A Day at the Lake

Bob and I had such a nice day on Saturday.  Some friends of ours have a cottage on a small lake and had invited us to some spend some time there this summer and we finally had a Saturday free to do that.

Their cottage is about 45 minutes north of our house, and we totally enjoyed this beautiful drive through the country.

This cottage isn't the typical cottage on the lake.  It has an interesting history.  It was built in 1930 as resort and was used as a bath house, dance hall and area for socials and swimming.  In 1942 it was repurposed as a skating rink, while the lower level was still used as a bath house.  In 1960 business had declined and it was vacated. A couple bought it in 1970 and renovated it to be used as a cottage.  They did a lot of work on it, but had to sell it in 1979 due to illness. The next family that bought it owned it for years and brought in a lot of antiques to decorate it to reflect the time it was built.
When our friends bought this cabin, it came with everything in it - the antiques, the decor, all the furniture and even dishes and glasses!

Now that I've told you the story, here's some photos of it.

This is painted on a storage shed next to the cottage.

The front of the cottage

The back deck 

The lake; you can see how dry it's been in our area, the lake level is way down from the usual as seen by the docks.

The inside - this is the back porch which has so many vintage things.  Old oil lamps, old pictures, readers digest magazines, old cook books and tools.  It was fun to look through it all.

This little table which has old hymns under the glass top.

Inside there is a huge loft with antique beds, a sewing machine, trunks...  You can see an old player piano in the corner on the main level.

Also in the loft is this wringer washer and other washing tools.  (A reminder of how spoiled we are now!)

This is one of several beautiful old dressers left for them.

This is one of the bedrooms.  It's called the Miss America room...

The reason for that name is because Miss America from 1988 stayed there and sent this signed photo as a thank you.   :)

This trunk was used by someone named J van Putten when he traveled to the USA from Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1903.

They even have this original sign for the roller skating days.

Here's Bob and Sandy.  We enjoyed spending this time with them and seeing their beautiful place on Little Sand Lake!