The great thing about working with the public now is I get to interact with a variety of people everyday.  When I worked in corporate world the people were all of the same mind set "get the job done, move up the ladder, and who cares about anyone else".   The TV show "The Office" really hits the nail on the head on how things are - and why it is so funny.  Out here at the nursery I am located close to a small town situated between three growing cities - Durham, Hillsborough, and Roxboro.   We actually have 3 county borders on our property.  When I first set up shop and started building hoop houses and potting plants but had not officially opened for business local folks from Rougemont started stopping in to see who I was and what was the plan for the property.  Most were all very friendly and obviously concerned as to what was moving into their community.  A lot of folks knew the family who last lived in the old farm house and some were even relatives and all have their own stories as to how they knew them.  Some have used this connection as a way to break the ice and ask to fish in the pond.   One person who lives close by had taken pictures of old farm houses around the county and brought me pictures of the house when the family lived in it.  I was very curious to know as much as I could about the house considering I kept debating on tearing it down.  It was in such ill repair and loaded with trash from top to bottom that the thought of renovating was very daunting.  If you jump up and down on the second floor the whole house rocks.  Windows were broken out, trees were growing into the walls, and the foundation was on very loose fitted rock piles.  I was amazed at some items left behind including home canned goods long gone bad and what appeared to be dried pork cracklin layed out to dry on a table.  
It's probably a good thing I did some research and found the house listed on a Durham County Historic Architecture Inventory.  It is the Bobbit-Aiken-Carver house (ca.1850) - see the attached website for reference
http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/hi/hi_5.pdf. 
As I mentioned in a previous blog, people sometimes have a romantic notion of how it is to work in a nursery and don't realize the work it takes to start it up or keep it going.  The same goes for house renovations.  I for one am a long time fan of the TV show "This Old House" and have been and armchair renovator for years while living in a fairly new home.  Now that I actually have something to renovate it is an entirely different story.  I honestly didn't not even remotely know where to start!    If I had decided to tear the house down I think I would have had a possey of folks with pitch forks and torches ready to hang me out to dry with the pork cracklin.  People have wanted tours of the house even though it is not fixed up yet.  Several had suggestions for how to fix it up including how to deal with the lead paint on the outside.  Of course, the environmentalists insist that we must get the proper authorities out here with their coveralls and bag the house while they get all the paint off.  I can't even imagine what that would cost.  Then we have the older residents who say it is nothing to have a little lead paint around and just paint over it or power wash it off.   That probably would not be the best idea either considering we have chickens and we eat the eggs. 
Some ladies have suggested a gift or antique shop in the house.   My wife really wanted to have a gift shop also and thought it would be unique to have frog themed gifts so we managed to clean up one front room and made it our sales area.  She collected frog beach bags, frog visors, frog T-shirts, frog candles, frog iron artwork, bird feeders and all kinds of gifty items and we arranged the front room as best as could be done with the limited budget we had but after a year now no one has been too interested in it.  My wife claims it is due to the lack of the gift shop sign but I think most Rougemont folks just don't see frog candles as essential to their daily gift needs.  A friend of mine suggested converting the house to a coffee shop or a restaurant due to the lack of restaurants in Rougemont...not sure why they think coffee, food, and shrubs go together but I don't think that would go over well either.
I had to fix the bathroom also considering the floor was about to collapse from water damage and we needed a place to go otherwise I would have had to get a port-o-potty...ew.   I gutted it in one day with the intention of quickly getting it completed within the same week.  A month later, my wife was calling around to local contractors trying to find someone who could come in and complete the work considering I was so busy with the nursery there was just no other time to finish the job.  It wasn't too much of a problem not having a bathroom for me of course but my sister, wife, and mom were very insistent that it needed to quickly be resolved.  My mom really brought the message home when she brought a pot with her one day when she came to help put in liners (her emergency toilet).  She gave me a toilet in a box kit for my birthday a few days later. The next week my father and I were out there finishing the job. 
The idea of renovating an old house really is overwhelming but if it weren't for this common factor that all these great folks in the area want to save and preserve then I wouldn't get to meet the folks that I do now (besides the ones coming to buy plants).  They aren't all like like the corporate working world and only looking out for themselves. They have great ideas, care for their community and the history within it - including an old house that will take a tremendous effort but well worth it in my view now.