A room at the Inn

The exploration:
As we drove up and down the hills looking for the perfect house nothing really caught our eye until we saw Lucy. A grand old house, rich in craftsman style, looking really tired and ramschackle, the old gal really needed some love. The only problem was, she wasn't for sale. To our surprise, a few weeks later when our realtor called to share that the current owners would be willing to honor us a one time viewing... With that a weekend away was planned. The number's worked, how bad could this be. Coming from the "big city" and with our expetise in renovations, this real estated project looked like a drop in the bucket.

One should always remember, don't jump into anything without a certain amount of investigation. Remember the universe will alway provide for what the heart desires. So be careful what you wish for.

A change of Scenery:
Mount Dora, a small muncipality of 10,000 nestled in the heart of Central Florida surrounds beautiful Lake Dora. A dreamy little place that has the sub-tropical landscape of South Florida palms with the northern scape of Miss Cloe Magnolia's, Live Oaks, Spanish moss, Lillies and the beloved Maples trees. Encompassing the tiny town center are neighborhoods of homes that include turn of the century achitecture such as craftsman, victorian and Florida Cracker bungalows untouched by the commercialism of coastal regions. It felt like Connecticut in Florida, what a concept, could it be better than this.

The check list:
In February of 2005 the grand ole dame became ours. Not without the pains and tribulations of a challenging real estate transaction mind you. Secrets, lies and there should have been video tapes. Not to say that we had " buyers remorse", lets just say that nothing comes without a price. A few short weeks later on March 15, 2005 away we moved from our home...a place we started our love affair rich with all our memories of home... off to this funny little place we really knew nothing about. Accept our hearts were telling us its the right thing to do. As one can imagine the first feelings of being in our new home were a little unsettling. After all, it was just a shell. Sometimes it felt mysterious and spooky and sometimes it felt exciting like those feelings you expirience when going on a big trip, invigorating yet strangly scary.

April 1st...it all starts. Well "she" stands solid, has been for 91 years, that's a good sign. Original windows, white washed walls and ready to go. The plumbing...well its old but they say they've upgraded it....the electric, well..its been upgrade too. Wow! you mean all we haft to do is put in a few bathrooms and a kitchen and away we go. We don't know anyone closer then 200 miles away, so we decided to start with the newspaper and the internet. Contractor's, Handymen, Carpenters, Electricians, Mason's, Plumbers...we need them all. A grand idea we had was to start with the exterior. At least if we run out of money nobody in the town will know it because the outside will look fabulous.

Check #1:
One buldozer and in a two afternoon's our jungle looked pretty good. Away with the fallin tree's from the last hurrincane, and away with the scrap steel left from the construction on the neighbors new house. Our yard was a clean slate in such a short time, the feeling was wonderful. But what were we going to do with all the "sugar sand". These hills of Mount Dora really are just sand dunes and sink holes after all. That is what creates the soft slopes and curvatious roads around town. Our Saluki's loved it...a dessert hunting breed, Saluki's love to run in the sand and chase furry little creatures. And lets not forget the snakes, and all sorts of bugs that come out of the earth when its disturbed, and the sand flees love them. The house may not be a castle yet, but it was sure becoming a sand castle pretty quick. So things had to change.....on with the three hundred feet of privacy fencing, six zones of irrigation systems, seventeen palats of sod, in with the dozens of trees, bushes, and flowers. It really started to look like something.

She's here!!!!
This yard was going to look beautiful even if the 96 degree 100% humidity nearly made us pass out. Damn it! this was our new adventure and we're going to make the best of it. After a long day of cutting limbs and planting fern beds in the summer heat I decided to call it quits about 7pm, still daylight out I thought I'd take a cold shower and down a ice cold beer while I watching the beautiful Florida sunset on the porch. So off I went into my cold shower and just about when I was going to bend over and take that beer from the fridge...my back decided not to straighten up and I knew what was next. This had happened 10 years prior and when my back went out the first time. Gracefully as I could, I stepped over to the sofa with a ice pak and a bottle of anti-inflamitories to lay and rest this tired back of mine. Well, it was the day before my 40th birthday and my celebrations looked like they were going to be spent flat on my back. Even the slightest muscle movement sent electical charges down my legs with excrusiating pain. Thankfully, I had the love and caring of my partner of 13 years to attend to my simplest needs. Boy, did I feel old. As I lay, down in our dirty unfinished living room with all the comforts of unpacked boxes, tools and general unfinishedness that's when "Lucy" decided to let herself be known.

Arthur and the dogs had gone to bed upstairs leaving me alone in my funoral position to rest at peace for the night. Tired of feeling miserable I soon fell into what I thought was going to be a restfull night. At 2:35 a.m I was awaken by the strangest sound...the windows and walls behind the sofe started to shake frantically like an earthquake was taking its toll. Then that sound, it freaked me out, oh my god, what was that. It sounded like a high pitch screeching like those sounds you hear as special affects in scary movies when the ghosts or demons are angry. I was freeking out and completely imobile. What could I do, I called to Arthur and the dogs, no response. Holy shit, I thought, what the hell is happening, Then the china cabinet started and the windows at the sametime. Glasses shaking and window's rattling so loud, I yeld STOP! And to my surprise it did. Now mind you, this all happened in a matter of 5 minutes and it was over. So scared, I managed to reach to the floor where the remote control for the t.v laid and turned the channel the "comedy central" and turned the volume really loud. I didn't sleep till the light of dawn. "Lucy was in the house and she wanted to be noticed."

After a long hot summer the fruits of our labors blossomed. The summer rain made our garden grow beautifully.