Chelsea left in early February for what was intended to be one month in California, staying at her grandparents’ home in Lompoc, a small town just north of Santa Barbara. Both her grandparents had been ailing for some time, both in nursing homes up in the San Francisco Bay area.
Chelsea’s task was to clean out the home and get it ready to rent, since neither of the grandparents would ever be returning. She flew into the San Francisco Bay area, picked up one of her dad’s cars, and drove the three-hundred-plus miles down to Santa Barbara.
What started as an apparently straightforward task of one month turned into an exhausting but successful two and a half months sojourn. After being empty for over a year, the house needed a sizeable amount of rehab – Chelsea had no electricity for the first three or four days except in one small area of the upstairs. All electrical outlets needed to be replaced.
The front and back yards needed extensive work. The house needed painting inside and out. Plumbing leaks needed to be fixed. Pest control was needed (black widows had been having a great time). Fascia needed to be replaced and a garage door needed to be replaced. All the carpet upstairs was replaced.
Chelsea’s job was to find local resources, get bids, coordinate with her dad in San Francisco, then follow up and supervise the jobs to completion. Meanwhile she was to start sorting the clothing and personal goods, disposing of things as possible. She found herself back in the routine of Craigslist, garage sales, and donating items to charity.
Life was complicated by the death of both her grandparents within a week or so of her arrival in California. Her dad and his brother were grieving on top of having to deal with all the house issues, and Chelsea had the remaining relatives on that side of the family in town for the memorial service.
Her life rotated among having a full house of repairmen, being totally alone for days, and having a full house of relatives on weekends (as they were able to arrange their schedules for helping to clean out the household goods). It was never relaxing.
She worked long hours in a physically uncomfortable situation – dirt, dust, paint fumes, cold (wintertime in Lompoc is much colder than wintertime in south Florida), very little furniture, with little privacy; none of the comforts of home. At night she would tally the income and expenses for her dad and watch an occasional movie on her laptop.
She did have some high points. The painter was a very nice local guy who took Chelsea out a few times to see the local area. She went on a few local walks, and went on several beautiful bike rides. We have very close friends who live in Santa Ynez; they came to visit her a few times, she managed to visit them a few times.
Chelsea got experience in long distance driving, in navigating an unfamiliar area by herself, and experience in living alone. She gained confidence as a result, combined with the confidence of knowing she’d done a great job.
The job was long and painful for everyone involved, and I’m sure there was a collective sigh of relief when it was all done. Chelsea drove alone up to San Francisco again, spent a few days with her dad, and headed home.
Meanwhile my life was anything but relaxing, too. I had a big rush of activity on showing the house, doing the paperwork for selling the house, and related appointments. I spent time looking for sponsorships for our trip, evaluating products and companies and requirements.
I did research on things we needed to buy for the trip, and bought a few critical items. I did budgets for the trip and did purchase budgets. I did the design changes needed to update our business cards. I set up new domain name emails.
I spent a great deal of time looking at maps and routes and reworking our trip schedule, since it became obvious that we wouldn’t be leaving in April.
Squeezed into all this was a great deal of research, organizing materials, and beginning the writing on the book about Chelsea’s recovery from her brain injury.
Meanwhile I managed to keep up my thirty-six miles a day, four days a week, on the bicycle.
And of course, I had all the jobs around the house to do by myself, the ones Chelsea and I always shared – weeding, pool cleaning, house cleaning, yard maintenance.
I’m not sure which one of us was happier that Chelsea was home again!
Having the big delay in Chelsea’s return meant that we would miss our April leave date. As always, things turn out to be unexpected blessings. We have taken longer than we thought on things, but we have accomplished far more than we originally expected. When we finally leave, it’ll be with a deep sense of fulfillment.