What a year 2020 has been for the world! My year in review.

2020 is DEAD and gone. There is no disagreement on this topic - Dead, gone, bye bye, flushed and crushed. Somehow our big plans for the year were realized; finishing mom's apartment renovation, selling her townhouse, and moving her in. Thankfully both my husband and I continued to work because we're both involved with businesses that sell items online.

In spite of Covid-19 mom managed to move. We had strict rules for anyone coming into mom's home and luckily everyone stayed safe. In order to find room in our split level house, two years ago we launched a garage build project which we finally completed in the Summer. We moved my online vintage shop out of the basement into the new upstairs area over the garage. It ended up being a super smart thing to do. The lower level garage area has proved to be a great spot to stash mom's excess and also use for contactless item pick up for my online selling.

Because my mother lived 2 hours away, selling her items online was more difficult. We finally decided it would be easier to just load up most of what remained and try to sell it here. After months of driving back and forth packing boxes and bringing back fragile items in the car (mainly by my husband) mom listed her place and sold it in 6 days. We hired movers who loaded all day and arrived to our house at 8 pm, unloading a stuffed van until midnight. The moving day started later than anticipated when the movers called to say they ran out of gas on the way! We chalked it up to 2020, the year when nothing goes as planned! The movers were awesome once they arrived and we sold more than enough of mom's excess furniture here to pay for the move.

This Fall I helped my in-laws research their Medicare part D drug plan. For a government program, it's fairly straightforward but there are glitches which made it horribly infuriating. It took me days to figure it out and I've worked with technology for my entire adult life. I can see now how a senior gets stuck with the same plan year after year potentially costing them big bucks if they do not have the capacity to research all the plans available to them. It shouldn't be this hard!

My health changes day to day. We had planned to move mom in the Spring but unfortunately things were originally delayed because I began having vertigo attacks (which finally resolved after taking an antihistamine daily). Also getting to Roanoke and packing boxes was a challenge because my wrists hurt so badly. In the middle of all my health ups and downs the coronavirus hit. My left wrist was so bad from osteoarthritis that it was unusable. I finally got three cortisone shots in that wrist and held off on the other as the pain getting the shots was unbelievable. I had gotten cortisone in one foot a few years ago and it was magical! The shots in my wrist were not as successful but tamped down the worst pain. I do have to limit what I do or it gets back in bad shape again. I've been keeping a food and medicine log for a year now trying to trace what causes my inflammation. Basically I've found no definitive food triggers (I typically eat very little dairy and sugar) but I began taking a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil every day and there "might" be something to it. I've tried a host of other things without benefit (even hemp oil). I also take D and Zinc from time to time which doesn't seem to have any bearing on pain.

We lost our dear chicken Bluebell in 2020. She would fly up on top of the coop and yell at the passing hawks to dare come around (HA). It's often hard to figure that out why a chicken is ill and usually the time is near once they start going downhill. One of our remaining four chickens, Buttercup, is 12 years old, which is a near record for a chicken. Mom likes to spoil her when feeding scraps. Our three cats remained well this year thankfully. Very excited for Mom to see her first Spring here which will blow her away! Trying to train her to leave the plant stems and seeds as she comes from years of townhouse living where every leaf is raked and dead twig removed. Life here is certainly different but she's very happy. She's even packing up boxes for my Etsy and Ebay Shop sales!

I can't think of a better moment to take my annual trip to Richmond to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens as offer a FREE WEEK every January! I really enjoyed my trip last year. You need to make an appointment this year! Nature walks seem to be highly popular events because of the safety factor. Hopefully the pandemic will have a few positive outcomes, people will gain an appreciation of protecting our planet and the wild spaces we have left. I have been videotaping more wildlife this year and finally have more than 1,000 followers on my youtube channel so I get a little kick back when you watch :)

Cheers to you and a hopeful 2021. The world is going to explode when we can all get back together.

~Rebecca

Starting the 2020 new year finishing construction projects in preparation of mom's move

My first decent bird photo with my new camera

My annual look back at last year's accomplishments begins with the completion of several projects in order to find space for mom in our house. Our prefab garage was erected Halloween eve 2018 and last year we finished the interior and added touches to the exterior to give it a barn look. Upstairs over the garage would house my Etsy vintage shop and my old space in the house would become Mom's renovated apartment!

Anthony installing handmade barn board window ledges

Anthony and I completely finished the second story of our little barn garage by ourselves for the exception of hooking the main electrical line to the house. During 2019 we hung sheet rock and painted, installed a door between the non-insulated garage and upstairs Etsy shop area, installed a mini split heat and air system, and installed flooring and shelves. Then the fun began when we had to move the racks, cabinets, clothing, and boxes of vintage upstairs. Any and everyone that came to our house was put on notice that their price of admission was hauling a box or piece of furniture. My husband's brother got stuck helping us haul the biggest piece of furniture up the stairs. Thankfully he figured out how to get the old train station wooden bench through the doorway!

Anthony's barn board bookcase

I couldn't be happier with my set up and am so much more organized. I currently have 9 consignment clients and sell mainly on Etsy and Ebay. I have a photography area, shipping station, computer desk, and plenty of room for storage. I'm most in love with the big windows and the barn board detailing made from an old shed that stood on my family farm. My talented husband decorated the front of the barn garage with some and built a bookcase and window ledges out of others. I found an amazing 1930's green gas station light on Etsy for the front exterior that I also treasure.

Busting out a wall, Snoopy cat strikes again

We also began the interior work in Mom's basement apartment. Finishing a bathroom, creating a hallway, installing new windows, a new entry doorway, and installing a small kitchen. The four window replacements were super easy while busting out the new doorway was the hardest. The creation of a kitchen was not too difficult but all the details were time consuming. Installing Pex hot and cold water lines was super amazingly easy but the laminated counter top was a bit tricky. We utilized the family barn boards again for accents in the kitchen and all the cabinets were randomly discovered at two local Habitat Stores.

Beginning of cabinet build, amazingly it comes together!

I sadly didn't participate in construction after early Spring because my arthritis gave me such a fit. I so wanted to hammer and saw but my wrists would not let me. Having RA and Sjogrens for 20 years has been a royal PAIN. My Morton's Neuroma in one foot has thankfully calmed down after the cortisone shot that provided a lot of relief but the other foot is echoing this ailment. My husband has pretty much had to do all interior house renovations himself. I pick up a caulk gun every now and then just to remind me how much I love construction work. I still do all the design and cabinet hauling since the Habitat and Lowe's folks are so nice to load everything for me!

My favorite photo of Cesar

We had a few pet events last year. Our little broken down cat, Cesar hurt himself early in 2019 and was dragging his legs behind himself. He is much better now and just has a little limp. Somehow late in 2019 he managed to get an ear hematoma and we decided surgery would have been horrible for him so we're letting it deflate on its own. We also lost our chicken Big Red to a hawk so we had to start locking the chickens under a wire run for most of the day.

A memorable photo I took of a Tiger on a Clerodendrum

Mom is doing really well but is very anxious to move in this Spring! It's going to be an eventful and challenging year as she needs to also sell her condo. I really really hope we can have some downtime after she gets settled.

I'm starting 2020 with a new camera. So there will be a lot for me to learn.

~ Rebecca