
Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality. They are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.
~ Barbara G. Harrison

There is a saying about leading someone down the garden path. It means to deceive. The idea is that a garden path is so beautiful and pleasant, that a person can be guided along without noticing they are being deceived.

There have been times when I’ve felt as though we were shepherded along the garden path when it came to buying the house and property here at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch. Not by real estate agents or by the previous owners (although there was some deception there). No, not by anyone else. I think we merrily skipped along the garden path all on our own.

But is it deception if what brought you to a place is a vision or a dream? Is it deception if you can see beyond the chaos and the wreckage, if you can see the bones and know they are sound and have the potential to become something wonderful?

Those are some of the things I pondered yesterday as we moved from one problem to another. It was one of Those Days. A flood in the laundry room, a car that wouldn’t start, a failed inspection of the new heat pump, a mouse in the house.

People are buffeted by circumstances so long as they believe themselves to be creatures of outside conditions. But when they realize that they are creative powers, and that they command the hidden soil and seeds of their being out of which circumstances grow, they then become the rightful masters of themselves . . . Circumstances do not make the person; they reveal the person to him or herself.
~ James Allen

The interesting thing, though, is the way a change of perception can change the reality of a situation. The laundry room floor is now thoroughly cleaned and mopped, including under and behind the washer and dryer (areas that desperately needed a good cleaning!). We have a new battery in the car and it solved the problem we’ve been having for weeks. Better yet, it happened in a place and at a time when there were people around to give the car the jump it needed to get started. We found out the heat doesn’t work on our new heat pump while the weather is still warm and we have no need of it instead of finding out on the first cold night and shivering our way through the night and the days waiting for someone to fix it. Better yet, the heat pump is still under warranty. How often that does happen? Almost never, that’s how often. Planned obsolescence didn’t get us this time around.

As for the mouse, that’s one reason we have cats. They earned their keep last night, although I do wish Izzy would learn to present the mouse to us after she’s killed it and not as a wiggling, wriggling, escaping toy she wants to play with.

Plans get you into things but you must work your way out.
~ Will Rogers

M and I have been busy in the kitchen. The wallpaper border is gone where it needs to be gone (some of it will end up behind the new cabinets so there was no need to waste time steaming and scraping it off). The ceiling fans (that don’t work) have been removed. (You might recall that the one in the dining area decided to remove itself one evening after dinner by falling out of the ceiling just after I’d been sitting under it.) A new light fixture has gone up in the cooking area. The walls and ceiling have been patched. The ceiling has been painted, and we have started painting the walls. The colors didn’t come out well in my images, but the ceiling is white. The walls are a grayish-purple (called Darling Lilac). We have decided to leave the woodwork around the windows as is. It fits in with our distressed and rustic theme, and will almost match the new cabinets.

The hutch you see in the photo above will either be sold if we can find a buyer, or we’ll take the top off and paint the bottom to match the new cabinets. If I end up painting it, I will leave the rooster, etc., and just paint the framework to start. We will need cabinets of some kind in that part of the kitchen, but can’t afford to have the kitchen people do it right now so we’re improvising. The top of that monster, by the way, weighs a ton. We’re going to need help moving it. Anyone want to volunteer?

I reckon that’s it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch for today. Thank you for joining me on a walk down the garden path. Speaking of walks, don’t forget our group walk, aka Walktober, is this week. You have through Sunday. If you need more time, let me know. I’ll gladly extend it. Don’t forget to leave a link (or a pingback will do) here so I can include you in the round-up next week.

Be good, be kind, be loving. Just Be. 🙂
Love the wooden fences….quaint and naturally picturesque because I don’t have to maintain them. It’s so easy to glaze over stuff when you are buying, (heat pumps are an issue in this area – maybe better other places…)But there’s some great stuff around you that may counterbalance it? As long as you can be happy taking/improving things slowly it will be OK.
Keep the rooster – at least for a while!
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Thank you, PhilosopherMouse. 🙂 The rooster will stay. At least for a while.
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I really enjoyed the ramble this morning, through the ups and downs of the day, the ins and outs of Wabi-Sabi Ranch … a very pleasant garden path, and the inside of the house is transforming under your patient hands 🙂
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Thank you, Christine. 🙂
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I loved seeing and hearing more details about what you’re doing in the house. The lilac gray color is a hard one to capture, so I think you did well considering that. I also got a kick out of seeing Izzy on the prowl in the eating area. And the morning glories are simply stunning. I adore that color. Oh, and by the way, I don’t think buying a house for its bones says anything about being deceived, but rather about your ability to see a deeper-than-surface, architectural truth.
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
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Thank you, Kathy. More to come on the house soon. 🙂
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Beautiful garden pass! So glad to see you are making wonderful progress in the house.
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Thank you, Amy. 🙂
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I think your hutch should have a permanent home in your kitchen/dining area. I think it fits your rustic theme perfectly and it’s current color (please don’t hide the rooster) could be a very nice spot of contrast.
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Thank you, Carol. 🙂 We brought the hutch with us. It fit so well in the house in the Bogs, but looks a little out of place here. I won’t be making any changes to it (or selling it off) until the kitchen renovations are finished and I have a chance to see it (and live with for a while) in the new kitchen. It’s possible the reason it didn’t fit is because it was shoved into someone else’s decorative scheme, and it might fit once we’ve made the kitchen our own, so to speak.
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Lovely morning glories! And I like the detail images of the fences. Glad to hear things are working out. It is really all about perspective.
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So true, Mike. Thank you. 🙂
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You have shown us a beautiful garden path.
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Thank you, Colline. 🙂
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What excellent quotations you included today. I enjoyed them, and your updates, and the beautiful garden photos. As to the kitchen, brings back memories best left be. It will come together so beautifully, one of these days. The hutch is actually very nice. Could clean up better than you might imagine. I love your bay window. Well, all creativity begins with “The Mess”, according to those who study such things. Looks like you have a rich field of possibilities to work from. Best wishes 😉 WG
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Thank you, WoodlandGnome. 🙂 This is our third kitchen remodel so I know all about “The Mess.” I know it will all come together eventually. 😀
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Eventually can seem like forever while going through it, though. I hope you have a great weekend 😉 cheers! WG
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Robin, you seem to be weathering the inevitable storm of life that takes place in a new home, regardless of how much you want to be there. The ability to live in a house “in progress” is an admirable one that I envy. But the garden path? I waltz down it every time 🙂
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I know you do, Lynn, and you have such a lovely garden that you probably can’t help waltzing down it every time. 🙂
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Your garden path looks very inviting Robin. I’m sure one day, hopefully in the not too distant future, you will think back on the trials you have lived through in turning this house into your home and you will be content living there. Your hutch is just great! Perhaps it too will feel more at home when your house has been renovated.
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Thank you, Joanne. 🙂 Just getting the kitchen almost done has made the place feel more like home.
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I hope each little bit you do to the kitchen makes you stand back and smile thinking “I did that”. 🙂
It will be wonderful to look back at your before and after photos in a year or two when everything just seems normal and you’ve forgotten all the hassle. 🙂
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Thank you, Sallyann. 🙂
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Love those photos of your garden paths – exquisite!
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Thank you, Laurie. 🙂
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