Winter Wonderland, Part 6

Yesterday I sent the landlord a letter.

I purposely didnt send it immediately after our stay, because I knew that the cabin was going to be used this past weekend. I wasnt sure if he and his family (he has 3 children, according to the pictures in the cabin) would be using the cabin, or if it was being rented out to a vacationing family, but either way, I felt it best to wait until after this weekend to send my letter.

You see, I got a feeling, that T thought I was just being "high maintenance." The remark to just wear a sweater, or telling me that, "it isn't going to get HOT", seemed to imply that I just couldnt handle mountain life.

I am certain, that if he and his family went up for this past weekend, he would see first hand the conditions we faced. And Im pretty sure his wife and kids wouldnt be satisfied with a "sweater" in the 55 degree cabin ...(and, by the way, there was a little more snow that fell the week after we left, so no chance that the snow had melted away.)

If, the cabin was rented out by another family, I highly doubt that would have been as patient and understanding as we were, regarding a freezing cabin and snowed in entrance. Im sure he got an earfull from whomever stayed there this past weekend.

And, let's not forget, that the tenants all got to enjoy hot water, compliments of My Honey!

So, I thought it best to wait, so that the landlord had more information, before sending my letter regarding our stay.

I sent this yesterday, here it is.....

Hi T,

I wanted to give you some feedback re: our rental of your cabin.

It's a great cabin, and I can tell you have put a lot of work into it. It
looked very nice and had everything we needed for a great stay.

The location was also nice. The area to the left made a great sled run, and we
enjoyed taking a walk above the stream.

I would encourage you to look into a service to clear the area before other
tenants arrive. We had many friends renting cabins over the holiday weekend,
and they all reported that a service had been hired to clear the snow so that
they could park and enter their cabins safely.

(My Honey) and I spent 4.5 hours, just trying to clear enough of a path to get the
kids inside safely. The 2.5 feet of snow had packed into ice and was very
difficult to remove. The kids had to wait in the car while we did this, and as
you can imagine, when you are only there for a weekend, it's not much fun to
spend the first day just trying to get inside.

Additionally, I think it would be helpful for you to have a local handyman that
you trust to take care of issues such as the heating and water. The heat never
rose above 58 degrees, which was pretty miserable. The pilot to the hot water
heater was out, and it took (My Honey) a couple of hours to get it lit, since it was
electric and couldnt be done with a match. I know if he was going to be
putting in hours doing fix it work, he would have rather done it at home, rather
than on our vacation. As it was, we didnt have hot water for half of our stay.

I am including some pictures, so that you can see just how much snow we had to
contend with. As you can see, the snow on the stairs, which had turned to ice,
and impossible to clear with the snow shovel (by the way, it took almost an hour
just to unbury the snow shovel which was under two feet of snow on the back
porch.) it was up to (My Honey's) knees, and we had to chip away at it with a hammer
and wrench.

I can tell by the upkeep and condition of the cabin that you are consciencious,
and wanted to pass along this feedback so that you can ensure that your future
tenants are able to enjoy their vacation.

best regards,
kim

Here are the pictures I attached, hopefully he gets a good sense of things and realizes that this is not acceptable to rent out a cabin and leave the vacationers to try to clear their entries themselves. I will say, it probably doesnt help that My Honey looked so happy clearing the stairs, but at least he knows we try to make the most of things. and...by the way, I didnt put "My Honey" in the real letter...








It's been less than 24 hours since the letter was sent...let's see if I hear any reply.