How was your Labor Day? I’ll be honest – it wasn’t maybe our most relaxing one ever. We haven’t been to our house at Carlton Landing in what feels like an eternity (the house has been rented nonstop!), and so after a loooong week we loaded up the car for the Labor Day weekend. To be fair, we were probably already beat up and spit out by the long week of school, nonstop activities, and life in general (Internet, this is what is called foreshadowing: the theme is “home ownership can suck”). Here, quick – let’s look at a pretty shot of the house at night. Whew, that’s better.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, life is not all rainbows and unlimited snowcones at CL. To this point, we’ve been super lucky – no major maintenance issues or problems with the house. When you’re not living in a house all the time, stuff can happen. Heck, stuff happens even when you DO live in a house all the time. But in the past couple of weeks, there was a major sewer issue (EW) that cost a pretty penny. No fun, right? That’s so not fun money to spend. No. Think of the lamps I could’ve bought! And then because bad stuff always comes in threes, when we showed up on Friday night, we discovered that the wood floors in a corner of the living room were rippled up and wavy. Just like those Olympic skiers on moguls! Except us! In flip flops! Water damage of some kind that’s still to be determined. NO NO NO NO NO. Those beautiful wood floors. UGH. It just makes me sick to my stomach. I cant think about it.
Here, quick – look at a pretty picture of the bathroom. Whew. That’s better.
So that was not an auspicious start to the weekend (and no, you haven’t missed the third element of When Bad Things Come in Threes, Carlton Landing edition – foreshadowing here again). But there was still fun to be found. Saturday we lounged around, ate yummy breakfast sandwiches from the food truck and did crawling lessons with Archer in the upstairs hallway (he is SOOOOO CLOSE).
Our friends from OKC invited us out on the boat for the evening and grab some dinner in the marina and Archer was all like “What.” This is his face after I spackled him in sunscreen. “WOMAN. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME. THE BIKINI BABES WILL SEE ME.”
But after awhile he was all “Ahhhh, the motion of the ocean” and promptly konked out. The big kids rode happily in the way way back (haha). Simon and Jude and I also took a turn and decided that our circus act will be The Magnificent Tubing Shingletons.
On Sunday morning we slept til 9 and had breakfast at a local diner where between the four of us, we devoured a half a dozen biscuits. Simon’s sister and her family (of Uptown Kids and Uptown Candy fame) came down to join us and have a cousin sleepover. They brought oodles of goodies and all the kids had fun swimming and exploring.
Buuuuuuut then Part 3 of All Bad Things Come in Threes happened: the air conditioning went out. Because of course it would. Right when it’s blazing hot and the guests have just arrived. And that’s when as a husband and wife you get realllll snippy real fast because who else can you let it out on? Simon’s seeing dollar signs and I’m trying to smooth it all over and we’re all pretty much exhausted. So that was pretty much the low point of the weekend and when we were all “Home ownership sucks”. The a/c guy was promptly called out and made a repair to last us through Tuesday when he will come back and do The Big Fix (aka, $$$$$).
The night was redeemed, however. The real fun of Carlton Landing is the community, and so that night everyone on the boardwalk drug their dining room tables and chairs down and we had a big neighborhood potluck. And that’s the real magic of the place. Sharing food and drinks, passing a baby around, watching the kids run willy nilly (remember playing ghost in the graveyard when you were a kid?) and laughing about silly things.
So now it’s back to the real world, and hoping that we don’t spend all the dollars on wood floors and air conditioners.
Because sometimes? Even in heavenly CL, home ownership can suck.
