Day in the Life

Phoenix in Freedom

My client Lindsay was on a journey. After a year of dealing with the death of a cherished loved one, a medical emergency, coping with business partners and plans gone awry, she needed to find renewed hope, to find her strength and resiliency … to be a Phoenix Rising. As the story goes, the phoenix is a mythical bird with fiery plumage that lives up to 100 years. Near the end of its life, it settles into its nest of twigs which then burns ferociously, reducing the bird and nest to ashes. And from those ashes, a fledgling phoenix rises – renewed and reborn. 

Lindsay wasn’t sure what she was searching for or where to search. She was lost and looking for her new home. Would it be a piece of land to build upon or an existing home? Her budget was minimal and her ideas grand. Because of obscene prices, owning waterfront property was just a fantasy. Initial plans also included land for possible rental income earning cabins. She was the first to admit that her ideas were all over the place, a thought that made us both chuckle. Lindsay was convinced that her new home would be in the mountains of Jay. But after months and months of screening properties all over central Maine, surprisingly, the property found her, when she least expected it and where she wasn’t looking. 

In June, Lindsay purchased an estate sale home being sold AS-IS. Known to folks in town as the “drunk driver house” it had been vacant since 2019 when a drunk driver did indeed crash a car into the home with such force as to make it structurally unsafe. Since that time, it had been exposed to the elements and was home to a variety of 4 legged critters. Any agent wanting to show the interior needed to sign a release waiver. The property also included a mobile home and garage that had seen better days. Any sane person would have passed on this home – except Lindsay. Everything needed to be torn down and removed, like the Phoenix and its nest, returned to ashes for rebirth. Although this property was clearly a tear down, it also offered 50 feet of water frontage on Sandy Pond … coveted waterfront property. It was love at first sight. Watching the sunset over the water soothed her tired soul. This property had to be hers. We made it happen. Lindsay had the vision of how great this property could be in its new incarnation. She was HOME. It would be hard work to navigate the planning board and ordinance maze of codes and restrictions but she was up for the challenge. With permits firmly in place, the demolition work has begun. Once cleared, construction will begin. 

“Finding Freedom” I thought would be the perfect title to Lindsay’s story and her journey of rebirth and renewal. But Erin French, the owner and chef of the Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine, had already used that as the title to her gritty autobiography. It is ironic that Lindsay is also finding her freedom in that same little town and that actually she too used to be a working chef. When she was injured and had to stop being a chef, she was lost for a long while and didn’t think there could be, ever, anything she would love as much as that life. Now she has found her little sanctuary and new life as a “Phoenix in Freedom.”