10 Cuttin Sage

So............. Just days from now we will be on our way to Ocracoke Island to stay at our very own (completed) beach house!!!  Now my utmost desire is for us to actually VACATION there. However, my husband is not one to sit around even on vacation; just not able to relax much. He is a “Doer of All Things Well”.  Maybe we need to pretend like it’s not our house; that it belongs to someone else for a week so that we don’t obsess about all the details (such as making sure the ice maker is producing at stated capacity, listening for any and all hums, buzzes, vibrations, knocks, murmurs and other onomatopoeic sounds that an appliance can possibly make that aren’t normal.)  My hubby has Superman ears and will listen to any and all things not human to make sure everything is working correctly. Of course, I’m kind of glad he’s like that.  A freight train could hit our house and I probably wouldn’t notice. However his super human skills make it hard for him to relax. A...

This week marks the second week of having renters in 10 Cuttin Sage.  It’s a strange feeling knowing that people are staying in our home.  I have to divorce myself of thinking of it as our personal home and begin to think in terms of a business investment.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall there. I like feedback! I want feedback now!  I’m wondering, “do they like how I decorated it?”  "Do they like that wonderful, freshly painted screened porch (that I spent a week painting, btw) with the gorgeous view?”  “Does the kitchen have everything they need?”  “Are the new mattresses comfortable enough?" (I think they’re great!).  “Do they like the paint colors I chose?”  "Do they appreciate that my dishes are a vintage 1980’s Franciscan Sea Sculptures pattern?” (My first set of dishes that my parents gave me as they launched me out of their home and into my first apartment and career.)   I’m also wondering, “Have the kids spilled Kool-Aid o...

It’s a sunny morning here at 10 Cuttin Sage.  But it’s been sunny every morning here this past week and then it clouds up and rains every afternoon and evening. So I’m thankful for the morning sunshine and I have learned to really appreciate it when I can. Right now, I’m sitting at the dining room table with the french doors open wide to the screened porch. The temp is comfortable enough to do that. There is a gaggle of seven geese outside on the canal. They float downstream; they float upstream; they float back downstream. Their honking sounds a little like European compact car horns. They seem to enjoy the area around our dock! The seagulls, however, are the really noisy ones!  They fuss and fume and argue like siblings fighting over the last cookie!!!  Wildlife is very funny! See how beautiful it is this morning???? I finished painting the screened porch yesterday.  Now I’m waiting on delivery of a table and 6 chairs. I’m also waiting to put toget...

Today is a dreary, rainy day, but oh how lush and green everything is looking! Rain brings life and life brings beauty and creation. This Sunday afternoon has been a pleasant day of rest. If it weren’t raining I would be out yet again, in my losing battle of pulling weeds in the vegetable garden and flower beds. There is a never-ending competition between the good plants (those bought or sown, planned, and planted) and the evil plants (weeds, weeds, and more weeds of every variety, shape, color and texture).  The real war that rages, however, is with the honeysuckle that is attempting to literally (and I literally mean literally) overtake our 2 acre homestead!  I read yesterday that goats LOVE honeysuckle. I wonder if I could borrow or rent one for the summer and maybe FINALLY get the honeysuckle under control!  I mean, it’s getting to be a real problem! Here I go again, getting off track in my blog about a beach house. Oh well.. Today I’ve had time to think, which is...

Today I went shopping for the last few items needed to stock our beach cottage.  I was almost sad as I considered that we’re nearing the end of this project.  Even though we’re starting a new chapter of being vacation home-owners, the planning and design process is nearing an end.   We now have renters booked for 8 weeks this summer!  If we get 4 more, my husband says that we will have made a successful investment the first year already!!!  What have I learned in all of this? That I really love doing this. If we can make a “go” of this investment, I’m already thinking of the next one because I love to think ahead. The reality is, 10 Cuttin Sage won’t accomodate our family forever. We can go now and take our 2 daughters with 2 friends and fit very comfortably in the house.  After all, it sleeps 6. In the future, it will be 2 daughters with 2 husbands.  Someday there will be 2 daughters, 2 husbands, and grandbabies (hopefully and God willing)! Therefo...

Last Wednesday afternoon, April 3, we hit the road with a packed and loaded Tahoe hauling a packed and loaded U-haul.  I had a little vision of the Beverly Hillbillies  floating through my head as we headed down to Ocracoke Island.   After a night at the Orville and Wilbur Wright Days Inn Motel in Kitty Hawk, we got up early and drove the rest of the way to Ocracoke and arrived at the house around 9 am Thursday morning.  Fortunately we were able to unload everything before the Manteo Furniture truck arrived early afternoon to deliver the rest of the new stuff for the house.  God also blessed us by holding off on the rain until everything was inside the house!  So now I have inside photos and no one has to suffer through my feeble attempts at artsy photography anymore!!!!!! Almost ready to roll! Just arrived! New siding, new doors and windows, new shed roof!!! Living room photo  #1 Living room photo #2 Dining r...

Today is Maundy Thursday. In case you haven’t heard of it, it is the day of Christ’s last supper with his disciples and the night He was betrayed. It represents a day of solemn reflection on the horrific sacrifice He made to take the punishment for our sins. There is a feeling of patient anticipation as we wait four days for the Good News of Easter Sunday when all hopes and dreams are fulfilled in His resurrection.  I’ve learned lately that God often wants us to wait for things.  Sometimes having to wait on God makes our longing for things ever deeper. Sometimes the waiting is agonizing.  Sometimes the waiting brings tears and frustration. But always, if we allow it, waiting makes our faith ever so much stronger; and the bringing about of the thing dearly longed for is ever so much sweeter. As these interminably long days, when it seems like winter will neve r end, slowly turn into spring, we have proof that God always comes through for us no matter what.  His an...