nancyrossiter.com 2011 blog

The week up to closing, I found myself saying “this is my last (Monday night, Tuesday morning, etc. at the Kelly House”). It seemed all too surreal. The night before closing I made a video, walking though each room, talking about what was done…. Yes, it was tearful, which is why I’m not posting it. The emotions may have been in part to the sheer exhaustion – the move took its toll both physically and emotionally.

You never realize how much stuff you have – or who your real friends are – until you have to move. And I seriously had much more crap than I ever thought I did. And better friends!

One of the unexpected gems, which also had me fighting back tears, was when a neighbor brought over some cinnamon bread for the day we moved. A truly generous and selfless gift, as I would not be able to find anything to eat – or eat with- for the next two days.

I honestly wish I could say everything went smoothly and I rode off into the sunset, but unfortunately, as I have discovered though this whole selling process, there are realtors that pay attention to detail, and those that do not. Despite several emails, texts, etc., about certain details on the sale of the Kelly House from my end, the buyer’s realtor ignored several key issues that needed attention, resulting in several hundred dollars out of my pocket. Not that the loss of $$ was a big deal, but the frustration of bringing it up before closing multiple times and having it dismissed by a much more “experienced” realtor, was beyond frustrating.

I do have to say that the realtor for the property I was buying was fantastic – very responsive to every email and at the closing, questioned many details on the closing statement with the title agent. Very much on top of her game. Bravo.

But aside from the problems, I don’t want to detract from the fact that it has been a tremendous ride. Everyone that starts out doing something they have never done before feels like an idiot with each new challenge the opportunity presents… and that has certainly been the case here. We started with “endless stupidity” and I have learned an AMAZING amount over the last 8.5 years. People keep telling me that I have “taken it as far as I can” with my resources, and that is certainly true. I am confident that the new owners will continue to build off of what we started after the foreclosure and what other owners have done.

So with this story ending my next story begins with the 11+ acres purchased this week in Yulee. I’m in the process of creating the website and blog at www.threecolliefarm.com and our Facebook page Threecolliefarm. Thanks again for reading the blog!!

So yes, it has been a while. A very long while!

Life here has pretty much been uneventful up until the last month or so. The house has been on the market, then off, then on again. The longest span of time was in 2018 from January until about November. We had a lot of showings, but no real promising leads. Funny thing was, we had a big spike of activity right after I took the house off the market in November. They did not work out, but it was odd that all these people came out of the woodwork after I gave up for the year.

After the holidays and to coincide with the Concourse d’Elegance, I put the house back on the market. More of the same – lots of people interested in the house, but not a lot of people interested in BUYING the house. This meant cleaning for showings, open houses, etc., which took up a LOT of time. I often think that spending several full days a week cleaning for showings that went nowhere was my cosmic punishment for not keeping my room clean as a kid.

In the meantime, back in 2018 I found a piece of property I fell in love with. It went under contract after a few months and I was heartbroken – and it was a cash offer. I had written it off completely and was thinking about not moving at all, when it came back on the market. Yay! But I my hands were tied until I sold this house…. Or so I thought.

At the end of last year, I purchased a very inexpensive house out of foreclosure in Hilliard. I figured that if I sold the Kelly house at least I’d have some place to live while building in the new property. After six months of renovating the Hilliard home, the Kelly house still had not sold. I thought I’d “test the market” putting the Hilliard house on the market, and amazingly it went under contract after only two days to the second people that saw it. So back to the drawing board.

It only took three months in 2019 for me to get completely frustrated with the selling of the Kelly House, so I took it off the market and rented out the carriage house in the late spring. I’m not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post, but I hate having tenants there when the house is on the market. I personally would hate that situation if I were the renter, and it just seemed like a bad idea – the carriage house had been staged so it would make the best impression… but after much thought I decided to rent it at the same time I took the house off the market.

I still kept my eye on the property in Yulee. The owners took it off the market at the end of the summer. I kept in touch with the realtor and she seemed to indicate that the owners were thinking about building on it themselves. Crap.

Around here, many other people in this price range with historic homes downtown also took their homes off the market. One of my neighbors that also had her house listed up the street echoed my frustration regarding lots of showings but no offers when I spoke with her this fall. Others in the neighborhood could not believe that these beautifully restored historic homes were just sitting on the market. And the feedback I received every time when a buyer appeared seriously interested and then the lead went cold was “Thank you for showing your lovely home. The buyers (eventually) decided they wanted something newer so they bought at the beach”. Every. Time.

I continued to look for property to build on, but nothing matched the potential of the property I had seen in Yulee in 2018. I made a small profit on the house I sold in Hilliard, so I now had money for a down payment. I contacted the agent again for the property in Yulee, and she told me that they were more interested in selling than building on the land, so yes, it was still for sale, even though it wasn’t listed. Shortly afterward, I made an offer and it was accepted.

Then the strangest thing happened… Within an hour of my offer being accepted, I received a letter in the mail from a realtor that had a buyer desperate to buy in the historic district. I dropped everything and called her, and she believed that this house was exactly what her buyers were looking for. Turns out that her buyers ended up turning on her and decided to buy at the beach (!) but the timing was very odd.

I was seriously considering putting the house on the market again before I received the letter, but that motivated me to do so faster. I would never normally put a house on the market in November, but because seemingly everyone else took their similar properties houses off the market, inventory levels for historic homes in this price range were very low.

Within a few weeks, an open house and several showings later, I received a call from an agent that had the “Pipi Longstocking” house. He believed the buyers were ideally suited for my house (having shown it twice before). Long story short, they loved it and actually made an offer. After careful consideration and speaking with friends and family, I accepted the offer. I was in shock for several hours afterwards.

Clearly this house has been a large part of my life for the past eight years. I have no doubt that the new owners will continue to bring the house back to its former glory (and then some) picking up where I left off. While the closing date is still not nailed down exactly, it will be soon.

My emotions are a mix of sadness and relief mixed in with a bit of excitement for the future. Leaving here will truly be a difficult event.

One of the common themes with this blog is how fast time flies between posts!! The fall term is heading to a close as we head into the holidays. I am soooo happy that the cooler weather has finally arrived. I won’t be quite so happy when I’m freezing my buns off, but right now is great!!

I have temporarily taken the house off the market. Now is not a great time to sell as the number of people coming to the island (as well as people thinking about buying houses) drops off dramatically as thoughts move toward holidays, etc.

It is also a great time to reflect on what worked, and what did not. The number one thing I have heard over and over again (as I mentioned in previous posts) from realtors and buyers is that “old houses are too much work and money”. Movies like “The Money Pit” reinforce this thought. And I also find it funny (in a sad way) when a couple of younger folks reiterate this sentiment in their feedback after viewing the Kelly house…and by younger I mean able-bodied couples generally 60 and under.

This idea got me thinking about all the single women (and by “single” I’m including divorced and widowed women as well, without the help of a live-in significant other) that own these old homes in the neighborhood and are single-handedly responsible for their maintenance. I can think of at least ten ladies off the top of my head between 50 and 80+ that have – by themselves -restored and maintained 100+ year old homes – like myself with very modest incomes – or retired with fixed incomes (no trust fund babies here). Are we just plain crazy – or crazy like a fox? If the prevailing wisdom about old houses were true, we would all be in the poorhouse with homes that are impossible to maintain. But all of the wonder women I’m thinking of have immaculately maintained houses. What gives?

The kicker here is that many people who have seriously considered buying this house have ended up buying at the beach – opting against a well-built home downtown, away from the danger of hurricanes – to enter into a highly corrosive environment which will inevitably require a great deal of maintenance. Articles like this one on Realtor.com revealing that older homes are a much better buy than newer homes go ignored: https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/why-buy-old-home-instead-of-new-one/

In the end, staying here is more of a reward than a problem. I’m sure a smart buyer will come along and realize what a fantastic place this is to live.

Wow, it’s been a while!! Summer always goes quickly – it seems one minute I’m at graduation and the next I’m sitting back at convocation… but clearly a lot has happened since my last post. Since today is my first day back at work, I thought it might be fun to get caught up.

First, the house is still on the market. We’ve had several near misses, where people love the house, plan to make an offer, and then ultimately decide to buy at the beach. Many, many realtors have paraded people thought the house that they clearly did not qualify. Most were looking above their price range. Yes, it’s very frustrating. My favorite are the realtors that bring people through that “don’t do stairs”. Yes. I thought it was pretty clear from the outside pictures of the house and carriage house that there are, indeed, stairs. In both places.

I think it would be great to have a real estate brokerage that specializes only in historic homes. It would never happen, but these beautiful vintage houses need a particular level of knowledge in order to serve the customers in the best way possible. I was actually recently in a meeting with another realtor that said “Oh, those old homes are too much WORK”. I nearly jumped across the room and throttled her. It’s parroting these sayings to customers that can dissuade anyone from buying a great property. ANY house that you own is going to require work. If you don’t want to work, rent for God’s sake. This house, like many others in the area have been completely updated. The heavy lifting has been done!!!

I also heard someone say that phrase at one of my open houses. After getting my blood pressure under control, I politely asked “what exactly to you mean by ‘a lot of work’”? The man said “Paint. It will need to be painted”. Uggghh. I had no polite response for that, so I just let it go.

Surprisingly, I have changed my mind about open houses. We ended up doing several this summer and each time we have had some very nice people come through. It’s almost like having a party where you have no idea who or how many people will show up!

We did have our hearing at the city over the splitting off of the carriage house. Talk about a cluster. Too much to discuss here, but it did not go our way. With an attorney, it could definitely be won, but it’s not a battle I want to get into the trenches for. Additionally, several people that are looking to do a 1031 exchange need the investment component of the carriage house in order to make it work.

Anyway, since my plans to travel this summer were usurped by real estate work (I have a listing in JAX due to close this week at full asking price) I made the most of my staycation. We have another resident now, Dixie. She is a blue merle collie puppy. She is having a blast with her new furry family.

Here is a picture taken yesterday by a friend that is taking a photography class and asked to photograph the kids. Pardon the wild hair!! It’s still very humid!!! I’m looking forward to the fall and cooler, dryer days!

The Museum’s “Cottages and Courtyards” tour was Saturday. As previously mentioned, I decided to have an Open House that day as well, which unfortunately meant that I was preparing for the Open House and conducting it during the tour, so I missed it. I heard that they had about 800 people that bought tickets, so it was a great success.

The weather that day was unbelievably beautiful… sunny and warm with very low humidity. I was out back looking around at the mulched and planted “secret” flowerbeds that looked almost perfect and thought “I want to sell this place… why?”!

We had close to 40 people come through, and unlike previous open houses, a good percentage of people were actually interested in buying. Sure we had a few “lookie loos” that stumbled on the house because of the tour, but many more had seen the advertisements on Zillow and Realtor.com. There was so much interest that it would not surprise me at all if the house went under contract this week.

Another question I have been pursuing has been a question that has come up multiple times regarding the carriage house – can it be split off and sold as a separate piece of property? The answer was not as complicated as I thought, but still has a few caveats.

I went down to the City and it appears as though it is possible with variances, but it is possible. The carriage house sits on its own lot, has its own street number, utility meters, etc. I think everyone I’ve spoken to about it thinks it would make a “kick-ass” starter property for someone. The price would have to be relatively low due to the fact that the living area is small, but the location is fantastic. I’ve seen houses in the >$200k range go under contract literally overnight, so the potential is great once the hoops are jumped through.

A few other thoughts came up: it looks like the “concrete moat” that I thought would never be able to be even partially taken down can be – which means that the lot on the other side of the property could potentially be built upon (ie garage, driveway etc.). That thought never occurred to me.

I also came across some interesting items about the history of the house while looking at some old surveys of the property. I was told a tennis court was on the property, and sure enough, I found the image in the online archives – what a hoot! The full record is at http://ameliaisland.pastperfectonline.com/photo/CE633781-767B-4D3E-9C6D-754687435520

but here is the image:

The surveys also confirmed what the couple that showed up the doorstep (who were related to D.A. Kelly) said about a building for the servants being in the back yard. Sure enough, it was in the survey. There was also a one-story building in a survey where the carriage house now stands and some other out-buildings that were taken down over the years.

This winter was a good one in my book. We had two real freezes – one bad enough to kill my Bougainvillea on the trellis on the north side of the house. It also killed the plumbagoes to the ground, but most of them are coming back right now. What is memorable is that it has stayed mild enough to not have to crank up the heat as much as in previous years -  great news for the electric bill.

Last year the Ponderosa lemon tree produced two lemons, and the year before three… a far cry from the 40 lbs of lemons it produced in 2013 and 2014.  The tree was still bouncing back from the deep freeze we had in 2015…. But right now it is literally covered in flowers… looks like it will have a record number this fall. The citrus trees I planted on the north property line (blood orange, Persian lime and Meyer lemon) are also covered in blooms, so it will be a great year for the citrus trees. I’m not quite sure why – I didn’t fertilize them – so maybe it has something to do with the weather this winter?

One of the two lemons this year

This spring I’ve started early on the mulching this year. I usually wait until I can’t leave the property due to the traffic during Shrimpfest, but this year curb appeal is important. I’m also having an open house during the inaugural “Cottages and Courtyard” tour April 14^th, so I guess I’ll have to find another project to do during Sprimpfest. The mulching is going much easier this year, since most of the yard was just done in November.

In other news, we have another new resident at the Kelly House – Zooey. I’m taking a bit of a break from animal rescue since Abby’s death. Zooey is a Sheltie puppy I picked up in North Carolina. He is a very happy little guy. He became immediate best friends with Penny and the two are inseparable. Penny will even stand by my side nervously when I give Zooey a bath, watching over to make sure I don’t hurt him!

This has become one of my favorite pictures – Zooey running through the hallway while the afternoon sun streams through the stained glass windows – a very peaceful afternoon!

Spring Break this year was about as exciting as most of my other breaks in recent memory – in other words, the annual compilation of taxes to get to the accountant. This year’s taxes was made particularly cumbersome by trying to figure out the capital basis for the Kelly House – in other words trying to figure out every dime I have put into it in the past 7.5 years. Yikes.  I can’t say that I’m anywhere near done on that part, but I did get my 2017 taxes to the accountant.

So while I’m going through all the records, I figured it would be fun to do some before and after shots to jog my memory. There are too many pictures that have been taken over the years to be a comprehensive list, but here are a select few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Front of house “before” pics:

Dust bowl instead of a lawn……

The junk car in the front yard…

After!

Carriage house “before” front

This “after” pic was taken before we put the shutters back up:

The inside of the carriage house was a complete mess. Someone moved all the outdoor furniture inside.

After:

Old roof:

New roof:

Sleeping porch (back to main house) before:

Sleeping porch after

Master bath before (note clear glass on door – who does that in a bathroom?):

Master bath after (privacy film to the rescue!):

Master bed (OMG! wallpaper!):

After:

Kitchen before (pictures are dark because electricity was off):

No appliances.

Kitchen after:

Lately I’ve been thinking that my greatest achievement to date has been surviving the home tour… and I guess I’m not alone. What a flurry of activity, worry and stress. Needless to say, I’m glad it’s over!

Part of the issue was repairing the big stuff left by the hurricane – the windows in the kitchen and third floor and replacing the rotted second floor balcony as well as the wood on the front porch.  Almost comically, everything was done just in the nick of time…. In fact the windows were still being put in the evening of the preview party – but they were completed before the tour started!

Mere days before the tour....

So much else has happened, I’m not sure where to start.

A few non-locals will probably be shocked to learn that I have decided to put the Kelly house on the market. Yes, with much soul-searching, I think it’s best to have someone else have they joy of living here. It has been an honor and privilege to have lived here for over six years, but I think people that know me know that I’m more of a “country girl” than a “city girl”.  And for that reason, I’m going to move on.  Of course, I don’t plan on leaving the island completely, I will be back as often as I can. And with many good friends here, I’m sure to many it will seem like I never left.

So – the bad news: after recovering from the tour and the holidays, I noticed my sheltie Abby was not eating as much as she usually did. She picked out the softer food from her kibble, so I figured it was a dental issue. We went to the vet to have bloodwork done for the cleaning procedure, and about an hour after we returned home, the vet called with horrible news – Abby was advanced kidney failure. The news hit me like a punch in the stomach. I rushed her back to the vet for an intensive two days of hospitalization – IV fluids and catheters – intended to get her kidneys functioning again. She never be the same after that.

Of course I believed she would pull through. She was only about six years old, and other than the picky eating, never showed signs of illness. The dental cleaning was just a preventative measure. From the vet and the research I had done on the internet, there was a possibility that she would live up to four more years. But somehow I knew in my heart when she came home that her days were numbered.

She started having difficulty walking– it was like she was not sure where to put her feet. The vet told me after the hospitalization there was a possibility that she could develop a blood clot.  Two nights after she returned home, she curled up on the carpet on the floor between Troy and Penny. I put a blanket on her and she seemed to be OK. Her eyes followed me as I went to bed.

When I lifted my head the next morning and looked over at where she had curled up the night before, she did not move. She always was always alert to my every motion, so I knew immediately something was wrong. When I sat up and she still did not move, I knew she had passed…peacefully in her sleep. I was not forced to make any decisions, she crossed over the bridge on her own terms. I stayed with her that morning and stroked her fur talking to her softy and telling her how sorry I was that she had to leave us. The people from the pet crematory came around noon to pick her up. Penny did not seem to know what was going on, but Troy came and sniffed her as if to say good bye when she was put on a stretcher with her blue blanket over her and carried out of the house. Troy has been there when Percy, Apollo and Cassie were taken away and reacted the same way for all of them. Stoic, but somehow understanding.

Clearly, I’ve had several dogs die way too soon, but this was one of the hardest losses I’ve experienced. At least when dogs grow old and / or have cancer, you have time to prepare. Abby was too young and less than a week from diagnosis to death was hard to take.

But life goes on.

And there has clearly been more than enough to keep my mind busy. The evening after Abby passed I was back at culinary school. No one knows you have been crying all day when here are onions to chop. And I needed to get out of the house anyway.

There has also been a flurry of activity surrounding the house being on the market. I can’t say I enjoy this process; but of course, it is necessary, and until we find the right people, it will continue.

Where I go from here is still a mystery, but the real estate market is on fire right now – I’m sure decisions will have to be made soon about the next big move.

[Please note: This post was actually written on November 13th - I have been having an AWFUL time with Aabaco small business (yahoo) which hosts this site. The information for accessing it - as the owner - put me in a death spiral loop and the contact number for help was ALWAYS busy. I finally had an hour to get through the frustration, found a number that connected, spoke with someone in Bangladesh, and finally got access again. Will be updating again shortly!]

I’ve been trying to figure out when life got so busy. I think when I was in corporate America, busy was the rule rather than the exception Since I’ve been in academia, busy always seemed to be the exception. Summers off. Long Christmas vacations. This luxury seems to be a distant memory now. It’s not so much my job, but everything surrounding it right now.

A quick recap:  Irma put everything in a tailspin for several weeks. My college closed for an entire week – really unprecedented for anything I’ve experienced in my 20 years of teaching.  Since then, I’ve been jumping from project to project to project, essentially putting out fires.

Penny is now eight months old. I had her spayed a few weeks ago. Although the first day was hard on her, she bounced back very quickly. She is now in the “terrible twos” phase where she needs to be watched as she enjoys chewing everything.

The following week was the yard sale. It took an entire week to get ready for, then Saturday came and only a few people showed up. It was embarrassing. We decided to go an extra day, and a bit later. This time we had a bit more luck, but if I had to guess, we probably sold ¼ of the stuff we had put out. I think if I ever had t do it over, I would have just donated everything and gotten my week back… But as I learned when they carted my stuff away when I sold my house in Maine, it is very difficult to let your things go (that you paid good money for!). Perhaps it drives home what a mistake it was to buy those things in the first place. Hmmmm..

Immediately after the tag sale fiasco, we had the “Halloween in the ‘hood party” here this year. Yes, we had I here last year, however the couple we rotate with was doing a kitchen renovation, and I was actually happy to host it again this year. It’s always a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Once Halloween was over, there was not denying what was next. And it’s much more terrifying.

Of course, I’m speaking of the Holiday Home Tour. I started doing a countdown, but realized it was making me crazy, so I stopped.  But now the number is real and there seems to be an insurmountable number of tasks to do in the remaining days.

I was really fortunate that a neighbor, who is a contractor, is helping me with a really big project – actually two – that have been on the “list” for some time. As you might recall, we had windows that were blown out during the hurricane – HISTORIC windows… not the kind you can just go to Home Depot and replace. He actually found a company that builds he windows (naturally they are not cheap, but there is not a choice in this matter). They are building them now and should have them ready to go. He is also fixing the porch. Several contractors I asked for an estimate ran away screaming, but the rotted wood, etc., is being fixed right now.

In addition to the windows and porch, which are really big projects I’m also working on:

• Cleaning furniture and rugs (happened today – yay!)
• Fixing molding, replacing furniture, etc. in the carriage house
• Cleaning windows
• Fixing a fireplace gas insert
• Hardwood floor refinishing fiasco
• A million caulking/painting projects
• Landscaping landscaping landscaping (including Mt. Mulchmore)
• Don’t get me started on the garage…

Oh and did I mention Christmas decorations?

Soooooo…..

I thought it was interesting when I was walking my dogs by a neighbor’s house this past summer and she said “oh, I heard you are going to be on the tour this year”…And then something about not getting too stressed out or going too crazy. I think I laughed to myself thinking… “not me! Ha ha ha!!”.

Ooops.

I totally and complexly understand what she was trying to tell me now.

So I started to think I was alone in my panic to get things done and “perfect” until I met up with one of the other homeowners on the tour at our Friday breakfast at T-rays. She explained all the problems she was having getting things “perfect” for the tour, and we laughed… almost cried.. and laughed again.

At this point, almost every waking moment is consumed with getting every detail taken care of.. and with 3500 square feet between the 2 houses  and 3 city lots.. it’s a lot of work for anyone… so please don’t judge!

One last note – I mentioned in an earlier post that we were going to be on the Christmas ornament for the museum – then I picked up a copy of the snooze leader a few weeks ago and it said that another house would be the ornament. I met with the photographer, etc., but could not understand the mistake.  I blasted the people at the museum, and they responded very apologetically. They said that the trees cast a shadow on the house and they could not get a good picture for the die. Of course, they thought they had told me, but word never came. My thought is “can’t they just take a picture at a different time of day? The trees don’t cast a shadow all the time. Anyway, it really pissed me off. Hopefully better things to come.

I decided to ride out the hurricane based on the fact that no one could tell, with any real amount of certainty, where the storm was headed. I wasn’t overly concerned about the intensity, as all hurricanes are very dangerous. Thursday night when I went to bed it was downgraded to a tropical storm. When I woke up I found out that the 11 PM news had it as a Cat 5 headed right towards Jacksonville! Then it was a Cat 3 for awhile…. Then we were out of the cone of concern…. Then back to a Cat 3 with the next update.

Long story short, if I was going to evacuate, I wanted to make sure that the place I was evacuating to was safer than the place I was leaving, and I was never really confident that anyplace was safer than here.

I think many others shared my line of thinking as most of the other neighbors that evacuated during Matthew stayed for Irma. Many of us had hurricane parties leading up to the storm. I was very happy to go to them (I almost blew them off to watch the weather channel) but it was a great relief from the stress – realizing everyone was in the same boat and it was OK not to have all the answers.

We were put under a “mandatory” evacuation on Friday at 6 PM. I put the word in quotes because the last time mandatory evacuations were issued during Matthew, we had police cruisers with bullhorns going up and down city streets telling people to get the hell out. That did not happen this time. They also did not close the bridge (although they would have if he winds were high enough). I believe we all understood that we would not have the level of protection and emergency services during the evacuation period – I know I took steps to make sure I was protected in case of any issues.

We were also under a curfew, which put a bit of a damper on the hurricane parties at the neighbors’ houses. What I didn’t quite understand was that we would not be protected during the evacuation period because the police would not be around to protect us from the bad guys, but they would be around to throw us in jail for up to 60 days for going to our neighbors’ parties and violating curfew? Hmmmmm…….doesn’t really make sense to me.

The storm started getting very real on Sunday. I drove over to the beach to find it was completely deserted except for a few people taking pictures like me. Waves were high and the wind was whipping. I’d say about a third of the houses I saw on the way over were boarded up. Center Street was a ghost town on an otherwise busy weekend afternoon. Many businesses closed Friday and were not rescheduled to open until Tuesday. My classes were cancelled on Friday and the college is not scheduled to reopen until Thursday. The real estate office is scheduled to open tomorrow (I have desk duty) but at this point does not have power… not sure how that will work.

IMG_4488

IMG_4491

All day Sunday the winds whirled and the bands of rain came in. Darkness fell, but the power was still on. Around 3 AM all hell broke loose. I woke to a loud bang and realized quickly the power was out. I got up and went into the kitchen – the wind and rain were coming though like I was standing outside. I found out that the awning that had been over the brick patio had been ripped off and on the way down shattered one of the kitchen windows.  I could barely see it through the back door, but it was standing vertically on the other side of the door. Water was rushing in through the broken windows and shattered glass was everywhere.

I knew I had to try to put a temporary fix on the window to try to keep the damage from spreading. I found my drill, some screws and some foam board in the dark and did my best to block the broken panes (note to self: make an emergency repair kit before the next storm). I did a quick walk around the house to see if there was any other damage, but found none. Now terrified, I attempted to go back to bed to get some sleep. Listening to the raging wind, driving rain and the occasionally loud screeching tree frog, I eventually fell back to sleep.

A few hours later I woke up to another loud crashing noise. The dogs heard it too and were clearly on edge. I went out to check and it looked like the awning had flipped over. It was just before dawn and I could barely see anything outside. I checked again on the house and everything seemed to be OK other than the kitchen. As the sun came up, I could see that the crashing noise had to do with a very large limb that had fallen in the far back yard. The street out front seemed to be fine, save the usual storm debris and branches down in the street.

On Monday, the storm and wind continued until early afternoon. Since I couldn’t let the dogs out in the back yard, I let them out on the courtyard of sorts on the carriage house side. The wind blew the gate open and Abby took full advantage of it – she ran through the gate and into the street, despite my terrified (and pissed off) calls for her to come back. Penny has to do everything Abby does, so they both led me on a wild goose chase over to the Fairbanks House in the driving wind and rain.  At that point Troy, who also wanted in on the fun, decided to venture out to the street as well. Seeing that reason was not working with them and they were getting further and further away, I threw open my arms to Penny and she immediately sat down in the middle of the road. I was able to walk over to her and pick her up (yes, all 50 pounds of big stupid puppy). As I carried her back to the house, the other two dogs followed and were all under control again. Uggh. What a nightmare on top of a nightmare storm!

Clean up on the street started as the winds died down. People started venturing out of their houses again in the afternoon. I took the dogs for a walk down the road (on LEASHES since they obviously can’t be trusted!). I talked with a few neighbors who reported little to no damage. I think we made out pretty well overall on this one.

The power came back on around sunset. I was sitting in my car charging my phone and saw a light come on at a house on 8^th street. The I looked around and saw the lights on at my neighbor’s houses. Yay! You never realize how much you need electricity to do everything (ie like making coffee!) until you are without it for 17 hours.

So the cleanup here will take several days and hopefully we will soon be back to “normal”.