4th of july 2014 cabin make-over and accident

 4th of July found us up above Oakley ,Utah. We went up the mountain right after the parade. We sold our cabin a few years ago and my parents friends across the street from their cabin invited them to stop by on our way to Smith and Morehouse. Here is my dad (with the cane, thank goodness he is using it!).

 Here is my mother...she is happy we don't have the cabin anymore, she is kind of a homebody and got bored up there, and really to old to be driving that far. The weather was a perfect 80 degrees.

 The new owners of our cabin invited us to see what they had done SO FAR...here is my dad standing on a big cement patio just coming off the cabin stairway.  Off to the right (which I didnt get a photo, dang) was a wooden addition. Isn't it interesting to see what someone does to a place you have owned, we all have different needs and visions. I think many times we shouldn't worry so much about the next person coming into our places will want. When we did real estate this was quite obvious that new owners are simply going to do it their way. My parents had left all the contents with the cabin included in the sale. The only thing I saw left was the 4 wheeler.Could have gone to the dump...hopefully the deseret industries.

 They also reclaimed the firepit...poured a nice big brown cement circle around it for a sitting area, they can add a grill for briquettes, the large can off to the side can be placed on fire after, so its not a fire danger. fires are not allowed most summers anymore in cabin areas.they had brought in alot of rock for the driveways. My dad was more of a naturalist, he loved the grasses, the trees and he had protected them for so long, it must have been hard to see so much of that gone. Now to me...I loved the updated more modern living.

 Here is dad inspecting the additional master bath. They had also put in electric heat and air conditioning.
The master bath had a tiled walk in shower and double sinks. Oh I had envy...we had only one tiny bathroom, the shower you could hardly turn around in. Yet...we all got showered even though it took all day long!

 This was the winner...the laundry! Oh how i had begged my parents to do this. They would haul all the laundry home each week and at their ages, it was so hard on them. These were in the master bath. The cabinets served as the master bath furniture as that bedroom held a bed only.

 double sinks, granite, luxury!

master bedroom...what once was my parents closet and our storage is now walled over and the head of the bed is up against it. All rooms had beautiful fan lights and textured walls.
(we did miss all the pine walls and higher ceilings though).

 The kitchen...kitchen cabinets which were a plain pine were gutted and this was the new results. I loved, it was light and beautiful with the granite, all new appliances and stainless sink.

 The wall that looks blue, is really a medium gray, that is the stairway to the upstairs. The carpet was a beautiful chocolate brown and nice leather furniture set it off. Upstairs bedrooms had been sheet rocked a bit different, they also added the bunkbeds where the bottom is a queen and the top is a twin (I think). anyway it was an interesting concept...they took out a closet to make more space.

 This is the kitchen living room...where the beautiful overstuffed chair is was a corner pine cabinet and then a tv. the tv's are all wall units. the floors beautiful woods, where before it was a peeling linoleum. You've heard me mention many times how generic my mother is...she never wanted any changes to the cabin. so when we would suggest and beg and say we'd do all the work...it didnt matter, she didnt want it.

 The stairway was also done in the wood.

 Here is my dad with his friend sam...16-17 yr. old buddies now...in their 80's. Sam will probably sell his 30 year old cabin in a year or so. He has a nice big lot.

 2 upstairs bedrooms, that are small are now more useful.

The new owners brother lives right next door.they have fenced off for horse property. These lots and side of the mountain is all in quakies and the other side is in pines. They plan on taking down the whole wrap around deck next week and adding 16' onto it and making it maintanance free, putting on a metal roof which will cover the deck too. I think its wonderful the family can be so close to each other in the mountains.

 Just as we were pulling out of the gated community...we saw lifeflight circling, looking for a landing spot. little did we know there was a horrible accident about 10 cars in front of us. And little did we know at the time we would be stopped on the road 2 hours. Thank goodness we had food for my parents as we were heading up to ledgefork to be with my sister who was camping up there. There was no way to contact her and she had been getting worried for us not showing up.My other brother was also in the car lineup, they were staying up there also.

 Here is the miles of line up...we learned that a razor bike carrying 3 children and one adult driver had been going west down the road(their legal on roads i guess), a truck carrying a horsetrailer went right over the top of it as the razor bike was making a left turn...lifeflight and a few ambulances/police/firedept. were there. we did not go look. We have not seen any news coverage on this accident at all.It's a sick feeling for sure.

Then my camera got low on batteries...so the ledgefork camping area gathering we have no photos.

I hope your 4th of july is safe and accident free.
thanks for going down memory lane with me...and if your remodling, hope some of this was useful to you.