We went up to the Dam Cabin this weekend with high expectations. It was the first time Andrew and Erin would see the palace. We were going to check out the work that Dan the builder had done so far. It was a very enjoyable, family weekend, with a few minor surprises.
There's a lot more snow up in Aitkin than we have in the Twin Cities. We took an extended tour of the estate, and there were spots on the hike where we were slogging through almost two feet of snow. Poor Louis had a difficult time! Andrew and Erin seemed to enjoy it.
We hauled a whole truck load of stuff up there. We got a nice chair and footstool from Deb at work - thank you Deb! - we brought up a TV and a DVD player, a couple of small tables, a kitchen table, our new countertop, and a very special present from Alaska.
Ever since we started looking for lake property I've been mouthing off about getting a moose head or deer head for the wall of whatever cabin we purchased. Every time Andrew writes to us about his friends who hunt, or the kids who take time off from school to stock the larder with moose steaks, or even the mere mention of the word moose, I respond with, "Don't forget to ask about the head!" It's a joke. I never expected to end up with an actual moose head. There was always the dream of finding some old moth-eaten trophy at a garage sale or thrift store. What I didn't expect was what Andrew and Erin gave me for Christmas. It's not a head, but it's still going to look SUPERB on the wall above our new fireplace! They brought down a set of real moose antlers in a big box on the plane with them. They announced they came from a moose named Mortimer, so that's what we'll call them.
Joining us on Saturday were Erin and Andrew's friends Katie, Katie, and Jess (I probably spelled their names wrong. I'm sure someone out there in cyberland will correct me!) It was fun to have company. We watched movies, played Trivial Pursuit, and talked about the good old days. Both Erin and Jess are expecting in 2009.
(Andrew, Erin, Jess, and Katie B.)
That's the good news. We also had one of those weekends when everything seemed to go wrong. At least everything that had to do with water. When we first got there on Friday night we noticed that there was no hot water. Somehow, sometime, the water heater had been turned off. I thought Dan had done it when he was working on the fireplace. He thought we'd done it to save on propane. I didn't want to try to relight it if there was an open gas line somewhere, so we didn't have any hot water until Dan came over on Saturday and helped us get it going. We also noticed that the kitchen sink was not draining. I took the trap off and cleaned it, but it still wouldn't drain. When Dan came over he tried snaking a wire down the drain, but that didn't help either. We bought some Draino, but that didn't do any good. Water would sit in the sinks and then eventually, slowly, drain down. After two days of trying to unplug that drain we noticed that there was water seeping up out of the kitchen floor boards. Where was that coming from? What could possibly go wrong next? We opened the dishwasher, and it was full of water. All of the standing water in the sink that we thought was slowly seeping down the drain was really flowing back into the dishwasher, and when it got too full it was overflowing down under the floorboards! So, now we have a plugged drain, and a flood under the floor. The wood laminate was glued down on top of an old linoleum floor, so that water's probably just sitting there trying to go somewhere.
Not much has leaked down and ruined the basement ceiling, but if we don't dry it up it'll just get icky and moldy under there. I don't know what we're going to do about that! We might have to pull up the whole kitchen floor and replace it. Dam Cabin!
At least we had hot water and the other drains were working, so we did the dishes in the laundry room sink. Everyone helped. It was a Chinese Dishwashing Drill from kitchen to laundry and back again.
This is our year to learn about all the highs and lows of cabin ownership, but couldn't we have a few more highs and not quite this low a low? More to come I'm sure! We're headed back in a few days to celebrate the New Year with some of Tyler's friends.
