Ode to the Cottage

The Cottage in its hayday!
This is how the Cottage looked when we first bought it

I had to do a post as an Ode to the Cottage of our small home (1200 square feet built in 1946) in Wheatland. 1254 Johnston Street (my maiden name no less). We bought this place in August of 2005 when we decided that Charlie should attend Wheatland High School. At that point Char wasn't driving yet so we wanted a place for him to land and a place so that he could be a bit more in the swing of things at WHS. Little did we know that that Cottage would turn out to be a lot more than that!

When our ranch house burned to the ground on April 28, 2006. Dan, Charlie and I moved there where we lived full-time for 13 months. We had no idea that the Cottage would be God's provision to us during a time of loss, grieving and upset. It was wonderful to have a place to live during that time that had some familiar, if not garage sale quality items, that were at least our own. It was a lot of togetherness in that little place but that was ok, as we hurt, it was good to be physically close as we began putting our lives back together. Besides that, after years of living in the country, it was great to live in the "city" and have a grocery and a Subway near by! Smile... Here are some pictures of the beloved Cottage...

The Living RoomThe Cozy Kitchen Dan and Lynn's Room
Char's Space...Packers and allChar and Travis thought the Cottage was the ultimate hang out place!

For all those reasons it was hard to let it go. We sold it last month and I have spent the better part of this past month packing us up and then unpacking and trying to find places for our stuff to "live" the new house without getting the new place full of clutter. I think I finally have it! I will do a second post with pictures of some of the memories that our family had there....

The Cottage was a blessing and we will remember it with great fondness!