The Last 30 Minutes

10/30/2018

Somehow we've managed not to miss the bus yet! Fingers crossed!

Have you ever noticed when you're in a crunch to get out the door that the last 30 minutes before you are to leave fly by like a nano-second? It does with me. I can be going along at a good pace, having allowed plenty of time to do all the necessary things I have to do to be prepared and then in the last 30 minutes everything falls apart. Either I have to change clothes one more time due to indecision or spilling my coffee again or I get a phone call that I have to take or -- well, I think I'd be safe to say you know exactly what I'm talking about. Something inevitably happens to delay your departure at the time you planned. Case in point: Even though we begin with ample time to get my sweet little P off to the bus stop, we sometimes end up with: "Finish your breakfast or we'll be late! Brush your teeth -- do a good job but do it quickly! Show me just how fast you can put those socks and shoes on!" Thank goodness this is the exception and not the rule, but for some reason those last 30 minutes seem to evaporate into thin air.

You'll probably agree that we're heading into one of the busiest times of the year with holiday preparations and such. I simply cannot believe we're just three short weeks away till we celebrate Thanksgiving and officially head into the Christmas season. Of course, if you ever venture out into retail territory you know that Christmas has already officially been ushered in. Christmas trees and baubles and pretties abound and, as much as I've tried to resist the urge, I have finally given myself permission to look at Christmas decor and dream a little bit about what mine might look like this year. But with our house on the market, who knows if I'll even be here for Christmas? I might be spending Christmas in an extended-stay hotel like I did Easter a couple years back. For all the many reasons I am glad my eldest daughter is back in the Atlanta area, celebrating the holidays is one of the top ones. Because I know that no matter where we are (as in where we're hanging our hat at the moment), we are always welcome at our daughter's beautiful home and have the privilege of sharing in the new traditions she is making with her little family. It's one of my greatest blessings for which I'll be thankful on November 22nd.

We are now in the "last 30 minutes" of our #1892adventure. We are literally hours away from our real estate listing going live, and THERE IS STILL SO MUCH TO DO-----EEEEEK!

I sat down recently to compose a final punch-out list for the house, and it actually grows a bit with each passing day. It seems as though you can always think of something to do still -- one final tweak...one last correction...one little thing that will hopefully make everything picture-perfect. But I am one who knows only too well from experience that there is no such thing as perfection and, if you try to attain it, you will be a sad little person. Because there is always something that in your mind seems absolutely necessary, but is it really? So what if every little thing isn't perfect? Let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that others EVER see us as perfect. They don't. We all have our little dents and dings, but we're trying all the time to do better, be better, live better, and that's okay. Let's just be ourselves and let all those little dents and dings just hang out and become part of who we are. We're much more interesting that way anyway. If you're waiting till your house is perfect before you have friends over, don't. It'll never be perfect no matter how hard you try, and you'll miss out on one of life's greatest joys: Spending time with friends and family.

One of our last jobs to complete on the house has been giving the living/dining room fireplace some extra love. The ol' girl probably looked pretty good for 125 years old, but there were a few things we wanted to do to spruce her up. It's so interesting (thinking of perfection, that is), to see how people in the past felt about this fireplace. They weren't the least bit interested in how she looked but, as this was their only source of heat, how she worked. When warmth and air started to slip out of the crumbling mortar on the chimney, what did they do? They piled more mortar on to plug those holes and keep the heat in! Over the years, later folks decided that covering the old fireplaces would be the next best thing to them not being there (after central heating), and for many, many years they stood behind the walls. They were things of utility, not beauty. Having centralized heating was what those folks were proud of! But we have set these old sentinels free, and have given them the opportunity to shine once more and to be what they truly are...works of art...pieces of history...parts of past lives that deserve to be recognized for their roles in the last 125 years.

So now that we are in "the last 30 minutes" of this renovation, it's sometimes hard to believe it because it's been the hardest job we've ever worked on. There were days that seemed to last forever holding problems that at the moment had no solutions and where we fell into bed dog-tired at night. But one thing I know: Every job finally does get completed and you can look back in wonder at all you've been able to accomplish. I cannot let those last 30 minutes derail me trying to reach for unattainable perfection. I will just let this house stand for who she is...a 125-year-old hardworking gal who, like me, has her own unique imperfections.

And she is all the more beautiful for them.

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
- Thomas A. Edison