Other than a brief conversation after New Year’s to share what each of them received from Celia, no one else had said too much yet about their gifts. Renee knew all three were grappling with what to do with their inheritances. Similar to Renee’s predicament, all of their gifts were complicated. Ethan received their aunt’s beautiful old Victorian home but also a portfolio of other residential and commercial properties; already busy running his own construction firm, and going through a nasty divorce, he wasn’t sure what to do with the properties, most of which came with a mortgage. Jess was deeded a large portion of Celia’s stock portfolio; within this portfolio, they were surprised to find out Celia had been a not-so-silent partner in three different companies. Val’s gift of a substantial sum of money came with strings attached: she could only use the funds for certain expenses, none of which included anything that would directly benefit her kids or husband.
But everyone was too tired tonight to discuss what they were planning to do with their bequests; Renee mentally filed the topic away for a conversation at a later date. She would help them, too.
Older cousins started to tell spooky stories and cast furtive glances into the woods; the trees now seemed to press closer against the ring of light cast by the fire. Noah and Logan, tired from the long day, subtly shifted positions to sit closer to Grandma Lavonne. Jake crawled up onto Val’s lap, whimpering a little.
“Momma, are there ghosts out there?” the young boy asked, pointing a chubby little finger toward the towering black trees behind them, rubbing a sleepy eye with his other hand.
Val hugged her youngest closer. “No, baby, there are no such thing as ghosts.”
Jake snuggled in, too tired to react to her calling him “baby.”
The stories even had Renee glancing out into the woods. I wonder what might be lurking out there, she thought, not necessarily believing Val’s declaration that ghosts didn’t exist. The long day had her exhausted and jumping at shadows. She remembered feeling like this as a child too, never completely convinced that the woods held only trees and friendly little animals.
Once the burn pile was depleted and the shrinking flames failed to keep the cold at bay, it was time to call it a night. Ethan dumped water on the remaining embers, not wanting to take any chances. Once again, their caravan headed out, this time away from Whispering Pines.
I need to ask Ethan to check and see if he can fix that decrepit sign tomorrow, Renee reminded herself when her headlights glanced off the sign as she turned onto the paved highway.
As the last of their tail lights faded away, a flashlight blinked on in the woods behind the smallest cabin.
Chapter 41
Gift of Assistance
Sunday dawned cold and gray.
Everyone trekked back to the resort and work continued. Val brewed coffee (and heated a saucepan of apple cider for the non-coffee drinkers). A box of fresh muffins and doughnuts kept the workers fueled. Work picked up where they left off the day before.
The cabins had wall-to-wall green shag carpet in the living rooms. A good shampoo might have gotten rid of the grunge inevitably deposited into the carpet fibers over the years, but Renee was doubtful. Jess helped her pull up a corner of rug to peak underneath—no easy task, as it was tacked down. To their delight, they could see hardwood floors beneath. Renee decided to take a chance: the nasty carpet had to go. They quickly pushed furniture out of the way. Using muscle and an occasional crow bar, Renee and Jess pulled up the carpet in the first cabin. Julie and Lauren followed behind, prying up old tack strips so no one would impale a foot. Together the four of them managed to wrestle the heavy, unwieldy roll out onto the grass. After the carpet was out, Jess swept up debris left behind. Once the floor was laid bare, they took a closer look. Hardwood ran throughout. It was far from perfect, but at least there were no holes. There were stained areas here and there, probably caused by spills seeping through carpet, never properly cleaned up. The wood also ran under the edge of the linoleum in the kitchen. Renee was tempted to remove the linoleum too, but she worried she might have used up her luck. No telling if the hardwood covered the whole kitchen floor; it might, but the linoleum wasn’t in bad shape and would be easier to maintain where spills were more likely. She’d have to pick up some strips of either metal or wood and tack down the edge of the linoleum to the wood floor; the previous strips had been ripped out with the carpet.
Sweaty and dirty from work in the first cabin, everyone shifted to the second and followed the same process. This time, they found a problem: In front of the fireplace, a section of the hardwood had been cut out and replaced with plywood. A log must have rolled out at some point and damaged the wood. The patch would be tough to conceal with the carpet out. Despite the issue in the second cabin, Renee was glad the old carpet was out. Now all the floors were either wood or linoleum throughout and would be easier to clean. She would have to research how best to deal with the patched floor in the second cabin.
Their last project of the day was to clean one of the duplexes. Because the east unit had been better maintained, Renee and the kids would use that one over the summer. The west unit was going to need repairs. Unfortunately, the stove wouldn’t heat up in the east unit, but the stove next door worked fine. Luke and Ethan pulled out the broken stove and Renee cleaned up the grunge accumulated behind it. Nathan and Robbie muscled the stove out of the other unit and into Renee’s side. Now she had a gold-colored stove paired with an avocado fridge and sink. But as long as all three worked, that was all she cared about right now. I can deal with a psychedelic kitchen, Renee assured herself. It would only be for the summer.
The kids were troopers throughout Saturday and part of Sunday, but eventually they’d had enough. “Julie, can you take the boys down to the lake and show them how to skip rocks?” Val suggested, tired of listening to her sons whine.
“You bet, Val. Come on, whoever wants to get in on a little rock skipping competition, follow me,” Julie instructed, taking Jake by the hand and leading a line of her cousins down to the water’s edge.
It was colder right next to the lake, but they didn’t care. She gave the younger cousins a quick lesson. “Here guys, find the flattest, smoothest rocks you can. Now hold them in your hand like this.” She modeled for them how to hold the rocks and flick their wrists to get the most skips. After some frustrating first attempts, they got the hang of it.
Then the contest was on.
***
Val and her troop were the first to head home. The boys were filthy and still had homework. Ethan finished securing all the junk—including the musty old mattresses—loaded onto his trailer. He offered to take it to the dump Monday and promised to hand the bill over to Renee to pay for the disposal. Jess had ridden over with Lavonne and George but jumped in with Lauren and Nathan for the drive home. Once everyone else was gone, Renee, George, and Lavonne gathered in the lodge kitchen. Julie was outside on the phone with someone and Robbie was studying algebra on the picnic table they had used to eat on throughout the weekend.
“It’s crazy how much we accomplished,” Renee said to her parents as she sagged into an old wooden chair. “I can almost believe we’ll be ready to start renting cabins this summer. It won’t take much more to get Cabin #1 and Cabin #2 ready for renting. I still need to make sure I have all the legal work done and the proper insurance. But it’s starting to feel real.”
Renee hated to head back to the city—she wanted to keep getting ready.
We’ve barely touched the lodge yet, or the duplex, she thought, groaning to herself.
Sensing Renee’s impatience, George offered to meet her back here next Friday, as soon as Robbie was out of class.
Lavonne had a better idea.
“Why don’t Renee and Julie drive over and meet you here Friday morning? I can drive over to their house sometime on Friday and be there when Robbie gets home from school. We would probably wait and drive over Saturday morning.”
“Mom, if you’re sure you don’t mind
, that would be awesome. I’m afraid we won’t have anything ready to rent in June if we only spend two days a week out here. We made lots of progress this weekend, and I so appreciate everyone’s help, but there is still a lot of work to do,” Renee said.
She grimaced as she raised her arms to hug her parents. She wasn’t used to so much physical work, and her muscles screamed. George returned her hug, then stood back, shaking his head at her.
“What?” Renee asked, eyes narrowed at her father, head tilted.
“You remind me of Celia, with your determination to get this place up and running. I’m starting to see the wisdom in my sister’s decision.”
Renee smiled “You know, Dad, I’m starting to understand it all a bit better myself.”
Chapter 42
Gift of Competition
Renee hit a snag. Because the old lodge used to have a bar, she figured she should get it up and running again. So it came as quite the surprise when she learned getting a liquor license was more time-consuming and expensive than she’d initially thought.
Jess called to check on their progress and Renee shared this news with her.
“Renee, I don’t think this is bad news,” Jess said. “First, scrap the notion of trying to get a bar up and running this first summer. You have plenty of other issues to work through. Second, I want you to think about what kind of atmosphere you want to promote at the resort. Do you want a family atmosphere? Or do you want to cater to sportsmen, more apt to want to kick back with buddies and drink at the end of the day? If you plan to live at the resort this summer with Julie and Robbie, without a grown man around all the time, maybe a bar is a bad idea. There are plenty of other bars in the area. People will sometimes want to drink in the cabins, or around the fire pit or beach, but there’s nothing saying you have to sell the alcohol at the resort.”
“You know, I hadn’t thought about it like that, Jess. It probably isn’t realistic to think I can turn this place into a destination offering a bar or a restaurant this first summer,” Renee mused, appreciating her insight. “If customers show a desire for amenities like that, we can work it into our longer-term business plan.”
Jess posed great questions and Renee realized she needed to figure out the answers. She promised to keep Jess in the loop and thanked her again for all her help.
Julie volunteered to work on a website for the resort.
“Mom, I found a company we can hire to help us set up a site and incorporate an online reservation system. They aren’t cheap, but they have great reviews, and I really think we need to make an investment here.”
“Oh man, Julie, I just don’t know if I can afford that right now. I need to be really careful where I spend my money,” Renee replied, concern evident in her eyes. “Can’t you just work with one of those free templates to get us started?”
Julie threw up her arms in exasperation. “You’ve got to be kidding, Mother! Don’t you understand how important our online presence is? Customers expect a fully functioning website. They don’t want to have to talk to someone. They want to go online day or night, look at pictures, read reviews, and book a cabin immediately if they like what they see. If we don’t capture them when they’re interested, because our website is crap, we risk losing them to the next resort they find online.” Julie stopped to catch her breath, hoping she was convincing Renee this was not optional. “We need to be able to capture renter information, too, so we can add them to our mailing list. We’ll want to build up a clientele we can rely on to come back, summer after summer.”
She has some valid points, Renee had to admit to herself, eyeing her daughter in a new light. There were definite benefits to incorporating Julie’s ideas. They would need the website to share their story and attract the right type of clientele, too. Maybe I really don’t have a choice. Julie is probably right. I can’t afford to take the cheap route.
Julie and Renee spent a day surfing websites of other resorts in the area, taking notes on how their competition positioned themselves. Some sites were user-friendly, with enticing descriptions along with positive customer reviews. Other websites were not as well-constructed and had out-of-date information or boring pictures and narrative. They made notes of what they liked and didn’t like on other sites.
Thursday morning, they sat down together again. Renee started the conversation with her description of what she thought their “perfect customer” would be like.
“Resorts around here talk up the wonderful fishing, but I don’t have an interest in catering to fishermen. Same with hunters. It feels too . . . foreign. It would be fun to see kids fish for pan fish off the dock, but offering guide services or fish cleaning holds no appeal for me. When I think about the type of people I want to see enjoy a vacation at Whispering Pines, I picture parents with their kids, or maybe even extended families coming for reunions. Maybe we could offer packages for honeymooners or couples celebrating anniversaries. Maybe even girls’ weekends. Have you heard about those tour companies that plan the whole trip for their guests without telling them exactly where they’re going or what they’ll be doing? How fun would it be to position ourselves as one of their stops?”
Julie laughed at her mother as she got more animated, eyes bright as she listed idea after idea. Both agreed families would be their focus. They would position Whispering Pines as a place for a peaceful vacation. They needed to get a couple of cabins photo-ready as soon as possible. Outside pictures could be updated as the summer progressed and flowers and shrubbery filled in. They talked price points. Costs would be figured in, but they would use estimates until they had some history.
“Mom, we have to be careful not to set the price too high, or we’ll have some serious vacancies this first summer,” cautioned Julie. “Summers are short here, so we want to be as full as possible. I collected rates for two-bedroom cabins at nearby resorts and noted significant points about each. I think we aim for rates in the top half of what we are seeing, but not at the top. If we go too low, we might not get the type of clientele we want.”
Renee sighed with relief at her daughter’s attention to detail. “Bless you, child,” she said, and they both laughed.
After more discussion, they agreed on their starting rates. Adjustments would be made as they learned more, but they needed a place to start.
Julie helped her decide on many of the details Renee had been stewing about since making the decision to reopen the resort. It helped to have someone to bounce ideas off and Julie proved to be a useful sounding board. She was interested in how best to market their new enterprise and wanted to learn alongside Renee.
I can’t believe how fast she is growing up, Renee thought as she sat watching her daughter articulate a point. I couldn’t have guessed how accepting Celia’s gift would allow us to work together like this. This is going to be so much more fun than being holed up in an office all summer while Julie worked at some boring, part-time gig—which was exactly what would have happened if not for the resort.
If not for Celia.
Chapter 43
Gift of Expertise
“I love these cute little cabins,” Tabby exclaimed when they arrived at Whispering Pines the following week. “They have so much potential. How much time and how much money do we have to work with?” she asked, a Cheshire-cat grin on her face as she spun a slow circle in the kitchen of the first cabin, taking it all in.
“We have very little of either,” Renee reminded Tabby with a more restrained grin. “That is exactly why I brought you out here, my miracle-worker friend. If anyone can help me spiff this place up fast and on the cheap, you can!”
They spent the remainder of their first day planning how to do exactly that.
Julie stayed home with Robbie. She would work on their website while Renee was gone. She had spent two solid weekends at the resort cleaning and scrubbing and was more than willing to sit this round out.
“Stripping, sanding, and staining these bad boys will take too long,” Tabby explained. They hadn
’t yet come to an agreement as to what to do about the beat-up floors. “They aren’t in great shape to begin with, especially in the second cabin. Trust me, we need to lighten up in here, and I know exactly how we should do it.”
Renee sighed. “How?”
Tabby flashed that Cheshire-cat grin again. “I had a crazy-ass client a couple months back who actually had beautiful hardwood floors throughout her house, but she lived with floors like that as a kid, and hated the thought of keeping them dusted and polished. She hired me to distress and paint her floors to match a picture she ripped out of a high-end decorating magazine. I thought she was a lunatic. Who does that to perfectly good floors?”
After a pause for dramatic effect, Tabby continued.
“But I tell you, Renee, I was shocked at how good they looked, and it was relatively quick and easy. We took the woman’s rooms from traditional to chic, despite my doubts. We could do the same here.” Seeing Renee’s still-dubious expression, Tabby added, “Look, if you hate it, we can try something else later when we have more time.”
“Oh, all right, Tabby,” Renee caved. “You’re the expert, not me. So I’m going to trust you on this one.”
“Great! You won’t regret it, Renee, I promise. We’ll do the treatment on the floors right before we leave. It will take time for them to dry since it’s still chilly. We need to brighten these up, too,” Tabby insisted, motioning to the walls, currently a dingy green. “Thank God they aren’t covered in wallpaper or paneling. A fresh coat of paint is all these need. The floors will be a light gray . . . I think we should use a soft taupe with gray undertones on the walls and paint the trim white. We don’t have time to do anything more with the kitchen cupboards other than give them a good scrubbing, unless you want to change out the hardware.”
“I like that,” Renee agreed, jotting notes quickly to keep up with Tabby’s suggestions.
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