The End of Another Chapter

My life has been full of chapters . . . some have been great and others not so good. I certainly have enough to fill a book, just not sure how interesting it would be. I always look back at a closed chapter, with memories, be it good or bad. And hopefully, that whatever has just been closed, I learn something valuable from the experience and move on.

This year has been a financial nightmare for us. Terry has had no steady work since last November 08. Little bits here and there have trickled in, but clearly not enough to even cover the most basic of expenses. When May rolled around and the usual busy work period yielded no work for another month, we knew it was time to take action. Something we figured may be in our near future, but now we knew. 

Time to sell our cabin, our mountain home in Lake Arrowhead.

When my Mom passed away almost 10 years ago, (yikes has it been that long?: ( ), I got a small cash inheritance from the sale of her home. We decided to not spend a dime and instead invest the money. My Mom worked hard for her money and I wanted to make sure I gave her memory genuine validity, by doing what she did, invest it. And what better way to invest, than in real estate. 

We decided that we wanted a mountain getaway, close enough to home, yet far enough from everyday reality, to seem like we were away on vacation. We looked in Big Bear Mtn and in Lake Arrowhead. Big Bear was just far enough away @ 2 1/2  hours on a good day with no traffic. Lake Arrowhead, on the other hand, was 90 minutes door to door. We scoured the internet and came across several properties we wanted to see. Our cabin was on the list, even though it was a little more than we wanted to spend. However, being built in 1991, it was fairly new and needed no work. So many properties were fixer uppers, and that would have defeated out purpose of having a relaxing home away from home.

The minute we stepped foot in the door of our place for the first look, we knew that this was it, the cabin of our future. We still looked at other places, but our hearts kept going back to the little home on the corner lot, with a stream running along side. We justified to ourselves that the price and excellent condition was worth our peace of mind to just come up, and enjoy. We made our offer and it was accepted!! We were in heaven, knowing we had our own slice of heaven.

I poured my heart and soul into decorating every room to look, cabin-y. I sewed curtains, pillows, quilts, recovered chair cushions, added snowmen, bear and deer accents. Forest green, maroon and navy blue was the common color theme throughout. I found an old snow sled and a set of deer horns at garage sales and hung them on the wall. I also found an old army trunk, painted it and decopaged whimsical snowmen pictures on top, to be used as our firewood box/coffee table. This place was us, the first place Terry and I bought together as ours.

We made too many trips to count over the years, thoroughly enjoying our little cabin. We had many a lazy weekend with no TVs or computers. Just enjoying the nature, feeding our squirrelies, critters and birds, sitting on the deck watching the ginormous trees blow gently in the wind. We enjoyed trekking over to the old Santa's Village site, where the summer weekends exploded with concerts, picnicing in the meadow as we listened to the Beatles and the Stones. We loved walking into the Village and the Lake area, soaking up the mountain atmosphere. And grocery shopping at Jensens for the best homemade breads and warm tortillas. When my lungs still allowed, we took long walks through our neighborhood and the forested roads. Winter brought on a whole new magical experience, with snow and freezing days and nights. Glorious times sitting by the huge fireplace watching snowflakes gently, pile on our deck. And nothing was more satisfying than going to sleep at night and waking up to a foot of snow. How we loved looking out our windows at the beautiful snowy landscape. *sniff* 

POP!!!

Back to reality . . . the dream ends. Between no money coming in and my lungs not being able to handle the 5,700' altitude anymore, we knew it was time. We called the real estate agent we bought the house from over 9 years ago, to schedule an appt. We ended up listing that day in May to see what happens. The market up there is flooded with foreclosures, people losing or dumping their 2nd homes. Our asking price was no where near where we thought it would be. *sigh*

June and July brought in 2 ridiculously, low offers. We pretty much said "no thanks." I'd rather keep it and rent it out than sell for 'that'. We're not that desperate. We made a few trips up to gradually move out personal items, knowing the inevitable would happen eventually. Finally a decent offer came in mid August. We settled on a price and entered escrow. The last week of September we went up for the last time, to move out the remaining items. We sold it furnished for the most part, except for a few upfront must haves, like the army trunk, Terry wanted it for his office. 

As we finished loading up the last box and took one last look around, I started crying like a baby. Terry and I hugged, in the somewhat empty living room, as time stood still. I couldn't believe this would be our last time in 'our cabin'. 

THIS WAS OUR PLACE, OUR HOME. We closed and locked the door for the last time. I felt like it was a death, the death of a family member and of time treasured.

Escrow closed today. Our cabin is no longer ours.

It hurts like hell to have to do something you don't want to do.

We will forever miss our little cabin in the woods and everything it represented in our lives. It will always be our cabin in our hearts and memories. 

Time to mourn and move on.

Time to let someone else enjoy 'our cabin' as much as we did.