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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Festivals, hot sticky days and selling a cabin

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What a week it was up in Ely, where I live!  Summer baseball ended, the annual Blueberry Festival ran its three-day stretch during hot, humid weather, and my brother and I sold our family cabin on Burntside Lake!

With so many distractions, I didn’t even make it down to the festival grounds at Whiteside Park for my highly favored Gyro sandwich, or stand in line for my bag of melt-in-your-mouth Kettle Corn. I admit, I do feel a bit cheated because I like to wander along, under the big trees in the park, and look at all the art and wares from vendors, old and new. If it would not have been quite as hot, I know I would have gone. The fact is, I’m a 70s girl, built to operate in more comfortable ranges of the thermometer. At 90 degrees, I just don’t want to be in public, “toweling off” after each stretch of the jaunt along the many sweltering, asphalt walkways.

Friday it did rain, cooling things off a bit, only to ramp up with more humidity and sun. Saturday was hot and busy at the festival grounds, but when I “dragged” Main Street in my Saturn Vue, on Sunday afternoon, and looked in the park, the food court was fairly sparse in attendance. Maybe in those brief moments when I scanned the area, most folks were in the beer garden out of sight, just trying to cool off. With it all said and done, I do hope it was a profitable venue for everyone involved. I was just so busy with my brother’s arrival from Maryville, Missouri, and the impending sale of our cabin. I spent about a week cleaning my house because he was coming. You’d have thought he was Lord Grantham or something. I don’t think he even noticed my baseboards were clean, or the top of my fridge was white, but I didn’t want to take the chance. I just wanted it clean.

All of the activities involved in selling this property were quite overwhelming due to a two-week closing deadline.  The days were absorbed quickly with packing up the lovely staging items my sister-in-law had mailed from Missouri, clearing out some furniture, tidying up legal odds and ends, and the closing, not to mention cleaning my own house! A great chunk of this year’s month of July just vanished. Various friends have asked me if I am sad about selling the cabin? Not at all. For me, not being a plumber or carpenter, it has been a huge concern over the past decade, making sure everything has remained in good condition for my aging mother.  It continued through these past three years since her passing in 2012, while it was listed for sale with realtors.

Up in our lake country, so many families are selling their cabins. High taxes make it nearly impossible to keep even the most modest of lakeshore get-aways, ending up in a constant state of what seems like repurchasing property we thought we’d bought once already. I am happy for the new family that now owns our cabin. It’s their turn to be there, enjoy summer picnics, the songs of the loons, grandchildren playing, and that beautiful spot on the lake. We were just one of many families who have enjoyed that place over the vast number of Burntside summers. The near one-inch thick abstract, held colorful details from previous owners, all the way back to the late 1800’s.

When the majority of the people you shared these family places with are gone, you are left with a building, rocks and trees. I have no trouble enjoying the memories with my remaining family members when we get together, often at other new locations. These are destinations filled with new discoveries, that have much less of a workload or worries for me.

As I look back to the selling of this property, and the other house Mom had in Hoyt Lakes, I can pat myself on the shoulder, knowing I did a fine job. I love my brother, but he lives in Missouri, so the majority of it was left up to me. There were some rough spots with the sewer freezing in the Hoyt Lakes house during the winter of 2014, carpets getting wet and needing to be scraped out and thrown away. Stuff like that. Through most of it, my companion, Dennis, was with me to share in the efforts, like hauling, lifting, and about four garage sales to date. If Mom had been a hoarder, it would have been worse!

One of the greatest things about selling a piece of property of significant value, is the ability to pay off one’s own mortgage and other debts. Aside from investing a chunk of the money, I am also going to take a trip abroad. In October, I, my son and his girlfriend, will be flying to Italy. It’s going to be quite an adventure, because none of us has gone to Europe before.

We are busy working on getting our passports and studying about the places we will be visiting, Venice, Florence and Rome. I have an experienced travel agent plotting out the details, so it will be much more stress free for me. I last traveled on a plane in 1988, so I have some brushing up to do on rules and regulations of flying, and learning to speak extremely basic Italian like, please, thank you, and where is the restroom? With August and September on the horizon there will be many details to organize quickly for this big adventure.

Also in September, Ely hosts the annual Harvest Moon Festival in Whiteside Park. I can expect cooler temperatures and smaller crowds, and don’t expect to have any properties to sell. I think it highly likely you will find me wandering along, finally relaxed, eating a Greek sandwich, while carrying a bag of Kettle Corn and practicing my Italian.