Southern Eclectic

I was sitting in my kitchen this morning having a yummy cup of coffee while enjoying the cool autumn air and watching the bunnies play in my front yard (we secretly call our place the Bunny Hole) and it dawned on me that my kitchen cabinets will be here in less than 2 weeks.  I have been living without kitchen cabinets since we moved here in May.  Let me explain a little...

We moved here at the end of May after our other house had been up for sale quite some time.  We thought we would buy this place a slowly renovate it and then have it as rental property.  The week after we bought this place our house sold.  We had no place picked out to buy so we thought we would move in here while we looked. The property we had just bought was a foreclosure that had been sitting empty for 7 years.  It had been stripped of everything.  Someone had taken the heat pump, the water heater, the light fixtures, the bathroom sinks and vanities and the kitchen cabinets!  The only thing that was left was an island in the kitchen and the only reason I think they did not take it was that they would have had to have taken it apart to get it out the doors.  Oh and naturally they took all the appliances too.  The house was just a shell. But the shell was in really good condition.  The only cosmetic problems were that the carpets were a dark green carpet and they had been walked on with red muddy feet and were dirty.  The walls and everything else were in great shape.  So we started moving in and doing renovations all at the same time.

Now here is where things took a huge turn.  We finally got through the closing on our house and started to unpack some and get settled in enough to make things livable.  We had installed all of the necessaries first like the  heat pump (NC is hot in the summer), water heater, light fixtures, and all new appliances.  Things were moving along.  We took a few days off for the 4th of July and went to see my parents in Nantahala.  They have a house here and a log house in Nantahala, NC.  We had the best time and we took my parents to see the fireworks and enjoyed a great weekend.  We came back on Sunday morning. On Wednesday of that same week my parents come home to their house here.  My mother is ill.  I take her to the emergency room and she is admitted with a heart attack.  While she is in the hospital things get much worse.  We were told by the doctors that she was loosing blood and they were not sure from where so they started doing tests.  We find out that my mother has Stage 4 rectal cancer.  When she was released from the hospital she could barely walk, was now on oxygen full time and could not take care of herself.  There was no way at this time that my Dad could take care of her and give her the 24 hour a day care that she needed so I moved her in with me.  My daughter was home from college for the summer and my husband works nights so there would always be someone here with her.

It has worked out great.  The property that we had bought was right below my parents house so my mother would be close to my dad.  He can walk or drive down, which he does many times a day, and visits with mom.   I am happy to say that she is now up and doing well.  She is having radiation treatments for palliative purposes and Hospice comes in through the week and helps care for her.  We have had more "company" ie: friends and family at this house than we ever did at the old house because of my mother living here and her illness.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to help my parents and care for my mother.   Caring for her is now my main focus in life but life for all has to continue at some point.

Which brings me back to my house.  Things that I never thought I would ever have to live without...I have been.  I have pieces of furniture placed around the walls in the kitchen where cabinets should have been, I still have no bathroom sink in the master bath but part of that is because my husband and myself could not agree on one. I have not gotten to paint the walls a bright fresh white and most of my furniture and accessories are still in storage.  I know fall is here and cooler weather is approaching and I have the need to get things in order.  It is time to start "nesting" as some might say.  So begins my journey to do what I can to make my home comfortable for my family.   I hope you will follow along as we work to transform this place from a house into a home.