You may or may not have noticed, but I haven’t written a blog lately…
Last time I wrote, though, we were on a boomerang trip to Michigan (visiting Richard and Shannan, and family – they come up in my blogs from time to time) where we stayed for a month. (More about that trip later.)
One night, during our visit, we were all sitting up having some inspirational drinks (wine for the girls, scotch for the boys) and having one of those inspirational conversations that people often have at 2:30 in the morning, and it went something like:
“Hey! You know what we should do? We should all by a house together and rent it out!”
“YEAH! LET’S DO IT!!”
and then, it didn’t come up again – I completely forgot, until on the way home.
I said to Peter: “I wonder if they thought we were serious about that? Or if they thought it was just one of those fun-to-talk-about-at-the-time conversations?”
Not too long after that, we got a text: “Look what we found!”
Maybe just the cutest cottage EVER!
It’s 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom cottage walking distance (maybe 3-5 minutes) to Lake Michigan.
We can see The Lake from the living room window.
It’s right beside a nice park with a playground, and 630 feet of white sand beach!
Richard’s family already has a cottage here and he’s been coming for 30+ years to visit the area. So, we know all the ins-and-outs of the place – where’s the best restaurant, where’s the nearest golfing, where can you find a local chocolateria, and don’t forget the wineries!! (Also, Michigan has recently voted a #1 place to come for beer connoisseur with all of their local Craft beers!)
Basically, there’s something for everyone in Michigan, and especially at our cottage! 
Let me tell you all about it! (This has been all-encompassing for me, which is one reason I haven’t been around in blog-world.)
As soon as we decided to purchase it, I decided I had to make a quilt. Having never had made quilts before, I decided the best thing for a LakeShore cottage was a “rag quilt”. I could go on and on about rag-quilts, but then my blog would be about quilting. Suffice it to say: I bought a sewing machine and made my first quilt, and now it’s in Michigan, in the main bedroom.
As mentioned, the Cottage has 2 bedrooms. One is on the main level with a super comfy queen size bed, and the second is kind of like a loft bedroom with 4 (also comfortable) twin size beds.
The most picturesque thing about The Cottage is that it has an enclosed front porch solarium area with summer screen windows – I cannot wait to have a nap out there in the summer. That is, if the hammock (which will hang between two of the oak trees) is occupied!
Right now, the Cottage is a one bathroom place, but we have big plans for that second bathroom, and there’s talk about an outdoor shower, too.
The area is mostly known for summer activities (wine tours, bicycling, hiking, walking around the cute little character towns – Saugatuck, South Haven & Douglas (we are about 5 minutes from Saugatuck, 3 from Douglas, and 10-ish from South Haven) but we all agree that it is gorgeous in the winter and people should be invited to come - maybe cross country skiing, snow shoeing, snow fort building… possibilities are endless!! (To this end, we’ve added a gas fireplace – well, like a wood stove fireplace.)
We have a currently undeveloped basement (home of a future bathroom), but it does have a laundry utility room down there, and we are working on converting the rest into a social place for kids. (One portion for a TV, DVD player, books, etc – a movie area - and the rest for a playground for smaller children. So far (because we just have arrived Thursday night and are leaving Monday), we have added those rubber prime colored square puzzle flooring pieces, and it seems to be a hit with Shannan & Richard’s 4-year-old son, so yay!!
We’ve installed cable, Wi-Fi, and free long distance phone calls.
Let me see… what else!!? Well, I’m sure I’ll have more to say the more I get to know the place and the more the updates continue, but for now:
JUST COME VISIT!!
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