We had a lot to do to close up the family lake house for the year. We didn’t fully open it, but when it’s just me and Karissa doing the work – it takes time. So we came up on Saturday and planned to leave on Tuesday afternoon.
And just because we weren’t at home, we couldn’t ignore school! Thank goodness it’s virtual this year!
We didn’t take many photos of the kids this week. We took night and morning pictures of the lake, lots of pictures of Runty experiencing the place for the first time, and just tried to get everything done. Karissa spent days and days cleaning, doing laundry, and helping the kids with school while I hid in a corner and tried to navigate the stock market chop.
Each afternoon, we’d ask “Should we stay one more night?” And the answer was always “Yes.” We thought about just doing enough to close one house and coming back for a day to close the other house, but decided it wasn’t worth the extra trip. So we stayed and believe we have it all done and ready to be left alone for another winter…
Actually, we were preparing the house for a neighbor family to occupy it for a while as the weather turns colder. They had a water line break in their house doing untold damage. As they’re dealing with insurance to get it all repaired, they’ve been living in their RV in the driveway. That’s not a bad life when the weather is mild or even hot, but RVs and cold weather don’t really mix. The man of the family is someone we’ve hired a few times at the lakefront property to cut down trees. With the derecho a month ago or so, he did some tree cutting for us – which is how Karissa’s parents found out about his home damage and winter living predicament. In their giving, helpful nature, they offered their Wisconsin home to the family as they navigate insurance negotiations. To de-stress about the coming cold weather. So that’s the big reason Karissa worked so hard cleaning the house – to get it habitable to non-family. She did a great job!
