The Deaners

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Girls camp june 8, 2021

During this crazy time in Utah, I also had girls camp! I was helping my friend Alisha, and together we were having fun seeing what we could come up with given the current pandemic.

Because of Covid, we had planned to do a camp in our own backyards. We were not sure what would be allowed, so we planned incase nothing had opened up. We thought it would be fun to float the Jordan River, have other activities in our backyards, and not do an overnight this year, as things were so unpredictable. We were excited about our plans despite the pandemic!

We had purchased a bunch of rafts for the girls to use. Dean and I decided we should do a trial run, to see where we would need to help the girls get in and out of the river, and also time it, so we could plan the other activities around that.

So on June 2, Dean and I floated the river. Total FAIL! Dean popped his raft within the first half hour. He had to keep his finger on the hole and try to navigate the river. These rafts were too hard to control. Because we are in a drought, the water level was super low! A lot of the time on the river was spent carrying our rafts. We banged up against the rocks most of the time. We finally gave up, and had Braden come pick us up.

Now I'm in full panic mode!

What am I going to have all those girls do for ?! How are we going to change all our plans at this point?!

I had called Dean's sister Nancy, to see if we could rent her kayaks, thinking those might work better than these rafts. She suggested a lake out by her. She knew a "secret" beach, that our girls could use, and we would have it all to ourselves.

Alisha and I jumped in the car, met up with Nancy, and checked out the beach. It was amazing! Once again, we were excited, but only after being super stressed! Nancy also offered her water toys, her beach games, and her snowcone maker! It was going to be a party after all!

The lake was awesome! We had a great time, and then went back to my house for games, dinner, and a meeting around a campfire...minus the campfire because of the drought!

Alisha was amazing! Even when things were really stressful, we were still laughing, panicking, and having fun....kind of.

(Me and my cute friend Claire)

Its over! And it was a success! See, all that worrying totally paid off!

Girls camp on the 8th, cabin closing on the 9th, and Dean flies back to Michigan on the 10th.

Our lives are crazy right now!

Monday, June 7, 2021

May 7, 2021 New adventure in Commerce Township, Michigan May 2021

Dean and I decided we wanted to spend more time with the Michigan kids, so we started looking for a vacation home there. We had some big decisions. Do we keep or sell the cabin? How far from Amanda's should we be looking? Lake front? How much are we willing to spend? So many decisions! We started making decisions....and life changed, a lot!

We found this tiny little cottage on a lake, 37 minutes from Amanda's house (36 miles). The lot is amazing, the homes next to it are big and much newer. Ours was build in 1940. Sounded like a fun project. We decided to sell the cabin, so when we are in Utah, our time isn't divided between our home and the cabin. When we are in Michigan, we are not overstaying our welcome at Amanda's.

We called this the "saggy roof house".

Amanda and Nora went and checked it out for us before we made the drive out.

We drove out from Utah to close on the Michigan house, and get started. (We now refer to this house as the "Lake House".)We stayed at Mason and Allison's house in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are exactly half way between Utah and Michigan. It was so fun to meet their kids and catch up with Mason and Allison.

We closed on our house on May 7. Now the fun begins!

Our plan is to take off the roof, add a second story, remove the bay window, and add garage that over laps the house where the bay window is.

This wall heater stopped working the first night we spent at the house.

There is no furnace in this cottage. I have sense learned that a cottage means a structure that only gets used on the weekends, not someone's home. Similar to what we would call a cabin...I think.

The rooms in this cottage are tiny and weird. The kitchen is big enough that it will be fun to redesign.

The total square footage is just over 850. About 600 on the main floor, and a attic room or about 250. Our plan is to make the upstairs the same size as the downstairs, which means it will be over 1200 sq ft. The main floor has 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, Kitchen, living room (9x9) and some random space that is about 5 ft x 8ft. Not even big enough for a couch or a bed.

Time to start drawing!

Dean drew up our plans, and submitted them to the township. We had to do a separate application for the garage, because it was going to need a zoning variance, and we didn't want that process to slow down working on the house.

Mike, Amanda, and kids (and Phoebe and Simon) came to check out the place!

Nobody is allowed to have fences back by the lake, so it's one big field of grass. Super friendly neighbors.

We are learning about lake life. Never had to repair a dock before!

We made the decision to sell that cabin while we were in Michigan. So after spending 2 weeks at our new Lake house, we headed back to Utah to try to get the cabin sold. We weren't issued our building permit yet, so we were pretty limited on what we could do to the house before we left for Utah on May 18.