Community Spotlight: Lawrene0

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I am not sure about you, but the Community Spotlight is one of the hightlights of the month for me here in the Community Center and this month is no exception. As a quick recap for those of you who are new here, Community Spotlight is where we ask a member of our community a few questions and get to know them a little better. 🙂

Introducing our community member in the spotlight this month...

@Lawrene0

Florence, Canada

How long have you been hosting for and why did you first start?

I have been hosting since 2012. It started with being a guest when our daughter married a nice American and we needed a place to stay in Brooklyn, NY, for the wedding. My husband and I booked one room of an apartment, and the groom's parents, whom we had not met at that point, booked the other. It must have been a nail-biter for the host! But all was lovely, and when I got home and was five-star reviewing, a pop-up told me I would get a discount retroactively on my first stay -- those were the days! -- if I became a host. Did I have a room? A couch? A treehouse? Why, yes, I did have a treehouse.

Tell us a little about your listing.

We live on 64 acres of woods, fields and river, and 10 years ago we decided a treehouse would be a better way to enjoy the river part of it. It was not that we were enchanted with treehouses. It is just that the river floods periodically, and so whatever we built had to be small, to comply with township rules, and high. When I listed it after returning from Brooklyn, I thought -- and I assured my husband, who was not sold on the idea -- that no one would come here. We are hours away from cities, this is not a tourist area at all, the treehouse has no electricity or plumbing, and you need to carry your stuff a kilometre on a footpath through the woods. What we didn't count on was the fact that there are lots of people like us: hikers/canoeists who look for time off the grid, who understand how to function sustainably there, who enjoy being self-sufficient. Our best guests are no-trace campers who leave the place as they found it, who use the firewood frugally, who respect the wildlife, and who don't mind what the weather throws at them. Also who like waffles, since that is usually the breakfast I make for them at the main house.

How long have you been part of the Community Center and why did you join?

My profile section says July 2016. I had likely looked at the Community Centre before then, but I tend to be the worst sort of forum user: getting the information I need, but not contributing. But while looking for something else, I saw a question that needed answering and I knew the answer. It must have been on how to find something on the site, because I was pretty solid in that. It got a little addictive, and apologies for answering human-relations questions, because I am definitely not solid in that. I do try to put the brakes on the opinion-only stuff.

What is your favourite thing about the CC and if you could make it better what one thing would you improve?

My favourite thing about the CC is the great degree of respect and empathy the posters have for each other as a general rule. It might be because good hosting and good "guesting" require this, so it is the nature of the posters to be that way. Some of the thoughtful and kind answers people give each other melt my heart. If I could make it better I would improve the search function. I do think it is getting better, but I would like it to be precise and perfect, please.

If you got given $1,000 to spend on your listing, what would you do with it?

Perhaps a custom mattress? Right now the odd-size sleeping platform is softened with easy-to-wash blankets and thick quilts, and guests bring their own sleeping bags. I have been thinking hard about the new mandatory bed linen amenity and picturing how muddy a mattress and sheets would get. We'll see.

What would you ideal weekend away be and why?

Our ideal weekend away is a hiking or canoeing trip, either alone or with our good friends who like the same sorts of discomfort :). Always off the grid. Thanks be to the Snooze button! If it is an ideal weekend involving an Airbnb, it would be a road trip to visit family.

Are you more of a book or film kind-of-person? (Perhaps both)

I read books all the time, both as hard copies and as audiobooks in the car and while cleaning the treehouse. Peter Carey, Michael Frayn, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Robertson Davies, Graham Greene, John Le Carré, Elie Wiesel, Paulette Jiles are in a current stack. We have terrible internet out here in the sticks, so although my day job involves acting in films, I seldom see any unless I am in Toronto for work.

If you were hosting a Community Center dinner party, what would be on your menu? 🙂

I am a gardener, so you lot would get a vegetable stew. I suppose it should be cooked over a campfire, so it will be a bit smoky.

Tell us one fun fact about you.

Twenty years ago, Harry and I and our daughters were lighthouse keepers for a season on an island off the coast of Maine, USA. It was the best job ever!

A huge thank you to Lawrene for taking the time to share a little bit more about yourself, it is a fascinating read. 

Please do feel free to response to Lawrene with any questions about the above or share any nice comments, I am sure she would love to hear from you. 

Enjoy,

Lizzie

[Lawrene0]

Our place was bartered and recycled as well, @Βασίλης-and-Ann0. The cable for the suspension bridge was traded for some leftover planks, for instance. It's fun! Hope all goes well. 

Also, wow, what a view you have!

[Βασίλης-and-Ann0]

Thanks @Lawrene0 for your kind wishes & good luck with future hosting.

What else did you barter/recycle? Did you design it yourselves?

A builder pal has donated all his offcuts of parian marble for our floors. The same stuff  built the Acropolis in Athens, other monuments & many famous statues in ancient Greece, like the Venus de Milo, so they say. The ancient quarry on Paros is now an archaeological site but our marble comes from a working quarry nearby & is not so white, more of a beigy-whitey mottled colour but exciting to touch and look at, nontheless.

[Lawrene0]

@Βασίλης-and-Ann0, parian marble offcuts outclass the only-slightly-dented eavestrough, coversheets, and chimney liners we scored here. Completely. 🙂

Sounds amazing!

[Karen-and-Brian0]

It's great to see @Lawrene0 featured here! One of my favourite contributors to this forum. Well done, Lawrene. 🙂

[Miloud0]

Salute, 

Thank you @Lawrene0 for your interesting experience. You have a so beautiful listing. 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Rubén16]

@Lawrene0 @Lizzie   It was a joy reading the spotlight on Lawrence, I enjoyed the question, (Tell us a little about your listing)  and her comment that "my husband, who was not sold on the idea -- that no one would come here"   However with airbnb if you build it they will and want come:)

[Lizzie]

Aw @Rubén16 and @Miloud0, it's great to see you have been looking back at some of the previous Community Spotlights. I'm thinking of making a dedicated post to collect them all. 🙂 

[Susan1028]

Please do

[Miloud0]

Salute, 

If it is possible for you @Lizzie, it is a good idea. As the collection of "Month of Celebration" 2017 and 2018, it was better when one could find them collected. 

Thanks, 

Miloud