Meandering Experience
EPISODE: ONE
Around this time last year I started an adventure. Truthfully the full adventure started a few years before that, but I’ll fast forward to the more exciting parts.
Last April I, along with family, started seriously planning a renovation for Bayside Hideaway. First of all, it’s the cabin to those of us on the “inside”. We decided to give it a more flashy name because of marketing and so on, but it will forever be the cabin to my family.
The cabin (stage name: Bayside Hideaway) has been in our family for about 30 years. Right at the end of my 3rd grade year, when I was about 9, our family moved out of the traditional small-town house where we lived in Bowlus, MN and moved into a funky large apartment above my father’s restaurant in Little Falls, MN - The Black and White Hamburger Shoppe (or Cafe). Sure, apartment living isn’t unusual, but this was an unusual apartment. That’s a story for another time. So, we had the cafe, and then the cabin.
The cabin came onto the scene a few years after we moved to Little Falls. It was built as a summer fishing shack back in the 1950s. Somehow this modest structure managed to be preserved and slowly cobbled into something slightly more livable by the family before us and then by my family. Each improvement over the years collectively amounted to something between a glamping and a shabby-more-than-chic living experience.
What did we care? If you ever visit you will instantly understand why the condition of the cabin hardly mattered. The site is magnificently charming. So what if the walls and ceiling of the dwelling had no insulation and a mother fox occasionally birthed pups under the floor boards… just look at that view! It was all part of the “Into the Woods” meets “On Walden Pond” experience.
Young people tend to adapt to their surroundings, or at least I did. I loved being on this little corner of the river with my family, especially my mother. She and I spent a lot of time there together in the early days. I spent hours swimming in the river, finding garter snakes and frogs in the lawn, and running around barefoot all summer. The soles of my feet grew tougher with every step making them impenetrable to the rocky landscape. Their Teflon-like quality at the end of the summer was a source of great pride.
Those who know me best now would not guess that I was a scrubby river kid who would run inside to remove the occasional leech or wood tick with not a care in the world. I have since become a city gal with delicate tootsies, a great aversion to ticks - deer ticks especially (who doesn’t?!), and far less focus on things that hop and slither. Its a shame, but it’s also life.
Fast forwarding to last spring, I lead the charge for the cabin renovation over the past year. I had boatloads of help from family, a great team of skilled trades-people, and even from some friends. If you have not gone through a renovation and are considering trying your hand at it for the first time, hold on to your hat! That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it, or that I didn’t enjoy it. Rather it’s to forewarn that it is not for the faint of heart, the impatient, or those who have a hard time with compromise. If you have done a renovation, or several, you likely know exactly what I mean.
Despite my deep desire to be a laid back, chill, go-with-the flow type gal, I have the soul of a perfectionist. Making a healthy number of compromises was, as you might imagine, not an easy experience for me. Ok, fine, at times it was downright torturous and there were tears. To be fair, this place has been the heart and soul of our family for decades. Any other renovation would elicit far fewer meltdowns, or so I hope for the projects to come.
Regardless of the struggles, it was a rewarding experience. I learned a tremendous amount, and I am thrilled with the results. See the finished results here, if you haven’t already. Sorry, and as they say today not sorry, the fox and other critters will need to find elsewhere for their nesting. As intended, the cabin is now suitable for human habitation beyond my family’s modest needs.
…
With the primer now applied and drying here, much like the first coat of paint on freshly installed sheetrock, I’ll pack up for the day. Since we all rarely have the attention span for a feature length anymore (myself very much included), this shall be an episodic journey. There may even be some guest appearances and it will definitely meander to other topics. All the best journeys do!
Until the next episode, have a wonderful week.
