Just over two weeks from now my middle child, Josh, my three-year-old granddaughter, his girlfriend, and her two-year-old son will be here for the weekend to celebrate his birthday and Mother's Day. I'm so excited. I haven't seen them since the Before Times. My little granddaughter has grown so much since I've seen her. I'm hoping we get lovely weather. We should have the fire pit finished, the pier in, and the kayaks delivered up to the lake house by then.
Today the weather is not so lovely - it's been snowing, but tomorrow it'll be much, much warmer, thank goodness.
Bond and I had a heart-to-heart talk Monday night about stuff that was bothering me about our relationship and things feel so solid between us right now. That in turn affects the triad relationship and that's feel really good now, too. Pretty happy right now.
The lake house was supposed to be chemical washed today, but they rescheduled for Monday because of the weather. Tomorrow the mini-split A/C is being installed. It's also possible that the pier is going to be delivered any day now. And, the neighbor's landscaper hasn't shown this week so far and I hope he's a no show all week, so I can get the pier brought in through the neighbor's backyard. That would make my life so much simpler!
Friday Bond and I are heading to the lake house and I think Wil might also be arriving on Friday. I should message him to see what day he's planning on arriving. B is coming up on Saturday. The Therapist has client appointments on Saturday, so he won't be coming. We're going to bust ass to get the fire pit completed. (Started it Thursday, April 15th.) We have 40-70 lb blocks and 24-17 lb caps to get to the fire pit area. WP transported them to the house, unloaded them by himself. Stacked the caps right where the damn A/C unit is going. Had to move them when we got the call that they're installing it Thursday - and not in May like we were expecting. The neighbor let WP know that he'll help move the blocks to the fire pit with his ATV - yay! He won't do the loading/unloading (can't blame him), but hauling them is such a big deal. I'm so happy to hear that. It's almost impossible to bring a wagon or anything like that around the house and down the hill. The neighbor's property is level and abuts mine.
Creating a level area for the fire pit with the bobcat.
WP leveling the limestone screening.
Bond and I moved the bucket loads of screening to fill in behind the wall and pushed it into the block holes.
Partway through the day WP told me to order 10 more yards of screening. Personally, I believe it ended up being more than we needed. But it's okay, because now we'll have a huge area that will fit more Adirondack chairs around the fire pit. It also means we need to level the ground on the lower side of the fire pit, set the blocks, and move the screening by hand/rake/shovel. That's the work we'll be doing this coming weekend. I bought a fire ring kit and the blocks to go around it. It's going to be stellar.
I need to buy the chairs to go around it and that'll run $2k. Zoicks. I keep reminding myself that you have to spend money to make money and I set my ADR quite high to make this possible and people are booking. Just gotta remind myself to keep breathing and not panic.
My photographer niece did a photoshoot on Saturday of the house, so hopefully I'll have the photos before too many more days and can get them posted to the various listing sites. I busted ass Friday to get the deck power washed prior to her coming Saturday. I was really upset with Bond for not helping me on Wednesday with all of the things I needed to get done. He chose to help B clean a new construction house in Kenosha instead - even though she hadn't asked for help and I had. He came up on Thursday with WP and returned that night. I arrived on Wednesday and returned Saturday morning, because I was scheduled to get my second Pfizer vaccination. I busted ass those 3 1/2 days and was literally running to get all of the things done that I needed to Saturday morning to get out of there on time to make my appointment. I was near tears so many times.
The heart to heart was about feeling like there is favoritism for B over me on issues like this and also intimate things. We talked things through and he hadn't realized what some of his actions and choices were conveying, and he also said that he hadn't realized how much I needed to get accomplished. He doesn't look at the calendar and go, hey in five weeks we need everything to be ready for the summer season or hey, we have these three days and then the following weekend, but other than that all of the weekends are booked between now and the end of May. Once we hit mid-June, the place is booked solid and we won't have access. It needs to be ready to roll.
Sunday my cleaner, her back-up, and her husband, are doing yard work to collect the millions of oak leaves that cover the hill.
Today I got my first repeat guest booking and this time it was a direct booking which rocks. They were there in March and booked another weekend in late October. Oh, wow, just checked my calendar and I only have one open weekend in October which means from early May to late October all of the weekends are booked and during the summer months all of the days except for two four day blocks in early June are booked.
I remind myself that this is probably the most stressful, and expensive, that it's going to be. That after I get past this last push it'll be less stressful and the things will be all purchased/built.
I invited Franki and her hubby and Michelle and her hubby to join us at the lake house for two of our four days in late August. I'm really looking forward to that! Naya told Bond that she and her bf want to come up to see it. He told her that we're going to be there this weekend, but she didn't think they'd come up this time. I'm wondering when she might actually come if not this weekend. Maybe if those two June blocks don't book we'll go then and they can join us.
Oh, there's some sunshine happening. Yay! Ciao.