Hi Friend

We’re back from being away almost the whole summer and it feels gooood!!! We had an incredible summer living and working down in the Outer Banks! We didn’t quite finish the main project we were working on down there- Dune House- and are headed back soon to hopefully wrap up and get it on the market. We bought it last fall and the entire project will have taken about a year. Dune House is a 5 bedroom oceanfront house in Duck, NC and was considered a “tear down” …. BUT we absolutely loved it and figured out a way to rearrange the rooms to get it really flowing well, adding some needed separate hangout spaces for big groups. (Basically, spots kids can go to where you can’t really hear them lol)

We’re also working on a new one- “The Beach Cabin” in Corolla, NC-which is a super cool 60s oceanside 3 bed/ 1 bath cabin we’re in the process of slowly fixing up.  I don’t plan to change the bones of it too much as I’m obsessed with the original board and batten pine paneling throughout it, but I’d like to make it a little more functional by adding another bathroom (and in the process create a primary suite and enlarge a bedroom making room for a king bed) and turning the massive unused attic into a bunk room. We’re either going to keep it and rent it out or sell it when we’re finished.  So much depends upon how things are going at home with our own renovation and what the market’s doing etc.

These past couple of summers have been life-changing for me.  This one flew by particularly fast with multiple projects going on down there but I still got so much time in nature. I love getting out on the beach super early in the morning before anyone’s there. I find I can really clear my head and it helps me think and make changes.  When I’m down there I spend a lot of time thinking about changes I want to make and how I can push myself and grow.

The year before I decided I would change my work schedule around and attempt to leave the office when the kids were home from school, using Fridays to work on passion projects at home/ make content/ progress the business rather than sitting down in the office working on specific projects. It worked out really well and I’d been feeling a greater sense of freedom.  This year, I decided to push that further and I’m going to work on spending less time on communicating with others/ my phone/ on emails etc and more time on creative work … and I’m really going to work on attempting to enjoy every minute of life. TO be okay every single second.  I made a pact with myself to try to be grateful for every second I get. I break this pact EVERY DAY but I’m really trying to get better at it.  It’s helped me enjoy things more for sure, but I’m wanting to take it to the extreme.  I went through a crazy experience about a year and a half ago and it’s something I’ll try to explain better to you in the future – I still don’t quite understand it and am not sure I ever will- but after a series of events I basically felt like I was walking around on Cloud 9 for a few weeks.  I don’t really know how else to describe it, but I felt so much light and love towards everyone and everything… and everything felt different. It was like nothing could get me down and I just felt such intense awe and love towards the world.  It slowly went away and every now and then I get a moment of it but it was something I’ll never forget and I that I hope I get to experience again. I’ll never see the world the same way.  (I’m fully aware of how crazy this sounds but I’m also fully aware that it was real.)

Anyway, having this time to disconnect a bit from normal life helps me see things a bit differently and allows me to go back into things with goals and new perspectives.

I’m currently digging into the design of our future house and am feeling really grateful for that.  I’ve been doing a lot of the work on the property on this blanket (below) while the chickens graze nearby.  We lost a few chickens this summer while we were gone.  We have a very sweet pet sitter and it sounds like they got sick a died which has been sad. We were devastated when our geese were killed by some sort of hawks or eagles  the year before and it hasn’t been the same without them.  Having lost a few of the chickens again has me questioning if I’m cut out to be able to handle losing any of our flock.  When we are sitting right there with the chickens, sometimes a hawk comes, every now and then swooping lower and we have to race the chickens into the run.

These September days have been beautiful on the property. I haven’t been home for very long but see lots of amazing things I need to forage and cook with growing there at the moment.

I’ll be back soon to share a tour of our finished house!!  We’ve been absolutely loving living here and it’s been the easiest to live in house we’ve been in yet.  It’s so indoor-outdoor and somehow everything has a place.  We’ve never been more organized and it’s really the perfect house for us to live while we wait for our place to be finished.  I hope all’s well with you and sending you all hugs!!! xoxo