"Our guests arrive on Saturday!" I said to my contractor when I arrived at the cabin on Wednesday expecting to find the project much further along and ready for our finishing touches. (It was nowhere close.)
The floors hadn't been grouted, the plumbing wasn't connected in the primary bathroom, the room downstairs wasn't painted, the baseboards weren't attached, the pathway wasn't finished, and the entire place was covered in a coat of thick construction dust, We still had shelves to build, boxes to unpack, AND an entire house to clean and put back together before then . . . (WTF?!)
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"Julie, can you please send another check my way for the work that's currently underway?" said Alex's text message.
I can, but OUCH! The cost of repairs is really beginning to pile up. It turns out that owning a cabin in the mountains, especially when the snow has been significant for the last two years, can add up to major expenses. A burst water pipe, a cracked skylight, a failing roof, a crumbling pathway, and a flooded basement have created havoc at our little "dream cabin." As luck (bad luck?) would have it, one discovery has led to another and another and another . . . With full recognition that these are "gold-plated" problems, they're still problems nonetheless, and they require a rather LARGE financial outlay to fix the unfortunate damage. In short, like Alice, we have tumbled down the rabbit hole. When we secured the listing on Arroyo Avenue, it wasn't our usual quick refresh-and-sell project that usually requires just 3-4 weeks of intense activity. This home had suffered a good deal, and as a result, needed a rebirth that included gutting most of the interior, and virtually starting from scratch. In other words, we were looking at months - not weeks to bring this property to market in its best light.
It was all hands on deck to be sure. There are few sports I enjoy watching more than tennis. Having grown up on hard courts in Sacramento, I've followed the game religiously for years, and I try never to miss the BIG FOUR: the Australian, French, Wimbledon, and US Open. Even as a young mother, I found time to play fairly regularly on a ladies' team in SF and I LOVED it. (Although I am still a mother, sadly, I'm no longer young.)
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AuthorJulie Gardner, has been writing The Perspective for 18 years and has published more than 775 humorous but always informative, essays on life and real estate. Categories
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