FIRST FRIDAY - JULY

So it is not the First Friday it's the third Friday.

The last time I posted was March; the past few months have been a total whirlwind. I feel like life is on fast forward, and I need like five more hours in every day to get everything done. Do you ever feel this way?

Featured Soap

SANDY BEACH SOAP

I adore this soap! It's sandalwood with orange, natural loofah, and looks like the beach. You can get the soap here and the bath bomb here.

Monthly Winner!!

Susan l.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to stop by my little shop last month. I am truly grateful for you! Susan, your prize will go out in the mail this week:)

Cocktail

It's Friday so grab a cocktail and let's catch up. I have a vodka tonic with orange bitters, garnished with fresh mint and lime. Nothing fancy, but I have something fun planned for August.

So what has been going on?

The big thing is; in May there were significant storms that went through our area, and we had a tree come down on our house. We are all fine, it came down on the sunroom, and none of us were in the room at the time. Surprisingly, it just broke some of the glass ceiling panels, knocked the fireplace chimney down, and left quite a big mess.

It is one of those situations where you are thankful everyone is okay, and think well that is what we have insurance for, right?

Well, in this case not so much! When we called our insurance company to file the claim we found out we had a ridiculously high deductible, 2% of the rebuild cost of our home. I guess this is not common where we live in Southeastern PA, but some companies are starting to roll with the 2% of rebuild cost deductable. Their advice to us was to get a loan to pay for the deductible. Financing was not an option for us, as we are working on being debt-free, have no desire to take on debt, and if we were going to put that kind of money into the house we would it would not be for this.

A little side note here is to check your deductible. I switched insurance companies a year ago to save on our premium. When I did, I only paid attention to what the monthly payment would be and ignored the deductible. Part of me assumed the deductable was like a $1,000 like our last insurance had. When will I ever learn never to assume? Anyway, we now have new insurance, with a reasonable deductible.

We have been DIYing the entire clean up. We did have a tree removal company to help us get the tree off the house. But getting these glass panels is not that easy of a job. We could only find one glass company that would quote us for the job and say they would do the work. Finally, after searching and many calls, we are able the find the manufacture of the room and have been working with them to get it fixed.

However, it has been quite an ordeal. A representative came from the company and did a full workup of the job. We were given a price to fix the room, the price was right, so we signed a work order contract that stated the work to be done and the price, and we wrote them a check. Great! We were all set for the engineers to call us and schedule to come and start the work of putting our house back together. Instead three days later they called saying it was the wrong price and it would be $5,000.00 on top of what we had already paid them. So now we are in the process of getting the pricing all straightened out. We are close, and I am thankful it will be fixed soon!

Feeling pretty out of control in this situation, I have decided to take control of the rest of our house this summer. Honestly, our move here felt pretty unorganized three years ago. There are so many small things I could be doing around the house that I have been ignoring and putting off for the past three years. Most of them are organizing, cleaning, and taking back the spaces of our home and outdoor space. Not so much decorating maybe some painting here and there. Are you working on any projects this summer?

Shop

I am trying to fill up the shop; I feel like I am always doing that. There are some great soaps and bath bombs in there right now. I am also running a sale this weekend! 25% OFF your entire purchase! - use coupon code:HOT2019 (not valid on subscription box or gift cards) I have also restocked deodorant and added an after sun butter. It is also a great time to check out the Soap Subscription Box! When you join, you get four bars of soap sent you every three months for $27.00 includes tax/shipping. You can check out the details here.

Anyway, I hope you are having a great summer!

xo

Mindy