In this case, just as in most cases, it is the inhabitants of the cottage that are imperfect. I think this is two or three meals’ worth of dishes. Just piling up. I think we watched a movie and read to the kids instead of doing the dishes. But that’s Cottage: let your hair down, and let the dishes stack up.

Cottage is imperfect. This is Cottage.

And it is those little imperfections that can endear or ruin Cottage for you.

A person can respond to cottage imperfections with huffy complaining, pining for what this place could be if not for all its little problems. But it might be a good exercise for that person to ask themselves if their expectation of perfection is helping or hurting their experience of the world around them. Does my need for perfection make me happier, or constantly disappointed? Does my need for perfection help people in my world or hurt them?

Or a person could allow themselves to become endeared to this cottage; its imperfections are then seen as marks of the years of service this cottage has provided to its varied cottage-dwellers. Does this appreciation, this love, help cottage to be better at what its designed to do? Does this appreciation, this love, help people to thrive and excel as people?

The Kitchen floor squeaks,
but no longer bothers us.
We love our old house.

That’s a haiku up there, so read it with contemplation in your eyes, and while rubbing your chin artistically.

Cottage is imperfect. This is cottage.