A Lesson in Smugness

I really need to stop being smug about things.  Each time I am, another lesson is sent my way.  Here's the latest.

There is still a lot of snow up at Soldier Summit.   When there is this much snow,  roofs can develop ice damns as the snow melts. The water then drips to the edge & then re-freezes causing all sort of problems, but ultimately water ends up inside your cabin.  Never a good thing.

Our builder spent an enormous amount of time/thought making sure this wouldn't happen with our cabin.  When I went to our last HOA board meeting and heard talk of people's cabins past and present struggling with this, I was smug.  "Nothings wrong with our cabin, I thought."

You know where this is going, right?

A few days after this meeting, we decided to head up there for a quick overnighter.  We showed up around dinnertime, walked into the cabin and saw a small puddle of water on top of the pool table that was dripping from a fire sprinkler and another drip a few feet away coming out of the smoke detector. Weird.

This was especially odd because this drip was in the middle of the basement.  Water coming in from an ice damn wouldn't show itself in the middle of the basement and we knew it wasn't the fire sprinkler system because it is pressurized.  We also noticed that the leak stopped at night and started again the next afternoon.  A sure sign that melting snow on the roof was coming inside.

I'll shorten this story a bit.  Our builder came up on Monday, cut lots of holes in the ceilings and traced the leak to the back roof.  The roofers didn't put an oh-so-important piece where the shed roof met the main roof.  The snow was melting so fast on the roof, it was backing up, dripping into the house, spreading over the main floor until it found a hole and then dripped into the basement.

It was bad.  Bad enough that our builder had to tear out a lot of the flooring to dry out all of the wet wood.  Scott ended up on the roof shoveling 4' of snow off the roof so the roofers could come up and fix the problem.  As he was shoveling, all the snow started to slide off at once and Scott had to grab hold of the roof and hang on for his life so he wouldn't end up on the ground with the freshly fallen snow.

We have new flooring to buy and install and a lot of sheetrock to patch and paint.  Hopefully the roofers will cut us a check since it was their fault, but it still totally stinks.

So, here's the good news in all this.  It wasn't an ice damn! Yea!  And, we were so incredibly lucky that we went up on the day it started leaking into the house.  Had we not gone up, we would have had devastation up there.  And I'll try not to be smug any more.

The Story I Never Told

Last August we were at our cabin, packing up quickly and getting ready to head down the mountain to the Spanish Fork Demolition Derby.  Our favorite end of summer activity.  Scott was in the basement, grabbing a basket that was underneath an end table in the family room.

He tipped the table sideways to get the basket out and inadvertently jostled a bunch of tools and a can a neon green spray paint that were on the top.  Luck was not with him that day as the paint can slide off the table and onto the carpet, followed very quickly by the hammer.

The next few moments were a bit of a blur, but the paint can started hissing and neon green spray paint started spraying all over.  The new couches, the new carpet, the new side table and the new basket got a nice fresh coat of paint on them.  Scott in a panic makes the quick decision to get the spraying paint can out of the cabin as fast as he can.  He grabs the can, puts it up against his body and runs out the door, with paint spraying the walls and door knobs as he goes.  As soon as he gets out of the cabin the paint can sputters and the last of the paint is released.  He is covered in green paint.

What do you do to save carpet, couches, a table and a basket that is covered in wet paint at a remote cabin?   We learned pretty quickly what you do - absolutely nothing.  I hurried and googled ways to get paint off, but the only thing we had to work with was a small bottle of hairspray.   We tried for a few minutes to get some paint out, but gave up pretty quickly and started counting our losses.  We decided that the hammer must have fallen perfectly enough on top of the can to puncture it.

We were late leaving for the Derby, so the boys and I jumped in the van and headed out while Scott did a few more things to close down the cabin.  He showed up a few minutes late with green paint in above every crease and cranny on his body.

Initially I thought about replacing the carpet, but once I got a quote I decided "You know what?  This makes for a great story. We're leaving it."  And so it remains.

Favorite Outfit

Bennett loves these clothes and wears them as often as I wash them.  You like the pegged pants? 

Cabin Projects

Every time we go up to the cabin we have a project or 2 that we work on. Here are the latest

Project 1

Decorating the wall in the entry.  I love the moose that I found and the twig key holders!

Project 2.  

The other day I was digging around in my cedar chest and came across these miniature rugs that I had purchased in Mexico about 11 years ago.  I had totally forgotten about them.  I bought some shadow boxes, mounted them and hung them in the kitchen.  I love them just as much now as when I bought them!

Project 3
We finally got the library ladder installed to the loft.  The boys have been begging to get up there.

Plenty of Snow

The snow is still deep at Soldier Summit, but melting fast.  Owen built himself a little cave all by himself.  I doubt it will be there next time we go up.

Prom!

I'm super jealous.  Taylor got to take his date in a Tesla.

Wax Museum

I thought the wax museum was supposed to honor long-since-dead historically significant people in our history.  Chase decided to go in another direction and honor Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics.  He looks just like him, right?

A New Direction

One night about a month ago, Taylor came up to me and told me he was going to try out for the Lone Peak volleyball team.  I was a bit surprised as he had never before shown any interest in the sport.

He looked up the rules of the game and then was off.

I told him not to get his hopes up as he only made it to 2 of the 3 tryouts (he was sick for the last one), but sure enough he made it on.  I was very excited for him.  But the thing I'm most proud about was his willingness to go out there and give it a shot, regardless of whether he would make the team.

So, now I find myself most Tuesday nights cheering him on the sidelines!  

Happy Birthday Bennett!

14 years old!  Out to lunch at 5 Guys with mom.  Out to dinner with the family at Texas Roadhouse!  Happy Birthday! I Love You!

Bennett's uncensored thoughts as a new 14 year old:

This is Bennett, I like to watch the Jazz win, I like ww2, Batman can beat any bad guy or hero 1 v 1. I hate school with all my heart, If want want to get me a birth day present you can blow up Mountain Ridge. I hate it when Watson takes a drink then his beard is all wet and sloppy, Then he sniffs you and it get all of his wet gross beard juice on you. I like skiing but only at Brighton. Snow bird is terrible because the only hill is 180 degrees downwards. Lake Powell is my favorite vacation because I get to be with the whole family and kill carp, Killing carp/shad is one of the best things. I get to see all of my uncles in one place and kill stuff. Playing were wolf is fun because I always win. Its fun to watch my aunt Michelle almost tear a muscle trying to win twister. My parents kind of ruined Lake Powell because they put only two sodas a day which is some serious dictator ship if you ask me. Shooting Owen and Chase is an air soft war is fun because... It just is. We have air soft wars up at the cabin, We built a fort up there were two people(Owen and chase) stay and wait for my to come shoot at them. Then they see me and shoot back until they get hit and there out. White rice is the best food, My mom is taking advantage of that and is saying " brown rice and Quinoa" tastes the same a white rice. They don't. They tastes like some one pooped it out.