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This year I’ve been going through old files trying to get rid of papers I don’t need anymore. I have a lot of files and clippings from 8 years ago when I started taking interior design and architecture classes, so I decided it’s time to sort through them and scan the ones that are still relevant or inspiring and toss the rest. It’s been fun seeing how my design style has evolved over the past decade. I can also see a lot of my hopes and dreams reflected in the kinds of information I chose to save.
I’ve also been reflecting on lessons learned in the past few years, with the intention of hitting the ground running in 2017. If all goes well with the Planning Commission in February, then we will have a very, very full year ahead of us.
So with some time and perspective, here are a few things I’ve been ruminating on during my downtime:
Time:
This project is taking so much longer than I expected. Figuring out that our business partnership wasn’t going to work – and then disentangling it — set us back more than two years, but in the end, that didn’t really matter because we had to wait for El Dorado County to work through its zoning update process, both legislatively and at the ballot box. People who know about these things tell us we are very fortunate that it didn’t take much longer. But we purchased the property in December, 2012 – four years ago! – and if you had told me then that in 2017 we would still be at least a year or more from opening I would have been pretty deflated. So I guess it’s good we didn’t know how long this would take.
However, taking so long meant that real estate prices in the Bay Area could appreciate, giving us much needed seed capital from the sale of our house to start the business and enable us (hopefully!) to qualify for a bank loan. It also meant that we could really get to know our neighbors and other influential people in the area, understand the context in which we are operating (at least somewhat), and really begin to learn the contours of our property, the seasons, and how to grow things here. Also to carefully think through all aspects of the retreat center so that when we do finally open, it will be a fabulous success.
Money:
Much of the existing infrastructure and buildings were built by someone who was not a contractor by training or experience, so many things were done in ways that were either not optimal, not up to code, not flexible, and often all three.
For example, Ramon spent about four days during a cold snap a few years ago crawling through the icy mud to figure out how the drinking water lines ran when the water stopped running. Needless to say, the lines didn’t work in a way that made a whole lot of sense. After a lot of trial and error he finally figured out that the pump was broken (even though the engine was making noise, it wasn’t actually pumping anything). Luckily I was away on business at that time and missed a lot of cursing and gnashing of teeth.
The previous owner also seems to have assumed that whatever he built was going to stay the same way for the next 1,000 years – why would anyone ever want to change anything? For the upcoming bathroom remodel in the guest cottage, we will have to cut out the concrete floor in order to move the shower to another location. And the entire plumbing and electrical system has to be redone since it was not done properly to begin with.
So changing things, bringing them up to code or even just getting them in working order has cost a lot of time and money that we didn’t anticipate.
Patience:
This project has been a lesson in patience for me — there have just been a lot of things outside of our control, particularly with the County process. Luckily we have a consultant who is working with us, but still, it’s kind of amazing how many different departments have to weigh in on the project and don’t always do so as quickly as I would like them to.
And somewhat related to patience is that I’ve had to learn to let things go – and be okay with it. With a large garden and dozens of fruit trees, I can’t always get to everything when mother nature is ready. So yes, I did have to throw a whole refrigerator full of plums into the compost bin because I couldn’t get to them in time. I’m not proud of it, but at least they are going back into the cycle of life (or that’s what I tell myself to assuage my guilt.) Alternatively, when I have set aside time to work on something, like pruning or canning tomatoes, mother nature decides that she’s going to throw down the second rainiest October on record, keeping the tomatoes from ripening and making it impossible to prune my fruit trees.
Gratitude:
Maybe because it’s quiet – both audibly and vibrationally – or maybe because I look out my window and see nothing but trees and clouds and sunsets – it’s easy to be mindful here.
And with mindfulness comes the ability to experience joy and gratitude at any moment. Although I think I will feel even more joy and gratitude once our fabulous pool is built!
I’m grateful that Otto made it through 2016 relatively intact. He seems to have few parts of his brain missing, as happens to many creatures when they get old, but he made it to 2017 and I wasn’t so sure that was going to happen. I’m grateful for every day our cranky old dude is still breathing.
We are pretty darn lucky, Ramon and I.
Here’s to finally making progress in 2017. We are certainly ready for it!
#reverieretreat
