Jul. 22, 2006

   Feeling Down

Posted in Innkeeping

Our most recent prospective buyer fell through.  They are not ready to make the leap yet and don't want to spend this much and want something closer to their current residence.  They will not be able to find anything less expensive closer to their home.  They're just not ready to take the risk yet.  A waste of our time - and their's.

 

I am discouraged.  I'm trying to remind myself that if these folks fell through, it's because God has something better around the corner, but it is difficult.

 

July has been horrible as far as business is concerned and despite having a good special available, we aren't getting any takers.  I'm at a loss as to what to do.

2 Comments | Post A Comment! | Permanent Link

Jun. 24, 2006

   

Posted in Innkeeping

It has been a busy couple of weeks.  We have had guests pretty much non-stop.  We had two cottages for just one night stays on Thursday, with all new guests checking into all three cottages yesterday, so we had to really work hard to get them finished by check-in time.  My house continues to get worse and worse.  I am not very good at time management, it seems.  When I'm not cleaning cottages, I want to REST.  And so my house remains dirty.  Today, all guests are staying over, so I may try to tackle the linens that came out yesterday and get them all put away - which will allow me to do our own laundry.  Earl told me last night that he only has two pairs of clean underwear.  oops

 

This week, we had some wonderful guests.  Two couples that are believers and very much on the same page as we are.  One of them goes to church with Thomas Kinkade (we named our business and the cottages after his paintings).  The other goes to a Calvary Chapel a ways to our south, from which we have had several couples, including the pastor, stay.  After those folks checked out, we ended up with a couple that was condescending and rude and honestly, those kinds of people make us want to quit!  The people here this weekend seem to be okay, except I had issues with the guesthouse ones arriving at 2pm when we told them in advance that it was impossible for them to check in early due to the amount of cleaning we had to do.  They came early anyway and had to sit and wait - which I hate.

 

We are running on the very edge of burnout.  I didn't think I was going to make it through yesterday.  There is really not anything happening with the sale.  We have zero prospects right now and that is discouraging.  We did, however, just get listed on realtor.com and will be listing on a couple of other websites today.  Honestly, our house is in no condition to show this second anyway.  We did have a call from a local realtor who was through a couple of weeks back and she was talking with an interested party who wanted details on our water supply.  So maybe something will come from that.

 

We purchased a high wheel trimmer because we have so many areas of high grass currently.  The fire department inspected us a couple of weeks ago and said this grass has to be trimmed up to 100 feet from all structures or to the property lines.  This is a TON of work.  Earl was able to get an area in front of our house trimmed, but it is now VERY HOT and we've been swamped with cleaning.  I guess we'll continue on that next week, and hopefully the temps will drop.

 

We're feeling very overwhelmed right now and are uncertain of what our future holds, but we're trying to trust God that He does in fact have a plan.  I so wish that we had friends or family nearby so that we could have some help though. 

 

Alyssa's toe appears to be healed, although she wants us to continue to keep it taped.  Judging by the way she jumps around on it, it's fine.  I gave her a haircut a couple of weeks ago, too.  It is much easier to manage when it's not so long.

 

 

That's all for now.  I'm going to go tackle that laundry.

 

 

 

 

0 Comments | Post A Comment! | Permanent Link

May. 27, 2006

   Difficult Times

Posted in Innkeeping

A reader instant messaged me yesterday to ask for an update on the sale, etc. so I am going to go ahead and post one.  You can probably tell from the flood of creative projects that I have a lot of frustration to vent - and I am venting it in a positive way, thankfully.

 

Our prospective buyers from Montana fell through.  We will be scheduling two showings shortly - one for a non-profit group looking for a retreat center and another for a woman who lives locally.  I am trying to remain hopeful because things can truly turn on a dime.  We've done this before.  You can get a call one week and the following week be under contract.  It's the waiting that is the most difficult thing.

 

Earl has not been doing well with the stress of waiting.  He has been getting more and more anxious for the past couple of weeks.  We had a really rough weekend and the following week was even worse.  We had an elopement coming up and he was not eating or sleeping or functioning and I couldn't find anyone to help, even after two ER visits.  Another ER visit on Saturday resulted in a prescription for a longer acting anxiety medication but he just went to bed because he felt so poorly.

 

As I struggled to get cottages cleaned for arrival Saturday afternoon, my mantra was "Once these are finished, you can rest all evening and prepare for the elopement.  You can do this. You're almost finished." 

 

To complicate matters, in my mind, the elopement ceremony was on Sunday.  In actuality, it was on Saturday.  My mind was not informed of this until 3:15pm on Saturday when the officiant arrived to perform the ceremony.    Fortunately (for me at least), the bride and groom were running late.  My day had really just started.  I scrambled to put the cake in the oven, the sparkling cider in the freezer to chill, assemble the new arbor, as well as a host of other things that needed to be completed prior to the ceremony.  By the time they arrived, I had completed everything and showered and was prepared to do the photographs.  They were married at 5:30pm and I was cleaning up by 6:15.  They were thrilled with everything.

 

 

 

Immediately following the elopement, Earl was ready to go back to the ER for yet a fourth time.  As I was getting ready to take him, his doctor called (this is a new doctor - a psychiatrist that he began that week.)  He talked to him for a little while and then the doctor wanted to talk to me.  He said he was changing how Earl takes his anxiety medication.  Instead of having him take it "as needed", he is to take it every 6 hours.  I cannot tell you what a difference this made.  Almost immediately, he stopped having the panic attacks and has been able to cope better.

 

This past Monday the doctor started him on a new medication (an older anti-depressant) and began Cognitive Behavior Therapy with him.  It teaches you how to control your behaviors and feelings by controlling and directing your thoughts - interestingly, this is exactly what the Bible tells us to do.  He is using a wookbook called Mind Over Mood along with the therapy sessions.  I am hopeful that this therapy will be something that helps Earl for the rest of his life. 

 

Business has picked up with the change of season.  I have elopements scheduled for next week, the following week and mid-September. 

 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  I know that God is working on something, but only He knows the timing of it. 

 

 

 

0 Comments | Post A Comment! | Permanent Link


Copyright © Mountain Mama 2005. All rights reserved. Not public domain.
Template designed by AJWebBuilding