washed. He explains that he didn't know when I would be doing the wash. Um I just don't get it!
Then he asks if I'm also washing towels. uh yeah, I don't save up for a special wash day for each item...if it's in the hampers, it gets washed. Taking that as a yes, he asks if I can go and get two towels out of a cardboard box in the garage and wash them also. He isn't sure which box. Wash day should NOT be a scavenger hunt! Oye! I shouldn't have called and just let the jeans wait until genius remembered to put them in the hamper...it isn't as if that's his only pair of jeans.
The other two rules I posted are just there for your amusement today...no one in the house has broken them recently, so there's no humorous story to go with them.
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