We were on our way to the lake house. We tried to get up there at least once a month and usually for a week during the summer. This was our summer week. This week was kind of special as our daughter Carlie was home after her first year away at school. At 18 it had been a big year for her and we were excited to have her to ourselves.
I was looking forward to the break. My husband Jim ran a successful construction business and I did the books and tried to do the scheduling. It had been a great year and we needed the week off.
Besides our daughter, our son Scott, and three of his friends, Jon, Carl, and Brandon were also with us. Our son was a year older than Carlie and worked for our construction firm. His friend Jon also worked for us.
On our way to the lake house I always thought about how lucky we were. Jim and I were your typical high school cliche couple. He was on the football team, I was a cheerleader. We started dating when we were 17. We were, well are, madly in love.
We had sex for the first time on prom night. I had just turned 18. We were very naive. I got pregnant with Scott either that night or soon after. We wanted to get married right away. Our parents wouldn’t let us. They wanted us to wait. . They didn’t try to stop our relationship, just wanted us to give it some time.
We couldn’t wait. We got married right after graduation. We had the baby and then within a few months I was pregnant with Carlie.
People were kind to us. Our families stood by us. A friend of Jim’s father owned a construction firm and hired Jim. Jim also picked up some handyman work on the side. I did some waitressing. Between the three jobs we managed to support ourselves and our children. We were young and happy.
At one point Jim’s boss offered us a great deal. We were looking for a new house to rent. He had just bought a fixer upper. He said if we moved in and fixed it up he’d split half the profit with us. With that were on our way.
We bought the lake house when the kids were 8 and 9. We loved the lake and when the house came on the market we jumped on it. It needed work, but we were willing to do it. It wasn’t a big house. It sat in the woods about 50 feet from a small beach. The side facing the water was practically all glass sliders and windows leaving amazing views of the lake. Plus you could leave the glass open and listen to the woods and water through the screens. It was about 850 square feet not including the loft. It had one bedroom and one bath. It was basically a big open living space with a kitchen and dining area. There was a large deck with a fire pit facing the lake. The kids usually slept in the loft.
We fixed it up, and a few years later the septic needed to be replaced. We decided we could use another bathroom. Unfortunately there was was really no place in the house to put it. We decided with the kids coming back and forth from the beach and tracking in sand and dirt we’d add the bathroom on the outside of the house. It had a door from the outside and a door from the house. It was a half bath and we added the shower outside. The bathroom was heated, but not the shower stall. No big deal during spring and summer seasons, but during the winter it’s a rude awakening. We never really used it in the winter.