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By Mary Duggan

And so I settled in with my new furnace purring and my air conditioner ready for summer and my appliances turned back on and a sea of boxes to unpack. Annie was still much too sick to be of much help; and she would lie on the couch and keep me company, apologizing repeatedly for being too sick to help. I was just glad to have the company and pushed ahead. I put things quickly in order and got my little healing center up and running ASAP. I had already made too many unanticipated withdrawals from my rapidly dwindling decorating resources. Money was going fast and yet I hadn’t done a thing to update the hideous 25-year old interior design.

In short order the washer and dryer went on the fritz; but they were repairable. The dishwasher crapped out and was not to be revived. The disposal that was supposedly at the heart of my house stinking had in fact been properly installed and responded to a cheap repair. It took just weeks for the refrigerator to need repairs. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon my mood, it was repairable and clangs away in all its unsightliness to this day. I reattach the door handle on a regular basis and have learned to live without an interior light. A flashlight is indispensable to home ownership is a motto I need to have made into a needlepoint pillow for my home. It is most certainly one of my mantras.

I have never regretted that overhaul of my heating and cooling system. Even though it ate up way too much of my budget and left me living with an elephant and palm tree border in my living and dining room and other bits of ugly from the 1980s. And I did run either heating or cooling continuously for well more than a year. Climate change was upon us and I ended up desperately needing my new air conditioner. I ran it almost constantly that first summer. What I did not realize was that the hydraulic-like pounding on my old cottage during the radiator removal and duct work install would overwhelm my pot-wired electrical system. By the time the new HVAC was installed, 50% of my home was now without electricity.

I was beyond discouraged. Not only was I facing yet another major overhaul to my home, I couldn’t even get anyone willing to take on the job. As one really nice electrician said, and I had interviewed quite a few, “Mary this is the kind of job a guy would only do for his sister or his mother. And you’re neither to me.” Okay and thanks. I finally gave up on getting my own electrical guy and having the repairs made. I settled into my new life of elephants on parade and extension cords running everywhere and lots of romantic meals being shared with Annie at my candle-lit dining room table. Well, not romantic exactly; but definitely candlelit as that was one of the rooms hardest hit by the big electrical wire breakdown during those exciting first 10 days of owning my first home.

I looked forward to Spring and my first yard and just kept unpacking and creating my new home and my healing center. Cozy and warm and dark and dry until the Spring brought bright new light and the need for lots of rags and great big buckets.

 

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Mary Duggan is Co-Founder and President of the Duggan Sisters.

The Duggan Sisters cracked the code and created a natural deodorant that actually works: lifestinks. And that was just the beginning. We hope you will spend a few minutes exploring duggansisters.com to experience their spirited approach to wellness through their natural products and healing stories.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 6th, 2013 at 6:00 pm and is filed under First Christmas in the Rose Cottage, Life at the Rose Cottage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.