Life in Grand Marais

It's been a while since I gave an update of what's happening in our lives—probably since November. That's quite a while ago now. So, here's a whirlwind update on the last 3-4 months.

In October, Dave put the cabins up for sale. We had moved into an apartment in town, about ¾ mile from the cabins, in September; winterizing one of the cabins was too much work—plus if the place sold, where would that leave us? Anyway, throughout September and early October, until the cabins closed, I would ride my bike over every day and take care of things.

In November, I went down to Warsaw (and then to AAR/SBL) for 3 weeks. I wrote about that back then; you can find the first post here. Before I left, Max and Sherri, the people who own the bed and breakfast next door, Macarthur House, had made an offer on the cabins; Dave accepted it. The closing was scheduled to happen sometime in November, while I was in Indiana.

Max approached Debbie and me about continuing to work at the cabins; they wouldn't be able to keep up with all the cabins plus the bed and breakfast. In exchange for the work, we could live in the house. We accepted, but because we had a year lease on the apartment, weren't sure how it would work out. Plus, Dave and Geneva would stay in the house until at least the end of December. So, we tentatively planned on moving into the house in the Spring, paying the rent on the apartment for the last 3 months without living in it.

Max suggested we talk to our landlord, Paul, about breaking the lease. Turns out that they are friends! So, hat-in-hand (so to speak), I approached Paul. He was most gracious, saying that it looked like a great opportunity for both Max and us; he allowed us to break the lease with just the loss of one month's rent. Mind you, this whole thing has been bathed in prayer and seeking the Lord. I hate breaking leases; it strikes me as unfaithful and a bad witness. I don't recall ever breaking one before...

The closing happened while I was in Indiana; Dave and Geneva moved out at the end of December. In January, we started cleaning, painting, and clearing out stuff from the cabins that had accumulated over the 20+ years that Dave and Geneva had owned them.

You'd never know by looking at my desk at Eisenbrauns, but I'm somewhat of a clean freak, as is Debbie. My desk at home is rarely messy; it might have a few open books for a day or so as I work on something, but it never gets out of hand. Anyway, we attacked the place pretty thoroughly. I spent the better part of January and half of February cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, painting, etc. No matter how good a housekeeper you are, living in a place for over 20 years allows dust and dirt to accumulate, so this is not an indictment against Dave or Geneva!

I had a good time mixing and matching the paints left in the basement to paint the walls and floor. I wanted it to be bright and cheery, as that is where the washer and dryers are. I will be spending a good bit of time down there during the summer! I ended up with brown walls for the first 3 feet (to cover the dirt and stuff that will inevitably build up), with yellow, light blue, or dark blue above that. The floor is a dark evergreen or brown. The ceilings are flat white. I like it, anyway. : )

By the middle of February, we were ready to move in...Is anyone keeping track of how many times we've moved in the last 11 months?! We're getting pretty good at it : )

Just in case you are wondering, this is the fifth place we've lived in in those 11 months. We sold the house (1) in March, moved back into “little white” (as Debbie called it) (2) for 2 months, then the cabins (3) for 2 months, followed by the apartment (4) for 6 months, and now the house (5).

We really like it. There is an enclosed backyard that has real potential for a nice garden. I'm hoping to put a hoop house and some cold frames back there. There is also a nice deck for containerized growing. And—get this!—Dave had built a shed that he used as a greenhouse! Yep, a real enclosed one with southern exposure and a real roof. He had modified it over the years to do other things, so I'll need to change it back a bit, but still... I'll try to post about all this as time goes on...

That's enough for now, but stay tuned; I'll have some pictures soon (I hope!)