09/16/2026
I feel like I've been a little quiet around here lately, and I really haven't meant to be. I've actually been pretty busy behind the scenes with the business—working on orders, making candles, pouring wax melts, restocking, and trying to keep up with everything that comes with running a small business. Sometimes the work gets done, the orders go out, and the candles get made, but finding the time to actually stop and share what I've been doing seems to be the part that gets lost somewhere in the shuffle. So if you've been wondering where I've been, I promise I've just been buried in wax. 😂
And on top of all of that, we've had a pretty big project happening at the cottage because we finally decided it was time to replace the roof.
If you've followed along with the cottage for any length of time, you probably know that we don't exactly rush into things. We're slow. Very slow. Some might even say I'm indecisive—cough cough, my partner, cough—but I really don't think that's what it is. We just like to live with things for a while. We want to see how the house behaves through the seasons, understand what is actually causing a problem before we start throwing money at it, look at our options, and think about what we might want to do with the house years down the road.
We've learned that just because something needs to change doesn't necessarily mean we have to change it tomorrow. Sometimes that means we live with something longer than we'd like. Sometimes the cottage doesn't look quite as finished or polished as it could. But we're not renovating this place to impress anybody. We're doing it for us, and I'd much rather take our time and make a decision we're going to be happy with years from now than rush into something because we feel like we should.
That was pretty much our approach to the roof too.
For the past couple of winters, we'd been dealing with some pretty impressive ice dams. We'd watch the ice build up, and then when the weather finally warmed up and everything started melting, all that water had to go somewhere. Unfortunately, a good portion of it ended up coming through our sliding glass door in the bedroom. When the ice melted, it would literally turn that door into a waterfall, and enough water would eventually make its way inside that we'd have flooding in the bedroom.
At some point, we just started treating it like one of the cottage's more unusual amenities. 😂 “Welcome to the cottage. Enjoy the complimentary indoor waterfall.” We knew it obviously wasn't something we wanted to deal with forever, but we also wanted to understand why it was happening before we decided what we were going to do about it.
Eventually, we decided replacing the roof was the direction we wanted to go.
Then they started taking the old metal roof off, and that's when we discovered that the roof had a little surprise waiting for us.
There was no plywood underneath it.
None.
The metal roofing had essentially been installed over the trusses, and that was it. I'm by no means a roofing expert, but even I could tell that wasn't exactly what you expect to find underneath a roof. Everyone was surprised by what we found, and suddenly those ice dams from the past couple of winters made a whole lot more sense. It was one of those moments where you look at something and think, “Ohhhh… so that's why we've been having this problem.”
We also had one particular portion of the roof that we specifically did not want replaced. We have future plans for that section of the cottage that may eventually require us to take it down, so it didn't make sense to spend money replacing something we might eventually remove. We'd thought about it, talked about it, and decided that for now, we'd leave that section alone.
And then yesterday morning happened.
I was in the middle of making wax melts when I heard a huge CRASH.
I looked toward the three-seasons room—which we affectionately call the “mild day room,” because right now that's about the only kind of day we can comfortably enjoy it on—and there was a foot hanging through my ceiling.
For a moment, I don't think my brain even knew what it was looking at. There was a person on the roof, a foot through our ceiling, and suddenly everyone was trying to figure out what had happened and, most importantly, whether everyone was okay.
Thankfully, everyone was.
Once we knew that, we started making phone calls, figuring out what had happened, assessing the damage, and trying to figure out what needed to happen next. It turned out the crew had accidentally started working on the exact section of the roof that we had specifically decided not to have done.
So after all the discussion about what we did and didn't want to change on this cottage, apparently the cottage had decided to make that particular decision for us.
And once the immediate concern had passed, I couldn't help but think, “Well… apparently we're getting a skylight.”
😂
We had not requested a skylight. We had not budgeted for a skylight. I'm pretty sure “person's foot through ceiling” wasn't one of the standard roofing options, but there we were with a very temporary, completely accidental skylight.
The natural lighting was excellent.
The fact that we could see the sky from inside the room was somewhat less desirable.
😂
Obviously, there was a lot more to the situation than the funny part of the story. It was a pretty serious accident, and we were incredibly relieved that everyone was okay. There were a lot of apologies, and we made sure the people working on the roof knew that we understood that accidents happen. We talked everything through, made the necessary calls, and started figuring out how to get everything taken care of.
Something that really stuck with me was how much the workers kept apologizing and thanking us for not screaming or yelling.
And honestly, that made me think about how much owning a business has changed me.
Because old me probably would have been furious. I would have immediately been thinking about the damage, the inconvenience, the money, the fact that this was literally the section of the roof we had specifically said we didn't want touched, and wondering how on earth we'd gone from replacing a roof to putting a foot through our ceiling.
And I don't think being upset would have been unreasonable. It was a big mistake.
But there's a difference between being upset about something and taking that frustration out on the person standing in front of you.
Running a small business has taught me that people are human. I've made mistakes. Customers make mistakes. Suppliers make mistakes. Things get misunderstood. Things get missed. Something doesn't arrive. Something breaks. Sometimes something happens that nobody saw coming.
And sometimes, apparently, someone puts their foot through your ceiling while you're making wax melts.
That's just life.
The people working on our roof weren't trying to damage our cottage. They were doing their jobs, working hard, trying to provide for their families, and trying to get through their day. Nobody showed up that morning thinking, “You know what this cottage really needs? A skylight.”
It was an accident, and once everyone was safe, the important thing was figuring out how to fix it.
Of course we needed to make the phone calls. Of course the damage needed to be addressed. Of course the ceiling needed to be repaired. But none of that required anyone to be screamed at or made to feel terrible.
Today, they finished up the roof, and I'm honestly really happy with how it turned out. I am by no means a roofing expert, so I can't sit here and tell you every technical detail about what they did, but even I can look at the amount of work that went into this roof and the quality of what was done and feel like it was more than enough to make up for what happened.
The section we hadn't originally planned on replacing was completed, and our ceiling is being taken care of too.
So we ended up with a new roof, a repaired ceiling, and a skylight that had one of the shortest lifespans in cottage history.
😂
And I really don't have any hate or animosity toward the company. I'm going to leave their name out of this for now while everything finishes up, but everyone was wonderful about making sure people were okay, acknowledging what happened, and working through it. At the end of the day, everyone was safe, the problem was addressed, and we're moving forward.
And I think that's what I've learned through owning a business more than anything.
Things are going to go wrong.
You can plan. You can prepare. You can have contracts. You can communicate. You can try to think ten steps ahead, and something will still happen that you never anticipated.
You can't always control what happens, but you can control how you respond to it.
I've learned that you can be frustrated without being cruel. You can expect accountability without humiliating someone. You can make sure something gets fixed while still remembering that the person who made the mistake is a person.
I've been on the other side of mistakes too. I've had to apologize to people. I've had things not go the way I wanted them to go. And I know how much easier it is to solve a problem when the person on the other side gives you a little room to be human.
Maybe that's one of the biggest things this little candle business has taught me that has absolutely nothing to do with candles.
Give people grace.
Take a breath.
Figure out what actually happened before deciding how you're going to react.
And don't be afraid to take your time.
I think that's also why we're so slow with the cottage. We want to understand what we're dealing with before we start changing things. We want to look at the options and think about what we're going to want years from now. If that means living with something for another season while we figure it out, that's okay. If it means the cottage doesn't always look perfectly finished while we're deciding what direction to take, that's okay too.
I'm not here to impress anybody.
I'm here to make a home we're happy with.
I'd rather take our time and make a decision we won't regret than rush into something because we feel like we're supposed to.
Sometimes that means dealing with ice dams for another winter.
Sometimes it means waking up to a bedroom waterfall when the snow finally melts.
Sometimes it means discovering your roof has no plywood underneath it.
And sometimes it means looking up from making wax melts and finding a foot hanging through your ceiling.
😂
You just take a breath, figure it out, make the calls, and keep moving.
So that's a little bit of what has been happening around here lately. I've been busy with candles, wax melts, orders, and the cottage, and apparently we've also been busy discovering previously unknown features of our house.
The candles are still being poured, the wax melts are still being made, and the orders are still going out.
The cottage has a brand-new roof.
The bedroom has hopefully retired from its career as an indoor waterfall.
And our accidental skylight has officially been removed from the floor plan.
I'd call that progress.
Thank you for being patient with me while I've been a little quieter lately. I'm still here, still making, still working, and still learning—and apparently sometimes the lessons have nothing to do with candles.
And honestly, what's a cottage renovation without a little harmless drama?
