Lemons and Lemonade
July 13th, 2022
What’s the old saying? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade? Seems we’ve been stacking up some lemons at our house for the last month or so. Nothing major that will have lasting consequences, but it sure stinks when you’re going through it.
As you all know, we are in the middle of building a house. That’s really where all the lemons are coming from. We thought we were prepared. Everyone told us of the perils of the building process and the stress that process can cause. We are in the thick of it. Lemons flying in every day.
My main problem with the whole process is not being in control of pretty much anything. We had dinner with 2 other couples last night and one of them asked me if we had reached the “whatever” or the “I don’t care” stage. Yep, been there for a couple of weeks now. We are over the whole process and just ready to be finished. I’ve never wanted to just press the fast forward button on life, but I’d be really tempted to jump forward 3 months if I could.
Of course everything costs way more than expected. We spent double what we should have on appliances, not because we chose to get the most high end appliances, but because we ordered what would be available. We have learned that available is the synonym for expensive.
It’s supply and demand. I’ve preached it forever, and I understand it. But during times like this, I don’t really like it. There are shortages of things we didn’t even know existed that pertain to building a house. And of course the contractors are struggling to get workers to show up.
Then a few weeks ago, the person that owns the house we are renting told us they sold the house and we had to be out in about 4 weeks. More lemons.
We knew the lease was up the end of July and they were selling the house. We had even arranged for the new buyer to allow us to rent from them for 3 months while we finished the house. Apparently that deal fell thru and the new owners need to be in August 1st.
Pam was at the beach for a week and I didn’t want to call her and ruin her trip, so I sat on the information while I worked out a solution.
I need to find somewhere to live for 3 months in a period in time where housing is at a premium. There are no rental houses and apartments are packed right now.
Lemons, lemons, lemons.
Then it hit me. I could sit around enjoying my pity party, or I could make some lemonade. And that is what I did.
I called 2 close friends who are pretty well connected in town and put out some feelers for houses that may be available for rent. I then got in my truck and went apartment hunting.
I’ll spare you those details but I found a brand new apartment complex that has a 2 bed room unit that will be available on August 8th. Is that ideal? No. If you’ll remember, I have to be out of the current house on July 31st so I have an 8 day stretch with nowhere to live.
Lemonade. We decided to go to St. Simons until the apartment is ready. The 2 bedroom apartment is certainly not big enough for the 4 of us, but Walker begins college and moves in at Georgia Southern in Statesboro on August 5th. We’ll just take the things that he will need at his dorm to St. Simons with us, take him to Statesboro on the 5th, go back to St. Simons for a few days, and then come back to Macon and move into the apartment.
The logistics of the next 3 weeks will continue to be a challenge. It will not be easy at all. However, we have accepted all of this and have agreed that once we are settled in our new house, with a fantastic view of the river, it will all be worth it. I told Pam that this journey will make for a great story one day and we’ll look back at this and laugh.
She’s not quite ready laugh at all this yet, but she agrees. In the end, temporary setbacks are all a part of life and in the big scheme of things, we know we are blessed beyond what we deserve. Our goal for now is to be on the back deck, enjoying lemonade from the lemons we’ve been given by October 31st.
