A Work in Progress: Rebuilding the Temple.
LOCATION: PASS CHRISTIAN, MS
PURCHASED: JULY 24, 2023
UNOFFICIALLY MOVED IN: NOVEMBER 29, 2023
The Hermitage Pass Christian.
THE INTENTION…
A sanctuary in the woods – not far from the Mississippi Gulf Coast – for writers, artists and those embarking on their Hero’s Journey.
THE BACK STORY…
When I decided to get myself fired back in December 2022, I really didn’t have a plan but knew it was the right thing to do. It was definitely a leap of faith into the unknown. Cutting that tie untethered me to explore other possibilities and challenged me to move beyond yet another Saturnian boundary.
But being unbounded can sometimes feel like you are in a free fall. In my case, this free fall led me back on the path of what Joseph Campbell called The Hero’s Journey (or The Path of The Fool), which eventually takes the traveler into the Underworld. In my case, the Deep South where I purchased a run-down property not knowing what I had gotten myself into.
The first question people ask me is, “Did you lay eyes on the property before you purchased it?”
Yes.
The next question they ask is, “What were you thinking?”
I wasn’t. At least not clearly.
The realtor who sold me the house had the listing for eight months before it went into foreclosure, which was when I purchased it. I had initially seen the property on Zillow back in August 2022. It only showed one photo, but it was enough to entice me to a video showing with her.
I found it odd that she knew so little about the property. The owner had recently died, and there was a man in his 60s – a vet, as in war not animal – who had taken over the house. He’d been there for about five years living in the back house as the caretaker and now in the main house.
When the old man’s health began declining, the vet somehow convinced the old man (everyone knew as Mac) to sign a document (probably written on a napkin) that would give the vet everything he owned Mac was also a war vet, worked for NASA, and was a widower with no children of his own. Apparently he met the vet at a homeless shelter and invited him onto the property. When he died, the vet was told that Mac had taken out a reverse mortgage and the property would never be his. He was furious and full of revenge. All of this I learned after I purchased the property.
During that initial video showing with Nancy, the realtor, I again found it odd that the vet was there, and basically giving the tour, with the realtor exclaiming things like, “Oh, I didn’t know there was another bathroom here!” And, “Oh! There’s another little room off the master here!” The vet basically ran the showing, but you couldn’t see any features inside the house because he had every window covered with blankets and sport jerseys, and there was so much junk on every counter and surface, there was no way of telling what the house looked like whatsoever. For the price, it was a no go for me at the time.
Almost a year had passed when I searched Zillow for the property, curious to see what had happened. Did it sell? And for how much…
No. It did not sell, and it was back on the market for nearly half of the original asking price. I called the realtor. She no longer had the listing but gave me the full story of how it fell into foreclosure.
Since I had free travel on United and a couple of free nights at a Marriott, I decided to fly down to Mississippi to look at the property, which had been advertised as having two houses: one with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the other with two bedrooms and one bathroom.
At the time, I was visiting my daughter in Phoenix, so the flight would take me to Houston where I would get another flight to Gulfport.
An hour into the flight to Houston, the pilot made an announcement that the senior flight attendant had gone into diabetic shock and we would have to return to Phoenix. I knew that there would be no chance of getting to Gulfport that day, so I went back to my daughter’s apartment and told her I was canceling my trip all together. She was surprised that I would let this stop me. .She said, “Mom, that’s so not like you to just give up. You should try again tomorrow.”
I thought about it for a few hours and decided to try again the following day.
I arrived in Gulfport without complications the next day at 10 AM and checked into my hotel. The realtor, Nancy, picked me up at 11 and brought me first to one very rundown property before she brought me to 13303 Masterson Road.
While visiting Masterson, we could only get in the first house because the back house was hidden in so much overgrowth that she couldn’t even find it! Turns out there were lots of things she couldn’t find-or “see,” but as much as I’d like to place blame, this is all my doing.
NOutside her four walls there is beauty everywhere. Inside, there is darkness and chaos. I get her to laugh as much as possible. In her moments of clarity, she knows what is happening. She was an oncology nurse. She tells me to never get old. “Just live and drop dead.”OT MY UNDERWORLD
Even though I live in a place where people often put a gun to another’s head (usually for fair reason), no one had one to mine.
In fact, I was excited about the fact that the property had a second house on it, as well as a “greenhouse,” two sheds and a one-room “cottage.” (I’m not ready to show you those photos yet.)
In early summer, I uncovered many varieties of crêpe myrtle that had been planted throughout the property.
I still wasn’t ready to pull the trigger until three weeks later, when the price dropped significantly. In the meantime, the vet who had taken over the property invited riff-raff to ransack the place and take everything not bolted down – from the HVAC compressor to appliances, electrical boxes and outlets.
THE DEAL IS SEALED.
After I closed on the property in late July, 2023, I contacted Coast Electric to set up an account. That’s when I was informed that there had been no electricity on the house for at least eight months due to unpaid bills, and that they could not turn on the power until the county came out to inspect.
I had already contracted with Nancy’s husband Dave to do some minor repairs. He was at the house when the county came out and literally shut it down. As in this house is uninhabitable.
They made a list of items that needed to be resolved before I could move in. Without knowing anyone, I trusted my realtor and her husband and hired him as the general contractor to put on a new roof and new siding on half the house (phase one).
Repairs begin in late August. Due to massive termite infestation, which the home inspector missed as did Nancy and Dave, who she insisted was a termite expert, the front walls of the house had to be removed and rebuilt. Surprise number 1.
The well and pump were completely shot. Surprise number two (of many). Because there was no power to the house, there was no way of telling what the condition of the well was other than trusting Nancy who told me it needed a $500 fix. The fix was five times that amount.
The repairs dragged on, with new siding on half the house and a new metal roof that leaked the first time it rained. It would be end of November before I took occupancy (with no running water or electricity).
TRUTH IS A PATHLESS LAND.
One neighbor told another that I must be on the run, otherwise, why would a single woman with no ties to Mississippi, no family or friends, buy such a property on nearly four acres? He’s convinced the truth will come out sooner or later. And he’s not wrong. Sooner or later, he will learn the truth.
In the meantime, there’s only one direction, and that is forward.
BASIC NECESSITIES: WATER AND ELECTRICITY
“Aquarian Man” Larry Beech worked tirelessly to get water flowing from a dilapidated well. From 6 AM to 2 PM he works at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. From 2 PM into the evening, he runs his own well and pump business.
Larry came recommended by neighbors. Amazing guy. The weather was getting unusually cold at the start of December when he began working on the well. He was worried I would freeze without heat, so he brought me a huge box of fire logs for the fireplace.
My neighbors, Jason and jennifer, not only helped rig up electricity, but fixed a water pipe that had been sawed off.
They also left me a care package outside one morning, with every tool they thought I would need. While I was away for two days, they also wrapped my water pipes and put heat lamps inside my pump house so that my pipes wouldn’t burst during a several-day freeze.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Dave the contractor hired an electrician (the boyfriend of one of Nancy’s friend’s) to set up a temporary electric pole when the repair work began. He only took cash and charged me $2000 to do some rewiring work inside that I had not authorized. He told me if I didn’t pay him he was going to rip out everything he had done, so I caved in not knowing I had other options (like my awesome neighbors above).
I learned later that he left live wires uncapped in the attic and one in the electrical box panel inside the house. I discovered this eight months later when a real electrician named Dave whom I met at a local hardware store offered to come help with hanging some ceiling fans. I asked him if he would take a look up in the attic because I was worried there may be some hazards. I wasn’t wrong.
In less than three hours Dave the electrician was able to secure all the wires in the house and figure out why the front of the house had no electricity. Other electricians had estimated an entire day’s work.
By end of October, repairs were still ongoing. I decided to unload my belongings anyway. They had been in storage for a couple of months in a container (15 x 8) in Louisiana.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Since August 2023 I had been staying at my sister’s place in Florida and going to Mississippi every few weeks. (I had an airline pass for the year. I was given this by my niece, who was a Director at United. The free pass allowed me to fly back-and-forth from California to Chicago between January and April 2023 to help her while she was going through chemotherapy treatment. I wouldn’t have been able to do this had I kept my job.)
My sister and her husband were so kind and generous to let me stay at their beautiful home on Sunset Beach on Treasure Island. They also said it would be good to have someone there during hurricane season. I thought they were joking.
Within a month I was experiencing my first hurricane. With their house sitting right on a beach that was expecting a massive surge, I had to evacuate and get the house secured before I left for higher ground.
The day after I arrived, I met an incredibly wonderful group of people that sat in front of the house on the beach nearly every morning. They helped move furniture to the second level, take one of the cars to higher ground and help with a previous storm, chainsawing a huge limb that had fallen into the yard. When I had to evacuate, they all offered me a place to stay.
Back in Mississippi diring my October visit to the property, I learned my contractor, Dave, had no connection to subs. In fact, it was just him and another guy (both in their late 60s and in questionable health) who were performing the work. I was speechless when I saw the house.
Huge gaps in the siding and floor. Gaps around windows and doors, “New” wood already splitting. New segments of the porch ceiling sagging. I paid almost the entire amount in advance, however, so I had to let this play out and control what I could.
The interior walls still needed sheetrocking and I couldn’t do it myself. I let him finish out the contract. There were so many issues with the work, including being able to see daylight where the newly sheetrocked living room walls met the concrete floor. I could also see daylight next to the fireplace on both sides.
I made a list of nearly 100 items that needed fixing but didn’t want him back on the property, so I got to work.
First thing I did was remove popcorn ceilings and paint Kilz on every wall. Also tore out all the upper cabinets in the kitchen and the lower cabinet doors, which were covered in mold.
2023 was the first year I had spent Christmas alone simce my days as a writer and photographer of books about children in developing countries. I realized I had come full circle but an octave up. And this rebuilding that I had undertaken was as much about myself as it was about a physical house.
When I started out on this path in my 20s, I was drawn to places without the discernment necessary to understand why. Places like Africa, where I spent nearly a year hitch-hiking through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa during apartheid. Places like the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge, Tiwanaku, Tikal, Nan Madol, Bodh Gaya, the Atlas, Andes, Rocky and Himalayan mountains. Even India, a place I never wanted to visit, successfully lured me in and held me captivated for more than a year. During this time I was granted a private interview with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. That same year I also visited Mother Theresa‘s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. and not long after found myself sitting with Jackie Onassis in her office in New York City. She was an editor with Doubleday. It would be decades before I understood the reason for these encounters.
THE ALCHEMY OF HOME
Like everything, rebuilding (or building) a home – or self – is an alchemical process that starts with calcination. So it’s no surprise that a large burn pile I lit on fire at the back of my property quickly spread out of my control. I tried to put the fire out myself but eventually called the fire department.
The fire reminded me of how powerful our emotions can be: potentially destructive but also a force for incredible change and transformation. Just think of the kind of heat and pressure coal needs to become a diamond or pine cones to release new seedlings.
Living room January 15, 2024,
Baby Grand finally gets set up May 31, 2024, after 10 months in captivity (strapped to the kitchen island).
THE KITCHEN
I’m not a fan of traditional kitchens and wanted the kitchen in this house to resemble anything but a typical one. I started with the mold-infested cabinets – tearing them out with a hammer and screwdriver, (Not recommended.)
Eight months of rain had been seeping in the interior walls. I discovered this while trying to find the source of a strong musty smell. Removing sheetrock revealed rat nests (and one dead rat), roach hotels and black mold. With nearly all of my savings spent on shoddy contractor work, I had to get creative.
I prayed for help. Seriously. On my knees.
THEN GOD SENT ADAM
Kitchen as of June 14, 2024
My neighbor, Adam, had offered to help with the caulking and painting outside in exchange for a very small loan. He did the scariest part, painting the peaks. The metal roof was slippery and so slanted that we had to rig up a safety line while he used an old couch cushion to keep him stable.
That led to a job, as he became my trusted “Design Consultant” and rebuilding right-hand man (no coincidence Adam means builder…Atom, from which all living things are created). After removing all of the heavy trim and beams from the ceiling, we re-purposed the wood to make new floorboards, kitchen countertops and an island.
One of my best friends, California Jo Lynn, “Mama Jo,” showed up end of May (first visitor!) and stayed for 10 days to help out. She also recruited her friend Randy Reno, “Rescue Randy,” who drove from Arkansas to help for the week – both helping with hanging ceiling fans, sheet-rocking and tiling a gutted bathroom, varnishing wood planks and providing incredible moral support.
THE GUEST ROOM
Guest room after: January 2024
MAKING PEACE WITH NATURE
One of the most challenging things about being in the Underworld is the need to make peace with nature. When I moved in last December, I was afraid of the humans I might encounter. Soon it became clear that the wildlife was far scarier. I had to face an infestation of termites, carpenter bees, hornets and wasps, fire ants, armadillos and black mold. Suddenly snakes were no longer a concern.
The local Front Porch Cafe became my refuge. Despite the real estate agent and her husband (neither from Mississippi), good people were all around me. Even the Fedex driver and mail woman thanked me for buying and fixing up the property.
They knew more about its history than I did. It included a teenager committing suicide and a drug overdose. (Not to forget the occupant who took over and terrorized the neighbors after the owner passed away.) Clearly there was a heaviness that needed lifting.
THE UNBEARABLE HEAT OF THE UNDERWORLD
We’re now into the belly of summer. August brings a blazing hot sun. The humidity is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been.
I just returned from a month spent helping a friend in Michigan. As the compressor for the HVAC had been stolen before I moved in, and I had yet to replace the system, I couldn’t leave any air on when I left except for ceiling fans. When when I returned, mold was slowly growing on the wood doors and surfaces like woven baskets. (I had many.) My good friend, Uta, from Atlanta, was due to arrive the day after I returned home so I quickly got an air conditioning unit in the back bedroom. But when she left, I had some major clean up to do. I threw out everything that had mold on it and painted all the unfinished dark-stained wood doors white. I caulked all the crown molding and floor boards and painted them white also. Suddenly the back of the house took on a completely different feel. Light and bright.
Master bedroom August 2024
One of the most difficult projects so far has been the small bathroom off the master bedroom. It was in such bad shape that the entire bathroom was gutted to the studs. I had purchased almost 350 ft.² of porcelain planks that looked like a light gray wood, which I thought might be practical to use in the back bathroom since I got it at such a bargain. $200 for all of it including delivery.
I hastily chose a dark coffee colored grout, which has turned the job into somewhat of a nightmare. To make a long story short, when I tried to wipe the grout, it turned into paint. That’s the best way I can describe it. And with every wipe of a damp sponge, it just kept seeping into the porcelain planks. Needless to say, I had wiped three entire walls and smeared all of the grout so that the walls looked like I had painted them chocolate brown. I was hoping that after I waited the recommended amount of time it would wipe away. It did not.
One of my best friends, Sue Ellen, came for the long weekend. We tried every product we could think of until we went to a local hardware store and saw a bottle of maximum strength vinegar. Of course, I didn’t read the bottle and just sprayed it on full throttle. It worked, but neither one of us could stay in the bathroom to wipe it away because the fumes were so intense.
DISCOVERING THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Every so often I walk around the property with a saw, and a garden clipper, chipping away at overgrown shrubs and invasive plants.
Last winter, I found the lemon tree. It was overloaded with huge lemons.
I also cut down a thick overgrowth of young trees and shrubs to find a massive grapefruit tree. It’s full of grapefruit now that should be ripe in a few weeks.
In May, dewberries popped up everywhere. They look just like raspberries when they’re ripening then look like blackberries when ready to eat. .
Most recently, I discovered grapevines with sweet red grapes, growing in bunches. Some close to the ground and bundles wrapped around tree limbs 20 feet off the ground.
I’ve also got a beautiful pecan tree and chestnut tree, as well as Tung Oil tree that blooms white and yellow flowers in spring and grows large pale-green apple,-like nuts in late summer
It seems that something is always in bloom.
It’s important that I clarify this whole notion of being in The Underworld. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the Deep South or Mississippi but rather where I am on my own personal path. So it’s also important to show just how beautiful this area is and how tranquil a small coastal town can be despite a noisy world.
IMPERMANENCE AND NON-ATTACHMENT
As I restore sections of this house, I realize my hesitation to make any of the changes permanent. For example, the kitchen countertops and the frames they rest on can all be easily removed. Nothing is nailed down. In the main bathroom the same can be said for the homemade vanity and countertop. Even flooring in this house is impermanent. Painting concrete floors allows for change in what sits on top of it. Some may not prefer this sort of non-attachment and impermanence. It’s not for everyone. But there is one thing certain in life and that is change. Nothing is permanent, so we would do well to remain non-attached. Non-attachment should not be confused with detachment, however. There is a big difference.
FIRE AMD RAIN
I’ve been working on a new piano piece: Fire and Rain by James Taylor. It’s a rainy September 5, 2024. We haven’t had rain for a couple of weeks, and last time it rained there were drops coming down from the porch ceiling. I thought to myself, there’s no possible way the roof is leaking again. So today, my neighbor, Adam, and I went up into the attic and sure enough the roof is leaking. The new roof that my real estate agent’s husband put on end of October.
By the looks of the wood on the roof deck, it’s probably been leaking ever since he put it on. I also discovered he did not tear off the old, moldy shingles. He just slapped the metal roof on top of the cold decaying roof.
Looks like the next week will be raining but I’ve got a real roofing company coming this Sunday morning to do an inspection. We’ll see what Sunday brings.
Verdict on the “new” roof isn’t good. Contractor says he gave me no warranty. Fourth time his roof is leaking .. he will not come back to fix it. Probably because he knows it has to be completely torn off and re-done.