Guess everyone packed up and went on a short vacation this Labor Day weekend because when I hopped in my Fiat looking for a story on Saturday, all was quiet, until I made my way up Watt Street.

A pretty lady was sitting in a teal colored rocker, reading. The lowering of the sun was casting beautiful shadows that time of day, of which made her setting all the more inviting.    

So I stopped to meet her.

She said her name was Carrie Benfield and had purchased the Jim and Kat Oliver home last October. A wonderful family lived there I told her, and good energy enveloped the home for sure.

She recently downsized from a four-bedroom home and the Oliver house fit all the criteria she was looking for.

She’s a bit of a crafter and she loves bead board walls.

She painted the rockers on her porch and the yellow table she found at a yard sale gave it the right pop she was looking for. With some old wood, she made a small bench and painted it lime green.

She began to reveal the spirit of the home by chipping away the plaster that covered the brick fireplace flu in the kitchen. She was so happy to see pink and red brick.

In other rooms the paneling came off to showcase the old bead board and she loves the old claw foot tub.

The old fireplace was uncovered and she’s now on the hunt for an old mantel.

The installer for her new dishwasher told her, her home was well built.

A garden plot in the backyard is on the list for next year as is a landscape of flowers.      

Having another permanent resident in our historical town is wonderful, especially when it’s someone like her.

Welcome, Carrie.

Feel free to contact me at www.cooleemeenews@gmail.com or call me at 336.250.1133. I would love to hear from you.