I’m not an electrician, but I could play one on TV…

Sorry for the long time between posts. I'm hoping to make up for it with this extra long one. With Matt going back to work, I have been throwing myself into taking over extra household duties, work on the website, and trying to get as much done on the apartment as possible. In all honesty, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of those things and my struggle with endometriosis. I'm handling it, but it has been difficult at times especially with feeling so isolated. I don't mean to complain just trying to be honest. Thank goodness for my horror novels and adult coloring books!

Throughout all of this, my parents have been on my mind a lot. I don't know what your views are on the afterlife, but I strongly believe that they leave little signs for me. My Dad has especially been on my mind since he always encouraged me to learn about home improvement and empower myself. He never wanted me to be dependent on anyone, and I really think he would be proud of all I have learned in a short time.

Mom and Dad in our backyard in Oregon

Matt and I had our annual financial meeting with our financial advisor who was also my Dad's financial advisor. Nate is seriously the best financial advisor you could ever ask for. When my Dad had his stroke, our lives were thrown into chaos. I had to gain access to his finances and figure out so many things. Nate drove over an hour to meet me and offered to help with anything I needed. He was a complete stranger that chose to be kind when I needed it most. Now, he is following us on our journey with Woodford Rest, and I always get a weird Dad sign around the time when we meet with Nate. I came across one of cards to me the day before we had our meeting. I also had a Mom encounter when I was leaving the apartment the other day after installing one of the lights. I could hear her say "I'm so proud of you". I feel their presence on the property so much. It's really comforting knowing they are invested in this great adventure with us.

First, I would like to say that I absolutely hate electrical work. When you get shocked, it really flipping hurts! However, I feel like I've become fairly proficient at some of the basics. I now will not need to rely on a man to do many of my renovation projects (except for plumbing and power tools). Woohoo (sorry Matthew)! It is really empowering being able to do so many things that I thought were out of my abilities. It also really helps with anxiety because I understand so much more and know that many things are fixable after a trip to Home Depot. One of my favorite bosses wisely asked me when I was panicking about doing something wrong, "Did anyone die? No, then things will be okay. Everything is fixable." That has been my mantra over the last year and especially when I have been doing electrical:) Also, it's really disgusting how much dust and grime accumulates in outlets. So gross!

One of the outlets I pulled out before swapping

New light switch, outlets and ceiling paint in one bedroom

Kitchen light I installed

The last few weeks have flown by. Now that I'm doing the renovations mostly on my own, I have been trying to put even more time into my work hours. I've been getting a lot done, but it's not the visually pleasing things. I've kind of been feeling like I've been spinning my wheels. Thankfully, we are quickly coming up on some of the fun stuff which I will be sharing below:)

As you may have noticed, I am a bit of a stickler for straight lines and orderliness. I'm sorry if this bores you, but I consider some of the work that I am doing as highly visually pleasing. There will be lots of pictures of paint being cleaned up and lines becoming bearable again. When I look at our property it is evident that there were many things done in a hurry in the past or perhaps done with a different standard than I have. It is so satisfying to be able to make things "right" in my eyes and bring this beautiful property up to it's potential. Many of these things have bothered me since we viewed the property in February 2023. It is very gratifying to fix these issues that have been on my mind for sooooo long. So let's go! Let's clean things up!

One of the first things I wanted to do was to paint all of the walls. It was evident that it had been a while since the walls were painted properly and with more than one coat of paint. The bedrooms in the apartment are already on the smaller side, but the pinkish color that they were made them feel really claustrophobic. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the color pink (especially hot pink), but I don't love to decorate with it. I decided to use Sherwin Williams' Dover White for the bedrooms which I used in many of the rooms of our home and mother-in-law apartment. It's a nice warm neutral color that will allow a wide variety of tenant furniture and design choices. It's amazing just how much bigger the rooms feel with that single choice.

Dover White being applied to the pink walls

Sharp contrast of colors next to second bedroom window

Third coat of paint in Dover White

I feel as though I should give a public service announcement about painting. I am by no means an expert. I started painting in June of 2023 so I'm a newbie, but I feel as though I have a better understanding of painting since I have been constantly painting since June. It is vitally important to paint more than one coat and make sure you use a roller that gets in all of the crevices. The picture below shows what I am talking about. This is one of the examples of the hurried workmanship that I referenced above.

My new paint is on the right and the old paint is on the left

Now for the good stuff! Fixed lines!!!! We decided to keep the living room the same brown color. It's not a bad color and it goes with some of the black and brown themes in the kitchen. It definitely needed to be refreshed though so we had Sherwin Williams match the paint and recreate it. They did a really nice job and the finished color is below. I was able to finally start fixing some of the problems that I spoke about before. The first half in the picture is what I fixed. I can't even begin to tell you how good it felt. Matt thought there was something wrong because I just kept sighing as I was painting lol. There are a few touch ups I need to do when I got carried away with the light switches etc. Other than that, the ceilings should be painted by the end of the weekend and painting will be done!

Fixed lines vs. messy lines

I really can't say enough that I would be lost without my husband. He really is my rock and is always amazing me with his resilience. He constantly inspires me to push myself further than I ever thought possible. Not only is he working at a new job, but he comes home every night and helps me with a project for an hour before dinner. Last night our project was to work on the bathroom mirror. He figured out all of the measurements (which I'm super bad at) and wired the mirror into place. Yes, I probably could have figured it out on my own with enough time, but he allowed me to focus my energy on other things. Also, I am obsessed with the new mirror. I'm hoping to use one similar to this in the motel rooms and also in our upstairs bathroom in our house. Stay tuned!

Bathroom when we first started

New mirror

New mirror with the light on

Once we get some of the motel renovations started, I plan to start handing out these little business cards to start getting people interested. My wonderful aunt helped me to design these during her last visit. I was getting major anxiety about it, but she helped to make sense of my rambling gibberish. I love the way they turned out. Something about them made me have some huge panic attacks. I think it is because this makes the motel real. There is no backing out once we start handing these out. It's so scary/exciting!

Front of card (I know it says "owners" that's so crazy!!!!)

Back of card

In closing I would like to let you know that "mud season" in Vermont is no joke. We have had a very mild winter compared to most years. Matthew and I voted in person for the first time last Tuesday (Oregon and Washington only have mail in ballots) and spoke with some of the local long term residents of Woodford. I have to say that I absolutely love the people here. They are so genuine and personable. They told us that this was one of the mildest winters anyone could remember. I'm really glad that we were able to ease into winter this year and start to get used to it. Since winter weather was so mild, we are entering "mud season" which usually happens later in spring. The ground is so full of water! Thankfully, we don't have guests yet so we are looking at getting our parking lot asphalted or new gravel over the summer. The parking lot is an absolute mess! I keep thinking I'm going to be like the horse in The Never Ending Story and just fall into some mud quicksand every time I walk across the parking lot. We also have a tiny creek running through our basement which has been interesting. Even with all of these new experiences/challenges, we still absolutely LOVE it here:) Take care of yourselves and don't forget to rest!

The swampy parking lot