Chronicles of an Airbnb Hopeful – #4

It’s official! We have a name! After going through a laundry list of names, we settled on The Hickory House. Other top contenders were Sunset Lodge, Hillside Hideaway and Birch Tree Bungalow. Far more exciting than the name, are these gorgeous Hickory floors that have truly transformed the house. Goodbye disgusting smelly carpet! The Hickory is truly unique as each piece of wood looks different than the next. We chose this flooring not only for the unique look but for its durability. As I shared in an earlier blog, Hickory is considered to be one of the more durable hardwoods.

These last few weeks have been a definite turning point! Along with the new hardwood floors, we have installed quartz in the kitchen, new refaced and painted cabinets, a newly power washed and stained deck, new carpet installed in the upstairs bedroom and a new roof on our two garages. Cha ching!! As my brother likes to remind me, “You’re in debt up to your eyeballs!” Hopefully, someone will be renting this place soon! On a high note, there is no doubt we are rounding third base and heading toward home plate. Other more menial tasks that have been completed included painting trim, ceilings, doors, installing light fixtures/ceiling fans, lining drawers, landscaping and FINALLY we are beginning to put together furniture. And of course, I continue to scour Marketplace and stop at every yard sale.

We continue to be blessed with family and friends who have dedicated a tremendous amount of their own time to help us. We are so grateful and will be repaying each of them someday with many steak dinners and access to our lake house. A special shout out goes to my step dad Mike who traveled all the way from North Carolina to offer his help. I am still in awe that he would make this trip. Thank you!

But, as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. After working 12 hour consecutive days and departing in the early morning to return back to MA, a 2.5 hour trip home soon became a 4 hour trip when the men ran into truck troubles. After every last ditch effort to fix the truck, it became apparent that we would be needing a new truck. While we certainly were not anticiapting this “fun” bump in the road, I know that Scott is enjoying his ride and heated seats in his new truck, just in time for winter. Perhaps this was not a mere coincidence…

While I continue to rock (or survive) the balancing act of managing three kids at home and a full time job, Scott and company continue to amaze me with their ongoing progress. They finally took a break from hot dogs and made their official first home cooked meal. Cheers to long days, progress and beautiful memories.

Stay tuned for the final reveal. And if you are thinking of planning a winter getaway, you just may want to consider The Hickory House for your stay! Coming soon, this December!

Below are additional photos of our continued work in progress. I did my best to include some before and after photos