So I’ve been logging in some road warrior hours this past week. We discovered that putting together IKEA kitchen cabinets was like riding a bike, it comes back to you immediately and we surprised ourselves with how fast we got all the base cabinets together and bolted into position. Problem was, we didn’t have the wall cabinets yet. The Things are on Spring Break, so I asked Thing Two if he’d like to join me on a 24 hour whirlwind trip to Atlanta, and he was in. (Thing One was on a school trip so it was just me and the little man taking on the ATL.)
We had full understanding that there would be some tedious times at IKEA, but the promise of Swedish meatballs, the Georgia Aquarium, and a hotel swimming pool seemed to make waiting in line at the IKEA kitchen department seem like an pretty good trade.
We’ve been to the Georgia Aquarium before, but it still thrills, and we saw the new (to us) Dolphin Show which was a surprisingly big production. (No cameras in the dolphin show).
The weather was warm and Spring-like so we toodled around Centennial Park in the afternoon.
We got back to Nashville loaded up with cabinets and a few other bits from IKEA..namely a print and frame that I only discovered was damaged once I unwrapped it at home…ARGH!!! I try to be SO careful when I’m there, since returns are not exactly an easy option. I should note that getting our cabinet order pulled took LESS time than waiting in the returns area to swap out a damaged drawer front. NO LIE.
That said, I’m living with the plexi-crack right now until I can’t stand it. I’ll either remove the plexi completely or get a piece cut, which will probably cost more than the frame did.
I hit the flea for a speedshop before it was time to jump back in the car and head down to Tims Ford State Park in Franklin County, TN for a long weekend with the WHOLE family…pooch included.
As you can see, the cabin is not glamorous and could use a little TLC, but it was clean and architecturally pleasing. I wish more of my pitiful phone photos had turned out (forgot to pack the DSLR) so you could see it better…very similar in style to our house. There were decks off each of the 2 bedrooms, which sadly only housed our bikes since it was too cold and rainy to sit out there.
We (of course) renovated the whole interior in our minds for less than $1000, and think that the parks would do well to embrace the metal siding scenario. We woke every morning to the VERY familiar sound of squirrels chewing cedar. Yep. Only my oldest readers will understand exactly how much we know about this. We can see that they are trying their best to keep replacing the cedar on these cabins, but we know only too well, they won’t win, and it will cost more over the years to keep replacing cedar than to clad that cabin. Hey, Tennessee State Parks lodging division…call me! I have some fab budget friendly improvement plans…
The picture above was taken during the 10 minutes the sun seemed to appear our whole stay…but it was fine and we still had fun. We had the beautiful bike trails all to ourselves and very little in the way of noisy neighbors. No wifi or cell service in the cabin, so that meant some good old fashioned fun with Haikubes and Borderline.
Otto had a temper tantrum over being left in his crate while we went out to eat and shredded his bed into nothing, so we stopped by the Dollar General up the road and found him a cute zebra print rug. (The only dog beds available were for mini-dogs.) This cute melamine set was only $5. I need to spend more time in the Dollar General, clearly.
On our last day, we had to stop in the Swiss Pantry to bring home some tasty treats. My kids live for bacon, so this was a no-brainer.
Now we are back to assembling cabinets, and getting the pantry finished up. I hope to be able to show a “before and after” within the week…fingers crossed!
