Tuesday, July 27, 2010

"Down Time" Virtual Tour

I figured it's time for me to chronicle the little abode that occupies so much of my time lately.  If if weren't for the lake house, there are so many things I could have accomplished.  But this little place, rustic thought it may be, has been a real treasure.  Maybe one day, possibly even soon, I'll grow tired of it, but for now, all I can say is, I am immensely thankful for the wonderful childhood memories of "summers at the lake" we are able to create for Andrew, and for the as yet uncounted days of "vacation" that are much higher than they would be under normal circumstances.  So, here it is, a look inside our summer weekends.

The front porch.  Fancy, isn't it?


Just inside the front door--our newly installed kitchenette, complete with unfinished walls and a plywood floor. Yes, that's a shower curtain you see to the right, because we are fortunate enough to have what most of the other "houses" don't have...

...a spacious (and also unfinished, if you have noticed the ceiling) and conveniently-located shower!  MOST people have to shower in one of the two bath houses, and while there is nothing at all WRONG with that, I am SOOOOO glad to be able to shower in my kitchen own home.

Just past the kitchen is the...foyer?  Be sure to pronounce that with a French accent.  Andrew's toys live on this shelf, when they aren't strewn about, that is.

Standing in the exact same spot and looking toward the right, you will find the entrance to our "room."  I have resisted stenciling "If the trailer's rockin',don't come a-knockin'" above the door here. 

Our room, oh-so-tastefully (and modernly) decorated with avocado counter tops, circa 1974, and the lovely chintz curtains that don't match a damn thing.  The paneling is hot, too, I know!  (I can't flipping wait to paint in there, but I have better things to do on sunny summer days!)  We ripped out most of the dinette set, leaving only a little couch and a shelf.  Andrew's little t.v. and DVD player hook up there for afternoon rest times and rainy days.
I never realized until now how much like a submarine this looks.  This is where the magic happens.  Or not, considering Andrew sleeps on a shelf above our heads.  This is why the stenciling hasn't happened yet.  I'm waiting for the night Andrew falls out of bed and lands on us, breaking all four of our legs.  Some of the fringe benefits of our sleeping arrangement?  The air conditioner blows right at our heads, which is a double bonus.  I love to be cold when I sleep, but the noise also drowns out the freight train snoring of the hubby which is amplified tenfold inside this tin can.  It's also very entertaining when James shoves his pillow up so high on the headboard that he knocks the lamp over and scares the crap out of me in the middle of the night.  I've moved the lamp, but it just doesn't look right if it's not centered.  It would mess up the feng shui we have going here. In all seriousness, we sleep quite comfortably...well, if you ignore the fact that our "mattress" is the same material as the cushion you see on the little couch in the previous picture, with three "egg crate" mattress pads layered on top (one of them is even memory foam...insert "oooh" and "ahhhh" as appropriate).  That would all be quite comfortable if they didn't slide away from the wall as I slip gradually into the crack throughout the night. 

The tiny bathroom is also inside the submarine, but I forgot to take a picture.  It's not exciting.  There is currently no toilet, and the sink isn't hooked up to water yet (the water can't be on until the toilet is fixed, because the first weekend we stayed there and tried to turn the water on in there, the toilet flooded this whole room.  We're waiting for a tiny little part the size of a paper clip, but unfortunately, the only person who knows what to buy keeps forgetting to go buy it.  Good thing we're not paying him!

Back to the foyer, this time moving straight ahead into the living room.

Wait, when did he get here?

I have to point out the lovely wall that James and my sister's boyfriend built (with my dad's assistance) to separate her room from the living room.  The previous owners used this area as their kitchen and dining area...there's a small step up into her room.  For space reasons, we opted for curtains instead of a door.

Inside Leigh Ann's room.  She also has the luxury of an air conditioner pointed at her head so she is saved from hearing the reverberations of the snoring from inside the submarine.

We still do dishes in her room, because it's the only sink with running water so far.

The view down the hill.  The lake is down there somewhere.  We drive down the hill, or take the golf cart, because the walk back up is a bitch, especially after a long day in the sun and the water.

But eventually, you get to this, the reason for it all...Andrew loves to fish in our quiet cove.
When the water is low, we can swim to the very end of the cove and sit on the little beach...it's not sand, but it will do.
Andrew enjoys being able to stand up and run in and out of the water in the shallows.  I try to avoid touching the slightly mucky bottom, plus I'm never quite sure what I'm stepping on.  Stick?  Snake?  Let's not go there...Andrew's water shoes keep his feet safe.
The only visitors we have in the deep water where the dock is, besides a family of Canada geese,  are the fish...perch and stripers that occasionally nip at us while we swim.  I feed them crackers, and they leave me alone.  I am the Fish Whisperer.  I also float quite nicely without benefit of a raft, and even without moving. It's the boobs--built-in flotation devices.
Andrew swims very well with his life jacket on.  He'd wear it even if he could swim without it.  The water right there is about 60 feet deep.

If we're lucky, and we usually are, the ice cream boat will come by.  Fishing and ice cream are two things we'll get out of the water for.

All in all, we're very lucky.  It's not spacious, and it's not luxurious, but it suits us just fine.

4 comments:

Debbie said...

Oh summer fun! I was totally with you on the lake until you started talking about no knowing what you might be stepping on in the water. I can relate. My parents have a cottage on a lake and when we were little there were a lot of crawfish. I seemed to always be stepping on one in the water and then having to detach it from my toes.

Diana said...

Ah yes, but its your little bungalow. I think it's cute! And you guys have done gret work on it.

Forgot to say in my other comment how much I love your profile blurb -- great wording, made me chuckle! =)

Diana said...

And I just noticed how bad my keyboard needs replacing now. I'm hitting the keys and some of them aren't working half the time. Please excuse the typos. :p

Tobye said...

Love the submarine bedroom!

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