Cabin in the Sky

I haven't blogged for a while, but it's never too late to start again, right?

I guess I must start with Bill and my latest adventure.  The purchase of our cabin in Heber, Utah.

It has been quite a whirlwind.  We have been interested for a while now in purchasing a second property and finally felt good about looking at cabins in Utah.  We felt like it was a win-win situation all around.  We get a fun place to come for vacations, we get to be closer to family, we might get to see the sun while we are there, and it's a winter play-ground, as well.

We first started looking during conference weekend in October when we came down to Utah to see a couple of sessions at the conference center.  We looked at about 4 or 5 houses and cabins at that time.  There was one in particular that stood out to us, so after taking Debra, Nick and Sarah for a second look, we all decided that this was the one.  We made an offer on it, and less than 2 weeks later it was ours!

Our goal was to be ready to host Thanksgiving for our inaugural stay.  oh my.....it was a lofty goal.  The cabin needed floors re-done, and needed to be furnished and stocked from top to bottom....all 5600 feet of it.

So, Bill and I came up with a plan.  We would take turns traveling to Utah every weekend until Thanksgiving.  There were 5 weeks to get everything done.

I started the first weekend out.  It was my job to pick out and purchase furniture and outfit the kitchen and bathrooms.  Luckily I have wonderful sisters who spent time with me at RC Willey, and just about every other furniture store in Utah Valley.  It was an experience like no other.  I've never picked out and bought furniture in that quantity and time frame before.  I'm sure I made the salesman's whole year when I purchased 6 bedrooms of furniture in one visit.  He was very attentive, to say the least....  I actually got the bulk of the furniture picked out that first weekend!  Now the challenge was to get it all delivered and up to the cabin at 8600 feet before snow started to fall.

Didn't quite make it.....Bill's weekend was next.  We had planned to have him drive to Utah with a load of stuff from our house.  We rented a small u-haul trailer, filled it full, and he was on his way!  He invited a friend from our ward, Adam Ferguson to go with him and it's a good thing he came!  Bill's weekend was nothing like mine.  Firstly, he hit snow the first night.  A huge snow storm hit.  They made it to the cabin just fine, but the snow made every trip down the mountain a challenge.  His job that weekend was to get the big screen tv and projector hooked up, get the cameras installed and switch out the thermostat for a wifi model.  Let's just say nothing was easy.  There were many snowy, long, trips to the hardware store ,and very little sleep was had by all.  Also, the furniture, that was to be delivered that weekend was not.  Too much snow for delivery trucks, so we had to put that on hold.

We only had the weekends, though, so we really had to rely on Nick and Debra for a LOT!  They ended up going up to the cabin that Wednesday (Halloween) and being there for the furniture deliveries.  Nick also checked out our new automobile we had to buy and made sure it was a good purchase, he got us two snowmobiles and a Polaris Ranger.  We also used Deb and Nicks house for our UPS drop-off station.  Bill and I ordered many, many, many things online for the bedding, the kitchen, the bathrooms, etc.  They were all delivered to Nick and Deb's house.  (we didn't want to take the chance of having UPS trucks not able to get up the mountain).  I really hope Debra took a photo of her garage at some point during this process.  I'm sure we had it packed to capacity.  The UPS man got to be Debra's best friend and Jiminy's worst enemy.  I'm sure he thought Debra was a compulsive shopper sitting there in her house watching the shopping network.

The next few weekends consisted of taking care of details.  Many shopping trips were made.  I think we hit up just about every store in American Fork.  Getting a bare kitchen so it's usable for a Thanksgiving dinner is no small task.  There were a million and one things that I needed to buy and kept forgetting to buy.  Just when I thought I had everything, there was always more.   The last weekend I was there, I tried to make a crock-pot dinner for all the men who were up helping me move furniture in.  I discovered I had forgotten to buy a can opener.  You should have seen Debra and I getting that can of cream of chicken soup open with a knife and some ingenuity.  Thank you Debra for showing me how to put a hole in the bottom of the can and blow the contents out.  (It really works!)

The last weekend I went up about 5 days before Thanksgiving to do the final move-in and details.  Bill and the boys stayed home for a few more days so they wouldn't have to miss as much school and work.  The floors had just been finished the day before.  That was a miracle in itself.  The floor guy came through!

So we needed to have 8 bedrooms, a dining room, a living room and a loft full of furniture moved into the cabin.  Up to this point it had all been packed into the garage and the shed waiting for floors.  I asked Nick, Russ and Derek to come and help move.  What a day!   Everyone worked their poor little bums off.  Russ had pulled an all nighter at his job the day before and he looked beat.  It'a a good thing I had lots of man power there.  We needed every bit of it, but they got the job done!  Bill arrived with the boys right at the end and helped with the very last piece of furniture....the sofa-bed that weighed at least 10 thousand pounds.  Us girls (me, Debra and Sarah) were all holding our breath while 4 extremely tired men heaved a million pound sofa-bed up the stairs and over the balcony.  Scary.

I'm still amazed that it all got done!

Thanksgiving was the best!  We had a large group.  Christy and her family couldn't make it, of course, and Russ and Mari had previous plans, and Malia too far away, but other than that, everyone else came!  It was so much fun.

Bill and I made the dinner and all the other sisters and mom brought pies.  It was a beautiful pie-stravaganza.

Lots of fun was had by all.  Snowmobiles were a blast.  Hiking at 8600 feet was exhausting.  But my favorite was playing Telestrations with the sisters late at night.  I laughed so hard my face hurt.  (note to self:  If I ever play that game with sisters again, make sure to sit next to Debra. It's a guaranteed win.)

Can't wait to get back to the cabin for Christmas and New Years!!

Thanks to all who helped make our cabin dream come true!