I dunno where I posted this over the last weekend. Multiple places, I think. I am posting it again today, here in this space, because it got me to thinking about how much the moomincabin has changed (and not changed) over the years.

I’m not exactly sure what year this photooo was taken. We built the cabin the summer of 1960 when I was six and my brother was three. The best story I can come up with (and I may be mangling it!) is that my little family was living in a shabby little bungalow down on Superior Street (in Sault Ste. Siberia) and my parents were looking to trade up a bit, albeit not to anything fancy because that was not my parents’ style. As I know the story, the parents were a split second too late with their offer and someone else got the house.

My parents retreated to our shabby little Superior St. bungalow and considered their options. In the end, they decided to stay on Superior St. and use whatever limited money they had to build a cabin out on our beloved beach, between the Old Cabin, in which we already spent summers, and my uncle Don’s cabin.

My dad got with a builder friend and they strategized to build the most inexpensive structure possible. He did and our cabin might have been the original “tiny house” although, small as it is, it isn’t quiiiite the typical tiny house. In those days it had no indoor toilet or hot water. We had an outhouse and we got cold water in the kitchen sink via a garden hose from my uncle’s well.

The carpenters who built the cabin were always friendly (or acted like they were) when us kids trooped over from the Old Cabin to check out the day’s progress. I remember one day when the ELECTRICIANS were in. When we trooped over there *that* day, no one said a word but the look on the lucky-shuckial person’s face made us do a quick about face!

So the next pic is what the place looks like now. It is still a good example of “tiny house” but it has grown a second floor and a deck.

The deck happened within a year or three after we built the cabin. It wraps part way across the back of the cabin too.

When I was young enough to still care about what boyz thought about me, my mother decided to put in a septic field. She was NOT ready to create an indoor bathroom quite yet. The folks that came out to make the septic field KNOCKED DOWN THE OUTHOUSE. I cowered inside while The Commander yelled at the septic tank folks, “YOU PUT THAT OUTHOUSE BACK UP. WE STILL HAVE TO USE IT!” Yes, ma’am! They put it back up but they did not have outhouse expertise so it rocked back and forth forever after until my brother and his daughters demolished it.

So, I might be losing the timeline about the indoor plumbing (toilet and shower) but I THINK it had to do with our first in-law. A lot of us (me, especially) were happy about that. I remember the days of begging showers from relatives with hot water up and down the beach when I had to be at work (at Tempo) early in the morning. Belated thanks to all of you. (I also sometimes bathed in the lake before work but that might be a whole ‘nother story.)

We have a toilet and shower in the moomincabin nowadays. And hot running water. The shower is an RV shower. Know what? It is small but it works! The second story on the cabin happened a year after the parents became grandparents (via Lizard Breath). Much later on, the GG designed and installed various railings on the deck. When he built these, he was concerned about my parents falling off the deck (and so were my parents). I love the railings and think he did an elegant job. It’s still a “tiny house” but it is also beautiful and we manage to coexist there, especially when we have the Lyme Lounge around for sleeping overflow.

Love y’all, KW

P.S. you know you have a good job when you have been away for three weeks and The Benevolent Despot asks you if you actually belong in the building and you tell him your badge let you in and he guffaws like crazy. Not to mention that Amazon Woman (your supervisor) has left goodies and a nice note in your cube. Love to all of my co-workers and how again did I end up in this loverly place?

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