Building The Love Shack

Hello, is there anyone out there? Where did you guys go? What happened after you sold the cottage? How is the family? And by the way, we really miss your blog, please write again.

Those are just a few of the messages I have received over the past few months.

With the increase of new followers of the blog and the many emails, I figured I better sit down and write.

I’ll start with… We are settled into what we are now calling, our forever home. And now I’ll take you through the process.

There was much packing and unpacking, and sorting to do.

The first job we had to do was to go through what we would be keeping and what we would be discarding. Once that was done it went like this…

First, luck was on our side. The timing couldn’t have been better when we sold.

It worked out that our neighbor’s church was having a charity garage sale in two weeks. She opened up the back of her van and in the first week we made two-van-loads of donations to the sale.

Then came the kitchen… Ah yes, the dreaded kitchen discussion. Though I never did get that new kitchen at the cottage, I did get one. At the house.

With lots of new cupboard space, most of the kitchen items were brought into the house. The rest has been packed away for the future purchase of the RV.

The chairs from the main room were brought in for use in the family room which made Juliette happy as she now has her favorite chair to sit in every day.

The bed and end tables from the main bedroom were set up and are being used in one of the bedrooms. The chandler was left behind, but a new one was bought to match the set.

The couch has been placed in the three-season room, which is now being used as my craft room and reading room.

The furniture for the decks has been placed in storage and will be used for the new backyard. Once the pool goes in this Spring, new decks will be built around the pool and all the furniture will be placed in its new space.

As for beach towels, floaty toys, and all those other odds and ends. They too have been placed aside to be used in the pool area.

The BBQ, the chimenea, and the smoker are already in use here in the yard.

The birdhouses. You didn’t think I would leave them behind did you? Of course not. They’re going up in the Spring.

I look forward to being able to enjoy them every day when I look out the windows. But they are being placed in the front of the property. As much as I love the birds, I don’t want any poop in the saltwater pool. Remember I mentioned it was a heated pool. The idea of nice warm bird poop soup does not sound exciting to swim in.

The few items that had the Love Shack name on them have also been donated to a local charity. The girl who works there told me the same person bought them all. I do believe someone else has a place called the Love Shack.

As for my cottage clothes, most of them got tossed as I never wore any good clothes there as we were always working. I must say it’s nice to dress in decent clothes again. Oh yes, and a size smaller. Since we sold the cottage I now have time to use my gym again.

As for all those groceries, wines, and other edible items, don’t laugh but we are still going through them. Remember, I had a lot of family members to feed every weekend. Now we meet in a lot of nice restaurants, and I am enjoying someone else doing the cooking.

About the family? I’ll cover that in the next blog. But what I will tell you, is that the family has again gotten larger.

I don’t know who wrote those psychology books I read in school that stated that after age sixty, your world gets smaller. I can tell you since I left the cottage and turned sixty, my world has done many things, but getting smaller is not one of them.

Now I will answer a few questions I received…

Do you regret selling the cottage? Absolutely not!

And do you miss it? Not for a second.

The cottage came into our lives at the right time. It also left our lives at the right time. Everything has a time, a reason, or a season. and I truly believe, everything happens for a reason.

The cottage gave us a place for our family to grow. We learned about each other. We added new ideas and experiences. But the love, that’s the family.

And the family? We are still good and going strong.

Thank you for continuing to be interested in our blog. I will update you soon.

Sending Love from The Family

Lacie