My ever-evolving home renovation took on a life of its own, spanning months instead of weeks, like the proverbial “two steps forward & one step back” (if not a giant leap back!) Oh, the lessons learned and happy results!
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Life Lessons From A Home Renovation
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be here with you and to have you join me on the show. If you ever wanted to have your own show, we’ve got a great group of people at WinWinWomen.com and WinWinWomen.tv. In season two, every fourth week, I do a solo show. In this episode, we’re going to talk about life lessons learned during a renovation. You can gain some wisdom there, anyway.
First things first, I always want to let you know that we need a moment every so often to be still and know, to be quiet, to hear that still, small voice in our hearts and to take a deep breath. Every week I do this. We’re going to have a little mini vacation, seven seconds, breathing in calm. We’re going to have 4 seconds of holding and 11 seconds of release, letting it out with gratitude. Join me now for this little mini vacation, mini meditation. We’re going to breathe in calm for seven seconds. Here we go.
Hold. Release. Thank you. I’m grateful to have you with me. I’ve had a TV show live every week on Wednesdays. It’s my day that I do a little more to shower. I shampoo and do all that stuff. This is different. I didn’t get a chance to fluff up a bit. I’m not much of a girly girl. I don’t do a lot of that anyway. With my hair growing out, it’s probably longer than it’s been in 30 years. I’ll probably have a little query out there to see who likes it shorter and longer because on show day, I usually try to get it fluffy and all that.
Home Renovation
By the time, a few days into the week, I got to pull it back because it was getting long and stringy. My conversation is about some of the things we’ve learned on this journey. I have a friend named Patricia. She lives in Iowa. There are several of us, random folks in her life, and everybody needs a Patricia. That’s what we all say. My kids say, “If anybody can do it, Patricia can do it.” It’s pretty much true. She’s able to find a way where there’s a will, there’s a way, which is my skill. Find a way. She is a master at that.
We had this idea to turn my master suite of this house I bought many years ago into a little efficiency or rental area, not so much for Airbnb, but maybe for commuting pilots or traveling nurses, and corporate travelers, since it’s in my own home. We got a lot done. I’m telling you, 30-year-old counters, completely, beautifully repainted and with marine boat paint, it looks amazing. Our other friend, her friend in Iowa, had a vision. We started this at the beginning of April, perhaps even earlier, and we got a lot of things done, got that painting done in that bathroom, and cleaned up. It was such a peaceful, beautiful place, and then a vision happened.
This beautiful friend in Iowa had a vision of creating a complete efficiency apartment, a one-bedroom apartment, a complete apartment, a washer and dryer with kitchenette, a whole kit, and a caboodle. When Patricia came back, she’s come and gone several times. The stories are crazy. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone through a renovation. I probably have not to this extent, especially when it’s one person who does all the work.
I’m handing scalpel, hammers, and nails or whatever, and trying to grab things as needed, be a second set of hands as needed, but pretty much a one-person renovation has happened in the last few months. This is the end of June. We started at the beginning of April or before. She’s got multiple projects in her world in Iowa. She’s taken away from all that in order to give me an extra boost of income. I’m excited about it. The beautiful thing is it is a stunning space now that we’re on the completion side of things.
I thought I would talk a little bit. How do you handle unexpected stuff? I’m getting ready to try to go and see my sister and stay with her in Tennessee. She had a hospital stay. I want to go and stay with her for a week or so. I was going to leave yesterday. I was going to leave today, and it looks like tomorrow is now. The show must go on. Here I am on my episode. We went to rent a car. Patricia had rented overnight. She’s got to go to Iowa. I’m going to Tennessee. We’re going in different directions, but she needs to rent a car. She’s got a lot of things. Her tools and things are here.
We got up at 6:30 after I had maybe three hours of sleep before we tried to get out of here. Online, you have a reservation. We got to be there at 7:30 AM. We go downtown Fort Worth at 7:30. They don’t open until 8:00. We sat there for a little while and came to find out they didn’t have any cars available. We went on a wild goose chase because we went to other rental places. We get back here less than an hour before showtime, which is not very much for me. We got back at 12:15. We were gone for a full five hours with no real results. We had to have got to have a nice little breakfast. That was good. Life keeps lifeing. How do you handle those things? Hanging the doors in this beautiful space, the barn doors that she was putting in, she built a wall. She put in electrical outlets, lighting, a sink and counters.
We got a refrigerator and a little washer-dryer combo. This is a stunning, beautiful place. I believe it will be a beautiful home away from home for people with a minimum of 30-day stays, which is what I’m looking for. All of this is story-talking because I didn’t have any prep time to do my show. I was in Iowa and brought her back here. It’s been this crazy time and I had a lot of fun along the way. I’m pretty much working from sun up until midnight every day because it’s ever-evolving. You don’t have, “We’re going to build a kitchenette and every little piece has to fit perfectly.”
She measures everything ten times and fits beautifully and perfectly because she has a meticulous eye for detail. She really wants it to be excellent, if not perfect. We’ve been working diligently on getting it to the point where we can take pictures, show and get it listed on Furnished Finder, Airbnb and things like that. Five hours and still doesn’t have a rental car so she can go home because she’s got work to do there. I can go to see my sister in Tennessee.
“Do you handle things like that with upset, or is that what’s so?” I handle things most of the time. It’s, “What’s what else am I going to do? Where else am I going to be?” Upset draws upset. It does not typically make your life easier when you get upset about when things don’t go your way. That’s one of the lessons. No matter how hard these doors are, we have amazing doors that are beautiful. The three of us have been doing this. Patricia does the physical work and thinks, plans, measures and gets everything meticulous.
She has the vision and she’s a master at finding amazing deals on Facebook Marketplace and things like that. We had my 16-year-old convertible with 10 foot 2 by 4s to fix the fence. We’ve done way more than just a project. It’s an indoor and outdoor renovation. The rest of the house was gone to pieces. I haven’t had a chance to really do much else in the house, but I am excited and proud to now have an efficient apartment. At 3:00, we’re taking pictures. We have some nighttime photos of it. You are going to want to find it. For instance, I was talking about the barn doors. They’re really fivefold doors that she massaged, renovated, and made the holes come to a height.
We find out when we put them up, that the barn door piece was defective even though her measurements were perfect. One of the doors was an 8th of an inch off on one side. What are you going to do? A project that would’ve taken probably 2 to 3 hours took several days. In fact, when I took her back to Iowa and stayed a week there and brought her back, we got parts, all kinds of stuff. That particular piece of it was a little bit of an ordeal.
This is Charla chatting. That’s what I do. My name means to chat in Spanish, so I like to chat. I want life lessons learned. It was sometimes tedious, tiring and exhausting, “Do you give up? You can’t quit.” You got to finish the deal. If you leave it midway, what’s going to happen? I’m grateful to have learned that upset draws upset and everything is always working out for me. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, it’s still working out for me because it’s where I am. This is the biggest life lesson if you read so much. You’ve read it multiple times, but where we are is all we have. I don’t have any other place to be than where I am right this second.
Making A Difference
Everything in the universe and from, “Let there be light,” from the beginning of time to right now has led us to have you reading to me right now wherever you are and whenever this is. Everything has happened to bring us to this moment in time and not one thing we can do about those other seconds that brought us here. We can only change the next one. I gave up the need to do anything with any of my other work. I let it go. I feel like my time will come. My book, The Change, is out now, and I haven’t even had a chance to get those set up and ordered. It’s less brown on the cover of this thing with me. I’m excited about it. I haven’t had it slowed down enough to get it set up where I can get it ordered.
Everything has happened to bring us to this moment in time. There is nothing we can do about those other seconds that got us here. We can only change the next one. Share on XThat’ll be coming up. What is what so is what so. What do I have, an incredible and beautiful space? It took a lot more time and a whole lot more money than I ever would’ve thought, but it’s been ever-evolving. I’m excited to have someone in my life who and I will say it. I believe that what we are doing in our world is blessing humanity with gifting our talents, wisdom, knowledge, talent, time, energy and money, but we’re all doing it because we’re lifting humanity. We want to bless each other. That’s the world that I believe Patricia and I are living in and we are creating a world where we’re not into the material things, entertainment and all that stuff.
We’re into making a difference in the next person’s life. She’s done that so much. You can’t pay for what she’s been able to do. It’s priceless. She’s one of the blessings. Who’s that in your life and who are you that for? Do you give because you are called to give? Do you give love because you’re called to love? Can you do that? Isn’t it worthwhile to give up so much of who you are, what you want and all that, and bless the next person? I’ve given up. My nails are ragged. I’ve got paint on my toenails. I’ve given up a lot of my world to have this experience and learn these lessons.
Part of the lessons is patience. It takes a lot of patience to learn that it’s okay, where you are is all you’ve got. I love it because it’s all you got. It’s okay. We neither one or on our treks our long ten-hour drives as we expect it to be. What’s the blessing of having a lot of these things that have shown up in my lifetime in the last few years, the internet, Zoom, and all of this? I can do my show from anywhere about. Last time, it was in Iowa. Maybe I’ve done it in several different places.
I wanted to do my hair. What difference does it make? Do you care? No, I don’t think you do. This is my time to talk, love you and share that where you are is all you’ve got and it’s perfect. You are perfect exactly who and where you are. Where else do you have to be? If you don’t like it, you get to choose. When people say, “How are you?” I’m always going, “I’m fabulous.” It’s a choice. We usually say fine or good, whatever. I’m saying, “I’m fabulous.” It’s a choice because it is a mindset. I’m a mindset junkie. Every word matters. What are your words? Speak what you want, not what you don’t want.
Feeling Of Gratitude
I’ve had my guest, Gail Blair. We had a conversation. She’s an intuitive healer and has some experience like crazy. Even if you don’t like where you are, if you receive it, accept it and bless it, do you think that would be a better life for you? Do you think you could feel the peace that comes over you when you don’t have? One of my favorite things, I don’t have to know why, how, where and who I get to release. When I can do that, you’d be amazed at how many things show up, speak what you want, release it, thank you and gratitude that it’s already on its way. That is the Law of Attraction. If you speak, think and speak what you want, release it and know that it’s already on its way, I believe you will receive it.
I believe it with everything in me. Ask, believe and receive. I have manifesting things, “I needed one rug.” We’ve discovered Ollies. You have one of those good stuff and cheap. We found some amazing things at a discount. I needed one little rug. I’d looked at them and a few other times and didn’t see anything. We just walked in there. I’m like, “I need a rug.” There was one that was perfect. It’s the same thing with the dishes I needed. The room is purple. It’s beautiful, but I turned around. I was looking for dishes, this one shelf and turned around. We look back and it’s almost like they weren’t there now. They were these beautiful purple dishes that are perfect for the room and it is amazing.
Letting Life Flow
Furnishing this place and having it ready to rent when I get back from Tennessee. I cannot wait. It’s beautiful. We’ve got this beautiful spa, a nice pool and fountain in the backyard, a fire pit, a trampoline and a hammock. It’s like an oasis now. I’m excited to have that to share. In my life lessons, much of it is that everything takes us more time, takes more money, and evolves. When we would start doing one thing, we would find many other little things that had to be done.
What if you let your life just be? That’s all we got. Be who you are. You don’t have to strive. Let it flow. I noticed multiple times that when I would get upset or Patricia would get upset because things weren’t going quite right, mistakes seemed to happen more. When we wanted to do one thing, we wanted to go faster and literally put up my Martin house, which I hadn’t had up in long. It was late one night, we finally got it up and got it threaded through, and had to start over because it’s a long story, but that goes up and down retracts. We were exhausted and trying to get to the finish line.
What are you going to do? Do you give up? Do you stop? One of my life lessons I wanted that to share and I was giving this to my grandkids at one time. It was like, “We need to take a break.” Work a few minutes in the yard and take a break. Take a break. A big life lesson is it’s much harder to restart than to punch through and finish. I’m telling you, you sit down and take a break and you’re tired. You did 15, 20 or 30 minutes worth of work, and you’re like, “I need a break.” That restarting and re-energizing takes ten times more energy. No matter how hard it is and no matter how tired you are, punch through.
When you sit down or get a drink of water and do something, do it quickly and get back to it because you’ll be happy when that job is finished, and when you end up with that, you sit down and take a break. My granddaughter had done that one. We were out digging in the dirt, planting, pulling weeds or something, I don’t know what it was. She’s like, “I’m going to take a break.” I’m like, “No. You’ve only been doing this for fifteen minutes. You don’t need to take a break that quickly.”
I think about my daddy, who was born in 1916. He died at 92 years old many years ago. He told stories about clearing a complete field with a sickle for a nickel. One time he got stiffed and didn’t even get paid for clearing a field with a sickle. They didn’t have a 7/11. They didn’t have a place to stop, get a smoothie or a quick drink. They had a canteen. You took a bologna sandwich with you or whatever, and that was pretty much it.
I can’t even imagine how they function because I’m not one to stop and grab fast food or drinks and all that, and not at all. I don’t do that. If you think about it back then, there wasn’t even an option. They would work in the hot sun all day long and have that one canteen of water sometimes. We’ve gotten pretty spoiled and kind of weak. Those are strong people back then.
My friend Patricia is one of those strong people who keeps on going like an energized bunny. I’m like, “Go float on the pool for 15 or 20 minutes.” That’s a secret, too. That’s another life lesson when she does that. When she would do that, she’d have something to be noodling in her head. Within ten minutes or so, she would have a solution that she hadn’t come up with before, which is one of the problems of trying to figure things out. She couldn’t stay there and rest any longer. She’d have to jump up and go fix that problem because when you do the be still and know, when you take those deep breaths, when you let your mind not be inundated with the noise in our world, you literally allow your capacity and everything that you know.
We’re all connected in this world or the universe. From the beginning of time, they’ve proven quantum physics that we’re all connected, and all our DNA is somehow connected. When you can tap into that, you’re exponentially more wisdom. You have more wisdom because you’re tapping into the solutions that are already out there. Dr. Joe Dispenza has proven it. It’s remarkable. A lot of science has proven that we are connected like that. I find it fascinating and very comforting to know that I have everything inside of me like you do, everything inside of me to be all I’m called to be, to be who I’m led to be, if I listen and be still a no.
Episode Wrap-Up
That’s one of the other life lessons that I want to leave you with here. I’m going to have to point out my Zeal Wellness. I’ve been with that company for many years. It’s my nutritional beverage of choice. It gives me energy and focus. I also have Zurge, the memory-boosting coffee that I love, instant coffee, and Zurvita, which is collagen that helps my skin inside and out. It’s at Zurvita.com/Charla.
If you need help with websites, I have the greatest people on Earth. Just contact me at Charla@CharlaAnderson.com. My website is being redone. It’s going to be so much fun. Keep your eyes out for my landing page for my rental. It’ll have some pretty pictures on there. Who you are is perfect, exactly who and where you are. You don’t have any other place to be. Love yourself enough to receive that and remember that a master is one who blesses. When you can bless anything and everything that’s going on, it releases happiness in you. Relax and release. Let go. Love unconditionally, unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, not unconditional boundaries. Thank you for joining me. You have a blessed day. Remember, always choose joy.
