Lake House Diaries 10

      The next few weeks were taken up with making decisions and ordering and purchasing various new additions to the Lake House. As progress was made, various elements of the renovation would be delivered and installed, that is, anything that was not the responsibility of the Insurance company. The new cabinets and their installers arrived after the kitchen was repaired and it was a pleasant shock for Ethel to see her fantastic new kitchen. One of the last things to do was to install the new flooring. The kitchen and bathrooms got a very heavy duty vinyl plank look linoleum with a heavy wear layer, something that would not only last for a very long time, but would look good. The rest of the house got a very tough but great looking nylon Berber carpet which would look great for years. Finally the floors were covered with a continuous and decent covering, meaning no more slivers in the bare feet when the old throw carpet slid around. 

      The worker left after many months of slow progress. He had become somewhat of friend and there was a sad good-bye when he finally drove away for the last time. Ethel had a chance to get to know him as well as Greg did because she worked hand in hand with him when it came to texturing the ceiling and even doing some painting. But, at last they were alone, in their "new" home. It was not long before family began to not only check out the new place, but to start their vacationing routines again. 

    Their children as well as the grandchildren noticed a change in them. Although they were happy that the trauma of the flood turned out to be a blessing, it was apparent that it had taken a toll on them. They seemed to have less energy and enthusiasm. The family had a meeting and it was decided that all the responsibilities of running the place should fall on the  shoulders of someone else, so Greg and Ethel could just do the things they enjoyed, the things that caused them the least stress. 

    Tod volunteered to take on the task. It involved paying the water and irrigation bills, paying the property taxes, negotiating and signing another insurance contract, paying hydro bills, cleaning up the last details of the flood claim, and taking care of a newly instituted system of "pay as you go" for anyone spending vacation time there. The money collected would help defray the costs of running the property. Not only did all family members pay, but any guests that came were also added. After all, because the property was on a septic system, the more people, the more times the holding tank had to be pumped out. It worked well and as a rule there were very few delinquent payments. 

     Because the bulk of the responsibilities were now falling on the family, it made sense to have family meetings to discuss the issues that came up, for example, how much to charge per person per diem as the expenses rose. These meeting became good and productive excuses for the family to get together without the knowledge of Greg and Ethel, who also were on the agenda for discussion. Each of the sons and daughter of Greg and Ethel had different observation and different anecdotes and with the combined information, everyone was getting a good picture of how the future would unfold.