The above is a picture of the place I escape to in Maryland. My stepmother owns it and has been extremely gracious about me using it whenever I want. It works out to be far less than I'd like but it's still nice to have the key on my ring and know I have unrestricted access. It's been a refuge at times. It's very small and very rustic but it has a comfy bed for me, a bathroom, a tiny kitchen and a roof to keep the rain off my head...all within walking distance of the beach. It makes me very happy.
This is what the place looks like now. Oh, you can't see it? That's because it was torn down. I mentioned the "rustic" nature of the cottage. Perhaps that may be a bit of a euphemism. It had several issues repair-wise. My stepmother was content to keep working through them one by one. Dad on was of the opinion that all efforts amounted to attempting to "polish a turd" as he so charmingly put it. After much discussion, various legal wranglings and whatnot the decision was made to tear it down to make way for a new cottage. This week it became a blank slate. It will be interesting to see what goes up. I hope it's still going to be a smallish place. It won't have the same weird personality initially so I hope I'll be able to go help create some when it comes time to paint it and put our individual stamp on the place. Of course, in time I hope we get to make lots of memories in the new place.
