UPDATE: We unlisted our Airbnb guest room due to lack of interest. We are using the room for our own personal use.
2020 was the year of transition and challenges for us, and I’m NOT just talking about the pandemic.
My motto for 2020, was “Perfect Vision.” It was my last year working for the federal government in real property contracting. I was so excited! Due to the pandemic, I teleworked from home from March until I retired in December, 2020.
One of our 2020 goals was to relocate out of the Phoenix metro area to a small town, recreational area after I retired. We were going to downsize, but the only house we found that would work for us was a larger, 1986 house that had a lot of (undisclosed) deferred maintenance (AKA: fixer upper). After we moved everything out of our Phoenix metro house and we listed it for sale. It sold BEFORE it hit the market for more than the appraised price.
VISION: Future Guest Room…
We decided to convert the second master (primary) bedroom into a Guest Room to list on Airbnb, and to use when family and friends visit. The process of remodeling this room was an adventure in itself. Truth is, the whole house has had its share of issues: electrical, plumbing, lighting, flooring, insulation, windows, appliances, etc. At the rate we are fixing things, we practically have a new house.
The carpet, windows & blinds needed to be replaced.
The ceiling fan was defective. The blades were loose!
Note there’s no blades on the ceiling fan.
Needed to finish the wood stove area.
Original walk in closet, future breakfast room. Kept the 2nd closet at the other end of the room.
Bathroom was dated. No GFI. The tile was very slippery when wet!
Replacing the old door to the back storage room, our future mud room. The original door wasn’t an exterior door and the steps were dangerous.
Removed this door to our pantry. (There was a 2nd door on the other side.)
Huge, dated, jetted tub, didn’t work well. Used a lot of water!
What we did to create our Rustic Country Market Guest Room:
Converted the exterior storage room into a separate, exterior entrance/mud room.
Converted the extra walk in closet into a breakfast room.
Created an entry between the mud room to the breakfast room.
Removed the closet door that was for the walk in closet, now breakfast room.
Removed dated, nonfunctioning window blinds.
Replaced the carpet with vinyl, plank flooring.
Removed and sheet rocked over a second door to our walk in pantry.
Replaced all the windows.
Total renovation of the bathroom. Removed an old jetted tub.
Painted the walls and trim.
Replaced all the light fixtures.
Corrected electrical issues and added a GFI to the bathroom.
Added a carbon monoxide detector & a fire extinguisher.
Replaced the exterior deck & stairs.
Furnished and decorated the room.
Kept the original bay window seat.Includes a desk to the left.The door to our pantry was originally behind the headboard.Total bathroom remodel.This was the original walk in closet.This was the original outdoor storage room.Our Guest Room “after” pictures decorated by The Relentless Redecorator.
Our Guest Room Today…
Instead of using the room for an Airbnb, we moved my 80+ year old mother into the room for 3 years. The room started to be too much for her to care for, so we moved her into our smaller, back guest room, and relisted the room as an Airbnb. After one year of no activity, we decided to set the room up for our own personal use. I rearranged the room, and we replaced the 36” TV with a larger VIZIO TV and a Roku soundbar. We moved the smaller Roku TV up to the loft for our grandsons to watch when they visit.
Moved the bed under the window.The table in front of the window seat works GREAT for playing games.Put the TV on the wall where the bed used to be.Boys room in the loft.The TV swivels left & right.The boys love having their own TV.
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
In 2009 we started a micro coffee roasting company named Cold Creek Coffee Company, located in Battle Ground, WA. Our beans were used by two coffee shops and we had several repeat customers. We closed our business in 2014, when we moved to Arizona. (The move was complex enought, much less relocating a business.)
Our oldest grandson wearing our previous business .com hat. Today he’s a teenager!
Fast Forward to 2024:
Our original company name, Cold Creek Coffee, is now used by a company in Canada and another in Ohio. Honestly, that doesn’t matter because we want to rebrand our coffee business under Rustic Country Market as we start roasting again. This time we will specialize in mobile, small batch roasted coffee beans, in addition to selling a variety of rustic decor, coffee mugs, seasonal lavender bunches, dried spice mixes and our nest run eggs.
Local Market Focus
We are going to focus our small business on our local market. At this time, we are not going to sell online. We plan to start participating in a local farmers market, and roast coffee at the market. This way, our customers are getting the freshest roasted coffee beans possible. Our local, repeat coffee customers will be able to reach out to us to order fresh roasted coffee beans outside the farmers market hours. Expanding our market will be subject to demand and profitability.
In addition to attending our local farmers market, we plan to have several Rustic Country Markets at our house. I plan to set up a photo shoot booth so customers can share pics with their friends on social media. In the future, we’d like to invite other local, complimentary product vendors to participate in our Rustic Country Market, which may involve moving to a more central location in our local community. Our Rustic Country Market would be more of an artisan market vs. farmers market.
The pictures below are a sampling of some of the “one of a kind” items we have created for props and to sell. Some are a work in process…
Handcrafted. Reuse. Repurpose. Renovate. Rustic.
Most of what we sell at our Rustic Country Market is handcrafted at our home. We limit our outsourced items to other small business owners whenever possible. We scout for things we can reuse, repurpose, renovate or recycle. I love using my Cricut to design and create rustic country decor and household items. Some of the items we create are made using some materials that were not made in the USA which is (unfortunately) inevitable in today’s world. (IE: ink, vinyl, blank stickers, blank coffee mugs, blank canisters, etc.)
Primitive Bird House
A lot of the materials we use are old. For example, the bird house pictured above. We bought the antique roof tiles on the east coast a few years ago. The wood and handle (perch) were salvaged to create this rustic bird house.
Our Home Base…
My craft room.His Greenhouse.
Our produce is grown in our greenhouse that Jon built mostly from repurposed materials, and our garden. We primarily use heirloom seeds to start our plants. We try to avoid the use of chemicals on our plants, sticking with organic options and composting. Our spice mixes are produced in our home kitchen (and are not subject to public health inspection under the AZ cottage food program).
Air tight packaging to keep it fresh.
Our Russian Sage is grown in our back, which I will use to create decorative bunches to sell seasonally.
Our 2023 Russian Sage (similar to Lavender) and backyard chicken coop.
We purchase green coffee beans from US based coffee bean importers who source from coffee bean producing countries.
All that to say, our goal is for Rustic Country Market to be as small business, locally sourced as possible.
Rustic Country Market is going to change in the future.
What kind of change?
We are planning to expand our registered trade name, Rustic Country Market, into a home based business. I registered and created this website in 2015, and have an organic following on FB based on the name Rustic Country Market Living.
I’ve organized and supported others’ businesses most of my life, and now I’m going to focus that experience on Rustic Country Market. Our long term goal is to start/organize a local marketplace to sell rustic country items. In the meantime, we are going to participate in newly formed, local farmer market.
Adapting…
For some, there’s a fear of success, because success can raise the performance bar.
(Dilbert was cancelled in 2023.)
We “retired” and relocated the end of 2020, in the midst of global chaos; and took on a fixer upper in the rural White Mountains of AZ. As our home projects slow down, we are looking forward to doing what we enjoy, instead of what we have to do. We had hoped to travel in retirement, but with the economy going as it is, we’re limiting our love for travel to our local area.
It’s not the strongest of the species which survives, nor the most intelligent which survives. It is the one which is the most adaptable to change.
Charles Darwin
Believe…
We believe if you attach a feeling to a belief, you will make a way for change. We love God and we love USA country living. We love small towns. We love our garden, greenhouse, canning, home cooked meals, chickens, BBQ hut, wood fired oven and pizza. We love the smell and taste of fresh roasted coffee. We love our hot tub where we can sit under a vast starlit sky (because we live where there’s no light pollution). We love making things. We love crafting. We love going to garage sales and estate sales. We love repurposing things, instead of throwing them away. We love old and new rustic stuff.
We believe our name, Rustic Country Market, fits our country lifestyle.
Humble beginnings…
We’ve been busy planning our local, Arizona, home based business future that includes:
Rustic Country Decor
Small Batch Roasted Coffee Beans
Coffee Mugs & Signs
Nest Run Eggs
Various Dried Hot Pepper Spices
Dried Russian Sage Bunches
There’s a lot of details to attend to when starting a business.
Time has been flying. It’s funny how day to day, nothing appears to change, yet if we look back, EVERYTHING looks different.
I’ll be sharing our new journey, as things progress, on RusticCountryMarket.com, because I love to journal, write, and create.
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
