Hello friends! Today is the day! We are exactly 1 year to the day since we closed on Pigeon Manor! How I’m not at work week 52 I’m not really sure. Eh, whatever, close enough! That’s how it is when you have a baby. First you start telling people how many weeks old your kid is, but then that gets too hard so you switch to months, then years. I think I may do that with this blog, because weeks ain't working no more! So…for the year anniversary, here are a series of before and after photographs of the outside of the building!

As I look back and reflect on this year and what we’ve accomplished, I'm amazed! Did we get done with everything we hoped to? Nah, of course not. But BOY did we make a dent! And we are still right on schedule, as we gave ourselves a goal of finishing in 2 years. So we’re only halfway through the timeline! Let’s review what we did accomplish with the help of some amazing and talented people we’d be absolutely lost without:

• All new metal and slate roofs & soffits, dormers & dormer windows (finishing touches will be done in the next 2 weeks so these count!)

• Tore down & replaced two story porch/deck

• 1000s of bricks removed and replaced & steel lintels added above 25 windows 

• Repointed 6 miles worth of brick mortar

• Repaired & painted trim on 19 windows, 6 doorways

• Replaced 3 doors, painted 5 doors, varnished 2 Doors

• New 6 panel electric meter box and 6 new panels and all wiring done for 75% of building

• New plumbing run for all three stories

• Added 3 hot water heaters, 3 mini-splits, 2 compressors, and new natural gas lines

• Cleared out 60+ pieces of furniture and 60+ Pigeons, some living, some not

• Completely renovated 2 apartments & a commercial kitchen, now all occupied

• Installed 3000 Sq feet of flooring 

• Created 400+ sq Feet of tile out of old linoleum

• Removed 8 Million pounds worth of falling plaster ceilings

And that’s all I can think of off the top of my head! What a year, eh? I can’t wait to keep sharing with you this next year’s adventures in completion! 

Speaking of completion, I have something else I’m really excited to share with you. Obviously I enjoy writing and sharing my words and adventures with you all. But for years now, I’ve had a secret dream of being a writer of a different sort, and writing novels in the genres I enjoy best: Romance and Urban Fantasy. 

This dream started in 2011, when I used to have daily long drives to pick up Amarynth from 6th grade at MMI, a private school in Freeland. I started thinking about different myths, and created a whole 4+ book series in my head over the next 9 years. I wrote down a few chapters here and there, but never seemed to find the time or the courage to finish.

Fast forward to 2020, when the whole world shut down for the pandemic, and I finally, FINALLY had the time to jump in. Now it’s two years later, and after tons of deep diving into the publishing world, I’m finally, FINALLY ready to share this side of me with the world! 

WAKE, Book 1 of the Dispatches from Upstairs series, is now available in paperback, and will be released tomorrow as a Kindle Ebook (it’s also in Kindle Unlimited, for my fellow KU friends). 

Here is the cover, and here is one of my lovely new headshots taken last week by the amazing Amber of JFAB Photography (now you know what I look like! When I wear makeup and have a professional tell me how to pose, hahaha):

So this book is basically a low-key supernatural romance set in contemporary times. If you’re not into that kind of thing, that’s ok, it’s probably not for you! But if it sounds intriguing, you can buy it on Amazon, or I’ll have paperback copies available in person starting November 8th, with a plan for a book signing one day.

Ok so that’s the complete report! See you next time!