Building The Love Shack

Our first Thanksgiving at the cottage turned out to be Long Johns and Turkey.

Day One: Time to start painting.

The Cast Iron Stove was installed August, but with my surgery, the concrete pad to place the propane tank on had gotten delayed. This meant the propane delivery to run the stove, also got delayed.

This past weekend was cool, making it chilly by the lake. The lack of heat inside, made it chiller on the inside than it was outside.

We packed up portable electric heaters and many crock pots, and headed off to paint the bedrooms.

The kids, as we like to still call our adult children, primed the bedrooms. The guys were outside, mixing up the concrete to pour to make that much-needed concrete pad. This put me in the make shift kitchen with a table full of crock-pots and extension cords running in many different directions, to get heating up the our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Soon, the concrete pad had started to set, and so we did what all other silly people do when they see concrete drying, we placed our hands in it, to leave our mark in time.

 

 

 

The walls were primed and it was time to take a break and have dinner.

A quick vote was taken and dinner outside with the lovely viewed, got voted out for dinner inside the cottage, with the heat.

Folding tables were set up, and folding chairs were added. No tablecloth on the table, paper plates and plastic silverware, and wine served in plastic cups. This was by far our least formal family holiday dinner.

We ate too much, had seconds on dessert, played a little Frisbee with Coco, and got back to painting. The ceiling still had to be done.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, we had a concrete pad, the walls were primed and the ceiling were painted. Day one was a success.

Day two came, and back we drove to the cottage.

With crock-pots packed for another dinner, more paint supplies and another pair of Long Johns, off to work we went. It was time to start putting the colors on the walls.

As the other cottagers were busy closing up their cottages and packing their cars, our cottage was busy at work.

More coats of paint, and another dinner in front of the electric heaters, come the end of the day, we had the first signs of bedrooms.

 

 

 

Day three came, with the holiday over and back to the cottage I drove to meet up with the guys delivering the propane tank. The tank was installed. I received a lesson on how to work the Cast Iron Stove and the heat was officially turned on.

 

 

This first Thanksgiving will be remembered with the family working together, hand-prints marked in concrete, turkey served on paper plates and Long Johns.

With the heat now working well in the cottage, we will be heading up next weekend to start laying the hard-wood floors.

 

My lesson in learning to work the Cast Iron Stove, came with instructions that when I am up next weekend to turn on the stove all the way up and leave it running for eight hours.

Next weekend we may be wearing shorts to lay those hardwood floors.