Car Talk

 

After months of looking, I was officially over the novelty of the hunt.  Was I going to have to settle for a compromise situation?  The cottage still hadn't sold and what would eventually become of my little house.  It needed work- who else would love it?  Would we have to virtually have to give it away as a "fixer upper"?  I could not bear the thought.  There is too much of my own history in that house.  My pets buried in the yard, memories and stories of fun times and life changing events.  My heart is there and I just didn't want to break those ties.

One afternoon I was going through the bookmarks on my computer and saw Gulick and Spradlin.  It had been months since I had looked at that site and really could not remember what it was.  I clicked and up popped.... "the contractors of that house!"  I went through the site and saw yet another house given a new life and magical transformation.  This one called the Shelley House.  See more about this house at The Shelley House.  By now I had seen enough to know that I needed these guys to come and see our little wreck and tell us if there was something we could do or should we run really fast away.  I would have to deal with telling Dave after the contact was made.

Now, how do you go about introducing this dilemma to a total stranger?  You can't really say, "want to come over and see my messy house?  And by the way my husband has no interest in meeting you but..." I decided that a novel approach was in order.  I sent the following e-mail.  "This is kind of like when some one calls into Car Talk on NPR to settle a marital issue. This does not involve our car but rather our home in Essex We own a small cape that is sort of a mess..."  A while later I got an e-mail in return saying that they did indeed handle marital disputes and that they would be happy to set up a time to meet and look at what we had to work with.

That evening I called Dave up to the computer to show him the pictures of the Shelly House.  He was impressed by the pictures which was a relief.  I added quickly that I had sent that e-mail and would he please be willing to at least talk to them and maybe see their work.  He agreed and I set out to make the appointment.