So much more than good will

This is not a post about thrifting, but really, it's actually better.  Much better!  It's about unexpected blessings.

This year, on Valentine's Day, my husband was scheduled to have a knee replacement surgery.  I had to leave the House of Goodwill to come home for it, as well as a few other commitments the week before.  Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much this year from Valentine's Day, but not a big deal, really.  We decided to celebrate Saturday night with a steak dinner and a movie at home.  (Our son cooked the whole thing; he will do anything for steak.)  It was great!  We had our Valentine's dinner.

Then Sunday was the Super Bowl, than we spent all day Monday at the hospital.

Anyway, I told my twenty-one-year-old son he didn't need to come to the hospital.  After all, it would just be a day of sitting around and waiting, and there wasn't anything he could do there anyway.

"Could you just empty the recycling containers in the kitchen?"  I asked him, before we left.  "And walk the dogs, since I'll be getting home late."  (We usually walk the dogs together.)  "Sure," he replied. 

Note here that I had a massive mess in my kitchen by Monday morning.  I had been running errands on Sunday between church and the Super Bowl, and by the time it was over I didn't feel like doing dishes.  There were leftover steak dinner dishes, homemade guacamole and chips dishes (what my son made for the Super Bowl) and lots of others.  It was significant.

So fast forward to Monday.  I did spend all day in the hospital (minus two Goodwill runs while my husband was in surgery - and were they good!  But more about that in another post.).  By the time we came home, it was about six pm.  I was sure my son had walked the dogs; the dogs wouldn't let him forget that.  But I wondered if he had remembered to dump the recycling bins?

So we walked in the house, me with my arms full of Goodwill bags.  And what did I discover?

Well, not only had my son dumped the recycling (as I'd asked) but he also took all the trash out.  (Which I didn't ask, and he never does.)  He had also walked the dogs.  But there was more!  My kitchen, which had earlier been an epic disaster, was perfectly clean!  All dishes were washed and put away.  He'd even cleaned and organized the countertops.

But wait, there's more!

He had gone to the store that day and bought me a dozen pink roses for Valentine's Day.  Then he went into my vase collection, picked a few out, and spread the roses between four different vases, putting them all around the house.  There were roses in the kitchen, roses in the hall, roses in the living room, and a single rose upstairs by my bed.

This is not the first time my son did this for me with the roses.  He did it once before this year, the night before I was starting a really long work week.

But there was more!  He had also bought a "Welcome Home" balloon for my husband:

But there was more!  On the way home from the hospital, my husband said he wanted to pick up ice cream from Andy's that night.  He was going to stop when my son took him to the drugstore to get his prescriptions.  But he didn't need to, because:

My son had already picked up Andy's as a Valentine surprise.

There was ice cream for both my husband and me in the freezer.

But there's more!

As I was trying to pick my jaw off the floor (still stunned about the dishes), I noticed a table with presents.  My son had two presents each for my husband and I, and a card to us both.  Wow!!

I really didn't know what to say.

So, the point of this post isn't just to share about my Valentine's day (maybe a little) or to share how amazing I think my son is (though he IS).  It's to share this:

My son in this story (my only child) was adopted six years ago, when he was fifteen-years-old.  I liken that experience to jumping off a cliff; we (and he) really had no idea exactly what we were getting into.  We just prayed and did it.

I imagine a lot of people think of adopting a teenager (especially one you've never met!) as a high risk proposition, and I certainly understand.  I think many people imagine lots of anger, holes punched in walls, and drama.  (Based on many people's comments - and warnings - before we did it, this is definitely true.)  I'm sure there are many of those scenarios.  I can't say it didn't cross my mind.

But while our adoption wasn't challenge-free, there were WAY more joyful moments that hard ones.  I can't speak for others, because I know of other adoptive families who struggle, but wow, was it worth it.  (I know lots of biological families who struggle too, for what it's worth.)  This adoption has brought so much happiness to all of us.

When I was twenty-one, I never did anything like this for my parents.  Not because I didn't love them, but just because I was too busy taking them for granted.  It just never crossed my mind.

Adopted parents and children don't take each other for granted.  When you wait a (very) long time for a child, you enjoy every moment that you have together.

When we adopted our teenager, I never imagined this.  I'm still amazed.

I have witnessed the power of God slowly transform the life of our son.  He is a caring, loving person and I am grateful for him every day.  Life can be so hard.  Which makes the unexpected blessings along the way even better.  It was a wonderful Valentine's Day this year indeed.

Half dead? still salvageable!

So every year before Thanksgiving I buy a huge poinsettia to put in my dining room, and I leave it there through New Year's.  

For the last couple of year I've been buying one that looks like this:

I like the color, because it looks like fall for Thanksgiving, but the gold colored leaves look Christmas-y to me too.  (I just switch the pot for Christmas.)

The leaves come sprinkled with gold glitter, which makes it shine.

This year, after New Year's, I was taking down all my little poinsettias (that were definitely done) and putting them in the compost.  I noticed that this particular poinsettia was half dead.  (When my household had Covid after the holidays, myself included, my plant watering got a little touch and go.)

As usual, I didn't think to take a picture.  Have you ever neglected a plant till it was half dead?  It looked pretty crazy, with half the plant shriveled and brown, with leaves falling off at the touch, while the other half was still green, gold and looking pretty good.  (I was actually surprised at how good the good part looked, considering how long ago I'd bought it, where it was situated - not receiving a ton of light - and my semi neglect of it the week before.

But just when I was about to pitch it, the thought occurred to me that the pretty part would still look great in a vase.

And all my other Christmas flowers were done; I had nothing else flowering.

So I cut all the pretty parts and vased them up and composted the rest (minus the glittery parts).

Not bad for six weeks after purchase, right?

They looked so good as cut flowers!

Both the vase and the plate came from Goodwill.

Sometimes our Goodwill gets lots of things from Target that don't sell, like this vase.  I was able to buy four matching ones for little arrangements.  I know it's hard to see in this pic.

The plate was a set of two beautiful red glass translucent plates.

They are beautiful under plants.

The funny thing is, after I cut these still good parts, they looked great for about three more weeks.  In fact, half of the half I cut are still in the vase looking nice right now.  

This poinsettia just won't quit!

And to think I almost threw it out...

Not a little undertaking...

Have you ever wondered what it would take to buy a house and get it ready to rent as an airbnb?

Well, I've been finding out.

Just over two years after buying our property, we will hopefully have it ready to rent soon.  We're hoping to have our first guests come stay this summer.  

When we bought our house, we weren't able to focus solely on getting it in shape to rent.  My husband had (has) a full time job, and I was taking care of two toddler-age foster kids for the first six months into ownership.  We've also taken weeks and months off the project when we've gone out of town, went home for the holidays, or just had to focus on commitments at the home/house.  So even with the help of my nineteen-year-old son, it's been slow progess.

There were four major tasks: 1) getting the whole house painted (including all the dark molding everywhere, my major time eater), 2) finding and buying all the furniture and accessories, 3) getting the waterfront excavated and boathouse built and 4) setting the house up as a vacation rental, something we've never done before.

So we're hopefully 4-5 months out from renting, and how are we doing?

As for 1) getting the house painted: we're almost done!  Finally!  I was told by my friend April, who is planning to manage the property for us, that we could have rented it as-is when we bought it, and lots of painting wasn't necessary.  But because the house felt so dark, and because we want to use it when it's not being rented (and have it feel like our house), I felt like it was necessary to paint it.  If it stayed dark and dated, and didn't look great, I didn't feel I'd be able to charge much for renting it.  And if the house isn't great, would renters want to return?  My hope is to find some great renters who want to return regularly.

As for 2) finding all the furniture, etc: that is 90% done.  And was that a task!  Aside from countless trips to estate sales, Goodwill, retail stores and craigslist pickups, we rented a uhaul many times to cart furniture bought in Nashville to here.  And many, many carloads.  At this point, I'm down to some very particular needs furniture-wise.  As I put the house together in the next few months, I can determine what is left to get.

3) The waterfront excavation: so, months away from (hopefully) getting this rented, we still haven't done a thing to the not-very-user-friendly waterfront.  It took almost a year to find someone help us make a plan for the land and get our permit approved by the state.  Then the excavator/dock builder interviews...but we tentatively have someone lined up to do the land excavation and hopefully the work will start within the next two months.  The excavator said it should take a week.  Then we'll have to get the yard back in shape.

We decided to wait on the dock build until after summer, as just having the waterfront done should make it rentable this season, and the sooner we have some income coming in to help cover the excavation/dock build, the better.  (I'm guessing the entire project will be in the ballpark of $100,000.)

And then I have to cross my fingers and hope the (only) dock builder I found last year is still interested and willing to do it!

And finally, 4): setting the house up as an airbnb.  I haven't even started on this yet.  This will consist of all kinds of little things: setting up the website, learning the best ways to outfit a vacation rental (as in, how many rolls of toilet paper to put out?  Should renters have access to cleaning products? etc.).  We also want to put locks on closets that are for our personal things; we need to set up a security system, iron out the management details with our property manager, etc.  Certainly, this will take more time than I anticipate.

Funny, this is not the post I intended to write today, and in the interest of not making it too long, I think I'll wrap this one up for now and post my progress update tomorrow.

I'll just leave this with one small update, that is actually HUGE to me:

When we bought this 1970's-built house, one thing I totally loved (love) about it are two enormous stone fireplaces, one downstairs, one up.  But one thing the living room fireplace just seemed to be missing?  A mantle!  The fireplace was just an enormous rock focal point with nothing on it.

After a lot of discussion, above the fireplace seemed like the best place to locate the tv, so that's where it went.  But it still seemed a bit naked.  I love, love, love fireplace mantles.  There's no better place to put candle and vases of flowers.  And that's what's missing!

One gloomy Saturday morning last February, I remember drinking my coffee early in the morning with a book (of course) and quiet piano music (of course), and I couldn't help but think that what really was missing were some candles glowing on the fireplace mantle that didn't exist.

But finding a mantle maker proved just as challenging as finding a wall-finisher, a dock builder, and everything else.

Finally, after contacting several possible carpenters, and having them all fall through, I was just about to lose hope when we got a new next door neighbor, who just so happens to own a contracting company with a great reputation.  ("He's expensive but does very good work" I was told.)  That's a great new neighbor!

So long story short, after nearly two years, we finally had a mantle consultation with the new neighbor who is planning to install a mantle for us in the next month or so.

Yes!!!

And here are the pics of what's to come:

I found these cedar slabs on craigslist; a guy was selling them who was processing trees on his property.  These 8' long, 3" thick slabs were around $100 each.

I thought they'd make perfect mantles, it just took some time to locate a maker.

The new neighbor was very impressed with the wood!

The fireplace now - isn't it missing something?

Our neighbor (the contractor) put that piece of duct tape in the center where the mantle's going to go.

That plank is heavy (!) and will involve drilling into the stones to mount it.

It's funny; once we installed the tv I realized for the first time that the fireplace opening is not centered.

How did that happen?

(It becomes pretty obvious when something is centered above it!)

Oh well - it's the little quirks that make it home, right?

Because our neighbor said there would be a lot of dust from drilling when installing the mantle, and because he's going to varnish the mantle in place once it's installed, I have been waiting to finally (!) get our living room set up till the project is done.  (Finally set up = mess out, final furniture brought in and placed, rug and artwork placed.

After two years of living with a house-in-process, it's finally going to resemble a home, and I could not be more excited about it!

Just in time to turn the keys over to renters...

Just beautiful!

Just a few quick picks from the evening I arrived last week; it was a beautiful 50 degree winter's day.  I arrived at The House of Goodwill just before sunset, and went for a quick walk just to enjoy the stillness.  It was my first time here since the beginning of October.

Here's a photo of the house from the road

Winter may be off-season in a lake neighborhood, but I absolutely love it!  It is so quiet and still everywhere, and without the leaves on the trees, you get interesting water views of things you never see in warm weather. 

Oh boy, have I missed the deer!

I love seeing deer out the window in the morning as I'm making my coffee.

And of course, on my return to the house I opted to take the long way so I could stop at a couple of antique stores en route (sort of, anyway).

I found this little guy (not an antique), but he just seemed perfect for the house:

I've been back and forth on making the house a pet-friendly rental, but since that's often what I'm looking for when I rent a house, I thought I'd give it a try.  I can always change that in the future if it seems to be a problem.  The fact that the house had no carpets when we bought it was a huge plus.

I'm going to put this little puppy in the entry to welcome the dogs.  

If only he was a basset hound!  Oh well, he's still cute. 🙂

Speaking of dogs, time to go walk my own and then get to painting.

The end of the marathon

As it turns out, buying this house with the intent of turning it into an airbnb definitely confirmed something I've always suspected about myself: that regarding my personal capabilities I'm often wildly optimistic.

WILDLY optimistic.

In the beginning, I imagined getting the house painted in a couple of months.  I mean, how long does it take to paint walls?

Well?  As it turns out, about two years!  (And that's with a little help from my son.)  What I didn't know?  That painting dark stained molding takes FOREVER.  The walls are the easy part.

Sometimes it's a real blessing the things we don't know, when we begin an endeavor.  I imagine I would have been pretty daunted had I begun this with the knowledge I have now.

Since we're really only doing a cosmetic redo of the inside of the house, I didn't expect to have the kind of delays and problems people run into with remodels.  But when we had to resurface the walls (after taking down wallpaper in the hall and bathroom that wrecked little parts of the wall, and discovering wallpapered-over holes), trying to locate ANYONE to do the work took months.  And my husband ended up doing it himself.

Then there's the outside (the actual remodeling part): we had no idea how complicated it would be having a dock built.  When we realized what we want to do will involve extensive excavation, it became obvious what a huge project this will be.  (I say "will be" because after two years, we still have not begun it.)

It took about a year to make the plan and wait for approval from the TVA.  Then we tried to locate a contractor, another dead end.

We had a quote that was so expensive (for the excavation alone) it was a no go.

The good news?  We believe we've found a reliable, affordable contractor who can do the excavation in March.  So it looks like a project that will be tackled in stages.  But our new potential excavator guy actually responds to texts and phone calls.  That's a first!

We are really hoping to have the house ready to rent by the beginning of summer.  So we'll have to wait to search for a dock builder till next year.

So here we are, the end of January, and I need to get this house done and ready by June.  Where are we at?

Well, I'm FINALLY down to the last little bit of painting:

This little area between the hall and living room that needs to be painted.

The walls and bathroom vanity still need to be done.

Figuring out the colors is the hard part.

I've got 3 little areas left of dark molding that needs to be deglossed and painted.

And then it's FINALLY done!

This little section in the hall was covered by the scaffolding my husband built so we could paint over the stairs.  We couldn't get to it till he took it down.

This is the inside of a closet that for some reason I didn't do when I did the molding in the rest of the room.

I know it's just the inside of the closet and maybe I'm being a bit of a perfectionist here, but I just want to know that ALL the molding in the house matches.

This bathroom window has been covered by a curtain since we bought the house, so it never hit me that there was a dark window hiding behind it.

Again, my perfectionist problem is kicking in a little.

But after these I will have no more dark molding anywhere!

This is currently the state of the "basement" room.

When I went to Florida unexpectedly in November, my son stepped up and painted this whole, huge room for me while I was gone.

It looks so fresh and nice!

As soon as the hinges are painted, we can put this vanity back together.

The hinges and cabinets to be painted so we can put the downstairs kitchen back together.

So, aside from finishing the painting, I just need to go room by room and organize, adding and deleting the final furniture and getting them fully set up finished.  This will help me figure out what I still need to find, furniture-wise.

I'm going to start in this bedroom, which, like all the rooms has been a repository for the "house stuff" I need to arrange and organize.

Time to get the kitchen table out of here that my husband's been using for a desk.

He's not real happy about this.

So, here's where we're at.  I know it will take some time to set the house up online, etc.  The sooner I can get this done, the better!

The finish line is in sight.

The greatest text I ever got? Definitely!

To return to the theme of goodwill (that is even better than the thrift store kind): I want to share an update today of a prior post, "Witness to a Miracle."  In that post I shared that my father had experienced a cardiac arrest in October, and was on the road to recovery.

God had showed me that he would recover through a photograph; that whole experience still comforts me.

My father had his cardiac arrest on Friday, October 22nd.  On Christmas Eve, barely two months later, he was released from the rehab facility to return home to be with my mom.

Wow!

The day of the cardiac arrest, my dad collapsed in their apartment.  Because my mom was present to witness it (and they live in a community for seniors), she pulled a cord in the apartment to call a nurse as soon as she realized what was happening.

According to my mom, a nurse appeared immediately, rushed passed her and checked for a pulse.  My mom thought she said something along the lines of, "he's gone."  She began CPR immediately anyway.

The nurse who performed CPR that day saved my father's life.

"Who was she?"  I later asked my mom.  "I don't know.  I've never seen her before.  But I'm going to find out," she replied.

A few days ago I was getting ready for bed when I got this text from my mom:

Above is my dad with the nurse, I guess they found her!  When my dad was still in the ICU in the very early stage of recovery, my mom was telling my dad the story of why he was in the hospital.  (He could never remember from day to day.)  "You collapsed and I called a nurse who had to do mouth-to-mouth," she informed him.  "Was it a cute nurse?" my dad asked.

And my dad was back.

Yes, she is a cute nurse!  We can officially confirm that.  But more than that, she did a beautiful thing.  This whole episode has encouraged me to want to renew my CPR training.  I'd hate to be the only option for someone who needs it and not be prepared.

It's got to be a great day at work when you save someone's life!

Two weeks before the collapse, my parents were at their home in Pennsylvania, an isolated place at least twenty minutes from the hospital.  The day of the collapse, they were planning to leave town a few days later.

But at the time of the cardiac arrest they were in an apartment where my mom could pull a cord.  And the nurse showed up immediately.  Had they been anywhere else, my dad wouldn't be here.  God's hand was clearly over this whole experience.

There are many aspects of this story that are miraculous.  

James 1:17 tells us that every good thing is a gift from God.  I don't know why my father survived, but God has a reason.  This nurse was a gift from God.  My father's second chance at life is a gift from God.  It's so easy to focus on the darkness and the losses and the hard things, that it's especially important to give thanks to God for the good things, for all the blessings.

Thank you God, for the best text I've ever received!

Now I love them even more!

I have posted before about how much I love vintage "Ideals" magazines.  I discovered some old copies years ago at a thrift store, and loved them.  As my piles grew, I realized I have another collection.  But this is not a collection of something that merely sits on a shelf, I read them!

If you are not familiar with "Ideals," they are magazines that were published for years that feature content that is nostalgic, sentimental and historic, in the form of poetry, short biographies, inspirational quotes, recipes, book excerpts and beautiful, beautiful photographs.  The magazine celebrated values that were a throwback to the turn of the century (like family, God and virtuousness), so the content was "vintage" when they were published fifty years ago.  

Anyway, most of them were holiday-themed, so I always pull them out seasonally.  Here's what I was reading at Thanksgiving (for $1.50 from a thrift store):

As I was reading this, one illustration in particular caught my eye:

What was it about the illustration that I noticed?  Well, the name of the illustrator in the bottom right corner looked very familiar.  "PAT THOMPSON" (in all caps) it read.

Pat Thompson?  I know someone with that name!  And she's a painter, too!

Years ago I was walking my dog through my neighborhood when I had a conversation with a neighbor who had started oil painting.  He took painting classes in the next town, and told me the studio was always looking for new models to paint.  He knew I did a lot of gig work, and suggested I contact the studio.

I did, and this led to years of my sitting as a portrait model for different classes.  I really enjoyed it, and got to know many of the students, as well as one of the owners, Pat Thompson.

Could this be the same Pat Thompson?

Well, I knew "Ideals" had been published in Nashville (where I live), and the particular issue I was reading had been published in the 1990s.  Then I remembered that a few years ago, Pat gifted me one of the portraits she had done of me in a three-week session.

I was at the studio to sit (yet again), when she pulled out the portrait she'd done.  She had had it framed to give me as a gift, which was so thoughtful.

I loved it.  It was (and is) a great memory of all my years of portrait modeling.

So I jumped up and went to check out the signature on the painting.

There it was!  The same signature, in all capital letters.

My portrait sitting wrapped up around the time Covid entered the world, so I haven't been to the studio in a few years.  I sent Pat an email.  "Just curious," I wrote, "did you ever do any illustrations for Ideals magazine?"

"Wow, thanks Phoebe!" she responded.  She was a bit surprised to be asked that twenty-five years later!

She also informed me that she is a "different artist now" which is "the point of the art journey." 🙂

She added that it was a "fun experience" that taught her a lot about illustrating, and that her niece was the model for this particular picture.

Who knew?

One of my favorite people in one of my favorite magazines.  Now I have something fun to pay attention to as I keep reading.

I wonder how many other contributors would be surprised to know they're still being read and enjoyed, decades after they were published?  (Especially in a magazine.)

It's the delightful little twists and surprises in life that make it fun, don't you think?