Matt had last Friday off, so we spent the morning and early afternoon in the house spackling the drywall. May I quickly comment about spackling? Ok, yes? Thanks. I’m amazed at how many tools you need to spackle. You need all these knives and then corner knives and seam knives, and honestly it all seems a bit excessive. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just slime the spackle up onto the wall with the palm of my hand, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

After the first coat was on, we headed out with a car packed full of food, hoodies, and Berlin, and we drove to Northeastern Tennessee for a weekend in the self-proclaimed “Horseback Riding Capital of the Southeast.” We had somewhat moderate expectations of the cabin we’d be staying in, seeing as their website primarily displayed their kitschy decor. But MAN were we blown away when we got out there!

It was a new cabin, probably no more than five years old, set on a little pond on a quiet 7 or 8 acres. We had a beautiful stainless steel kitchen to cook up a storm in, but spent most of the weekend split between flopping in the hot tub and flopping in front of the roaring fire watching HGTV. Those first-time home buyers are so embarrassing. Did I say those things? UGH! I hope not.

I had booked this weekend away to celebrate our anniversary before we had even found our house, and had no idea that the weekend would pull us away from our renovations – in a good way. I think we both were a little reluctant to leave the house on Friday when we knew how much we needed to work all weekend. But when we got out into no-man’s land it was all worth it. Even though it rained through Saturday night, we got out to a winery, and blew all our cash on outstanding Mennonite fare.

But the best part might have been seeing the look on Berlin’s face when we opened the screen door and said, “Go play!” She was all, “No leash? No poop bag? I can run wherever I want and roll in smelly things?” She romped in the mud and rain and ATE UP going back to her country bumpkin roots.

It was so hard coming back from a great weekend to get back to the grind. I guess that’s always how it goes. Now I have to get my butt over to the house to sand down that first coat of spackle. Maybe Billy Joel will keep me company.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Dog Park, Home Ownership, Kitchen Renovation, Marriage, Movin to the country, Stress, Stuff I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.