Julie Rogers: 0:02

Hey, this is Julie. This episode re-release Carleton Island Past and Present Renovation of the Villa is the most recent one from my special series about Carleton Island, which, by the way, is directly across the river from my summer home. I'm going to continue with this special series, with new episodes along with my regular ones. I have noticed that the subject matter that goes with the history of this significant island seems to interest you. That's why I re-released them since I came back to New York. I will be interviewing Ron and Janaina soon to get an update on what's been happening behind the scenes of this monumental renovation and share what the plans are presently that will keep this heartfelt project moving forward. B ecause I can see the villa clearly from our deck, I can't help but feel a connection to it. To be able to witness the renovation in real time will be amazing to see. I don't know if you have noticed, but under each of my episodes there's a hyperlink under the show notes that reads hello, send me a text message, tell me what your thoughts are about this episode. I have this here with the hope that you will take a moment and let me know your thoughts about that particular episode. Just the other day I received a text. She's from Rochester, New York, and she wrote, " I just listened to the re-release Carleton Island Past and Present. I totally enjoyed listening to the history of this amazing island that is right across from our river house. I'm looking forward to listening to your other podcast episodes. I'm Carol, who met you while you were on a walk and I was digging around my lighthouse. Then she put a smiley face emoji. This was so cool to hear from her. I had just met her on one of my walks in my neighborhood and she was outside working on her cool lighthouse lawn ornament and we just started chatting. So I mentioned my podcast to her and told her I was re-releasing my special series. So, carol, if you are listening now, thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts. I still have my hyperlink for my email address, which is julierogers@ nearestanddearestpodcast. com, if you would like to share your own story, or maybe you have a good idea for a subject that I should talk about. Really, it's a way to let me hear from you. As always, you can share your name or be anonymous. I would love to share what you have to say on a future episode. There's also another hyperlink at the very end of my show notes and links. It's speakpipe. com backslash nearest and dearest podcast. If you click that, you can leave me a quick voice message. You will have 90 seconds and I can send you one back. I would be happy to share your recording on a future episode too, if you are okay with that. You might be thinking to yourself why should I take the time to reach out to you? It's simple. I value you and your opinion. I want to make sure the episodes I create are adding value for yourself. Without you, I wouldn't have a reason to even make this podcast. The ability to connect with you from wherever you are gives me the opportunity to share my life experiences, which, as you know, have been challenging but also so full of true gratitude. I appreciate you. You inspire me to keep Nearest and Dearest podcast going. One more thing before you listen to the re-release of Carleton Island, P past and Present. If you know anyone who enjoys history, please feel free to share this episode. Thanks. No one ever said life is easy, but I believe by giving yourself permission, you will find you have more control over your life than you realize. I'm Julie. I hope you will join me by taking responsibility for yourself, by only controlling the things you can and letting go of the things that you can't. By doing this, you will have discovered the secret to having happy, healthy and more fulfilling relationships. This is Nearest and Dearest Podcast. I'm Julie Rogers and you are listening to Season 2, episode 15, C arleton Island Past and Present Renovation of the Villa. This is my first ever interview. This episode is the third in my special series about Carleton Island. This huge undertaking is being done by Ron Clapp and Janaina Leite. A special thank you to my husband, Woody. Not only is he my life partner, but he is my captain and co-producer for my podcast. I couldn't do this without his unconditional love and support. Woody and I, along with our friends Ron and Janaina, took our boat Knot For Sail over to Carleton Island to get a personal tour of the Carleton Villa, once famously known as the Wyckoff Villa. This interview is recorded right here on this historic property. Never before has this been done. I'm excited to talk about this inspiring journey that they are undertaking. Welcome, R ron and Janaina.

Ron Clapp: 6:35

Thank you, thank you, thank you for having us.

Julie Rogers: 6:37

How did you come across the sale of the Wyckoff Villa Ron?

Ron Clapp: 6:43

Well, because I've been involved in real estate for quite some time, I get emails from realtorcom, just, and it was a seasonal one in regards to Halloween and it was basically own your own haunted house or something like that. And so not that I was looking for a haunted house, but I was just kind of checking out the different houses and I saw this one and it just caught my eye right off the bat, not only because of it was just kind of checking out the different houses and I saw this one and it just caught my eye right off the bat, not only because it was just cool structure, but then it was also on water and, being from Florida, you always want to be on water, so it's always great.

Julie Rogers: 7:17

Right. So have you ever been up here to the northeast of New York before?

Ron Clapp: 7:21

We had never been here at all. So I was born in Massachusetts, but basically I've been a Floridian since I was five years old.

Julie Rogers: 7:28

So wonderful, all right. Can you share about your experience? When you came here for the first time, Janaina was with you, right. How? How was that feeling Like what happened?

Ron Clapp: 7:43

It was actually. It was really a surreal situation, because there's a walkway that comes kind of through the woods and you can't see the villa as you're approaching the house and then all of a sudden, basically the woods end and then there it is, and the very first instant when I saw the house, there was actually a graffiti up in one of the upper windows and it actually had my name, Ron. That's crazy. And so I immediately stopped, um, and I just turned to Janaina and I says you're never going to believe this. And uh, basically pointed up to that top window and and uh, it was you know, because the house has that um, haunted kind of a story behind it. Yeah, but as a Christian, I got such a piece about the, the house it's, it was you know. Yes, it was very cool to see to, to see my name, but it was just more of a positive sign. That's why.

Julie Rogers: 8:46

I love that there always are signs. You just have to pay attention to them. Right? Yeah, absolutely Okay. What other projects have you done before that were challenging?

Ron Clapp: 8:58

Well, I've, so I've been involved in real estate for now 20, 22 years, so so, uh, I've had lots of renovations along the uh the process. Nothing to the scale, um, but I'll say I was bored in 2018 and, uh, and I went out to, uh. I had gone to Hawaii, uh, the year before and was just intrigued by this open, vast land that was, um, at the bottom of Kilauea. Basically, the whole area had gotten devastated with lava and it was just covered with black lava, with an ocean front and the Kilauea volcano in the back.

Janaina Leite: 9:35

It had a beautiness to it, for sure, wow.

Ron Clapp: 9:41

And so basically I said somebody's got to own this land. So I kind of began my research from there and actually I built in 2018, I built a cargo container duplex basically out of three 40-foot containers and it's all off-grid so it has a catchment tank for water and solar powered. But once you actually go inside the cargo container, you'd actually have no idea that you were in a fully dry wall. You know, fans in the window, fans in the ceilings and beautiful decor.

Julie Rogers: 10:16

Wow, that's lovely. So that's open. Is it like an Airbnb or VRBO?

Ron Clapp: 10:19

It's a vacation rental, so it's on Airbnb and VRBO.

Janaina Leite: 10:22

What's that site?

Ron Clapp: 10:24

Homeonthelava. com.

Julie Rogers: 10:26

Nice. I'm going to add that on my show notes so that my listeners, if they're interested, they can look at that. Absolutely Wonderful, all right, what's your goal for this renovation, and can you explain why it's a renovation and not a complete restoration? What's the difference?

Ron Clapp: 10:45

Well, that's a really good question, because the fact is that it is a renovation, but it is also a restoration in the fact that we want to keep as much of the integrity of the look and feel of the villa of its original, you know wonderful that we want to keep as much as possible, but we also want to add those, you know, modern things like electricity For sure, Flushing toilets.

Ron Clapp: 11:12

So this, you know, and we're going to.

Ron Clapp: 11:15

You know, yes, we're going to make it our own, but it's also it's going to be. You know, our goal for the property is to, uh, the original thought was to have it as a bed and breakfast, and then I realized that I had to feed the people that are here, because you can't just be hungry and go go down the corner to the street. So we have to have a restaurant to some, to some degree, and I figured that that was actually a great opportunity, because the boating community is so huge up here that there's going to want to be people that are just going to. You know, come here for the, for the restaurant. The other aspect of that, uh, or the uh, another bonus of being a restaurant, is the fact that not everyone is going to be able to or want to stay, uh, stay the night in the bed and breakfast, Um, and so the restaurant opens it up for more opportunity for people to to come and visit and experience the villa in what will be all it's, you know, grandeur.

Julie Rogers: 12:12

So, absolutely well, Woody, and I will be one of your first ones to do that. Just saying, so, you bought the property from Charles and William Miller, correct? They still have a home and property here as well, right, correct? Why do you think that they chose your offer to buy this villa?

Janaina Leite: 12:32

I think it was timing. I think a lot of it was also timing for them, right.

Ron Clapp: 12:37

Yeah, it had been for sale for a number of years. Yes, you know, frankly, I don't know why nobody else bought it years. Um, you know, frankly, I don't know why nobody else bought it. Um, you know, yes, it is a big endeavor, it's, and this is not for the faint of heart. Um, I just, I just know that I can do it, um, and it's just let's, let's go, let's, uh, let's move forward. Um, but I think that they, you know, they want to see it come back to life. You know, they actually grew up next door, right, their families have been. You know, they actually, their house was built in 1879. So it was actually so many generations.

Julie Rogers: 13:18

It was built before. Yeah, built before the villa.

Ron Clapp: 13:21

Right, so so I think that that was an important aspect too, but, um, you know, as far as why they accepted our offer, I think we got, we made, the biggest offer that you know and

Julie Rogers: 13:36

And they probably saw the timing and that you have that drive. They they could see that you were serious about undertaking this right, absolutely. How has the community here in Cape Vincent been supportive? Have they shown that to you?

Ron Clapp: 13:47

You know, coming from, you know not to downgrade Florida at all because I love Florida, but the community up here has been incredible, Absolutely incredible. There's that's great to hear, and it's not just because of the supporting of the villa, right, it's, it's. They've just been really great neighbors and that's you know. That extends to, to everywhere I mean we're. We're playing pickleball with people up here, and it's just you know, such a welcoming environment here.

Janaina Leite: 14:17

And just everyone goes over and above to help everyone else.

Julie Rogers: 14:21

It's a tight knit community for sure.

Janaina Leite: 14:23

Yeah, and they're so excited, uh, about what we're doing and they're just it's been wonderful yeah.

Ron Clapp: 14:30

Everybody has seen the villa. You know if, if they're from here, they've seen the villa over the years. Um, and a lot of you know and we've we see the feedback on on Facebook and Instagram uh of you know that they're sad about the decline. Um, and, yes, I wish that there was somebody that came before me that you know had stopped the deterioration, but unfortunately there wasn't. But they're just so grateful that the deterioration is going to stop.

Julie Rogers: 14:58

Yeah, and Woody and I, you know, when we saw that it was sold, and then reading more about you guys and following you on Facebook and seeing your determination and all of that was just so refreshing because we never thought that somebody was going to first buy the property and then try to save the villa, which is a whole nother thing to take on.

Janaina Leite: 15:19

So because it's one thing to buy the property just to own it and to have it, yes. It's another thing to actually restore it, slash, renovate it.

Julie Rogers: 15:27

Exactly, which is so great, because you can do both. Right, there's no rules about that, so awesome, all right, you guys are not afraid to get dirty. Last fall, you began cleaning up the basement right below where we're sitting right now, and when I saw that, that spoke volumes about your tenacity, your willpower and the vision that you both have to make this renovation possible. You are true visionaries to me. Thank you. What keeps motivating you?

Ron Clapp: 15:59

Well, it's not done yet. So that's the major contributing factor. I got finished. You know, in in Florida I have year round, you know, perfect weather work, um, and so this is definitely an interesting different animal in the fact that I can only really work from May to maybe October. You know, end of October, um, on things. So, uh, you know that makes it an extended schedule all by itself, not counting that it's going to take time to do this. Um, you know, I would love to have this done in three years. You know is going to take five years, baby, I don't want it to take any longer than that. I want it. I want it up and running and being able to be in three years.

Ron Clapp: 16:47

I think that's great. I think all of the things that we're doing right now, um, you know, a lot of people are seeing it and saying, well, I don't see any change yet. Well unfortunately that takes a lot of planning to get to that point. Um and I I've really hoped to be, you know, swinging hammers next, next year.

Julie Rogers: 17:09

And to only have six or seven months to get to do things you know is definitely a problem. It's half the time, like your project's in Florida, right Because of the, or even Hawaii, right Because of the weather, for sure, correct, which leads me to this next question. So we know the process is a huge undertaking. You've done 3D drone scanning, a full property landscape survey, diving into the river to survey the bottoms of North and South bays. So tell us about those happenings and why it takes all of that to even get you started on this blueprint.

Ron Clapp: 17:37

Well, because of the original. I would have loved to have had the original drawings of the home of the villa, but from what we understand they were burned in a fire somewhere along the way. We don't know if that happened at Cornell or if that happened, because basically the original architect was basically the first architect of Cornell, and so he did a number of properties.

Julie Rogers: 18:03

That was William Miller, right, William Miller

Ron Clapp: 18:07

Yeah, yep, um, and actually one of his uh descendants has reached out to me. Yes, oh, how wonderful on social media and basically he was, he was excited to to see it and he's like our family had forgotten about this one kind of thing, because he's done a lot of oh, sure, sure, um, so it's was cool to have to cool to have that Um and we've had a lot of the Wyckoff's reach out to us too. Yes, yes, I've been able to uh. I'm an. I'm an honorary member of the Wyckoff association on uh on Facebook.

Julie Rogers: 18:38

Yes.

Ron Clapp: 18:38

And uh, so I've been able to, you know, share the process with them as well.

Julie Rogers: 18:41

That's great to have all that support from all, all across the board. So you've talked about your Facebook page and you have Instagram, which has allowed viewers a chance to see what you guys have been doing, and I think it's great that you're sharing that process firsthand because it gets people excited. They want to see the progress. Um, do you think you're also reaching a broader audience besides the Thousand Islands?

Ron Clapp: 19:05

Absolutely, and actually we've had people that have reached out to us from Australia, from Texas, from, you know, all over the United States, that basically have said, hey, we're following the process and the other thing, that and why. You know, I was not on social media prior to owning the villa. I was proud to say that I never went on Facebook and I had a page but I never did anything with it. It was nothing Right. But because of the significance of the villa, the what we've discovered about the community wanting to know about it, share the things, but what it's also, you know, kind of my tagline for the Carleton Villa is giving history a new life, and I want other people to realize that they can do this process. You know they don't need to go to this scale to this grand.

Ron Clapp: 19:58

But they can say let's take that step, let's renovate that house, and you know.

Janaina Leite: 20:03

Yeah let's preserve it. Let's just take actions and steps forward to to.

Ron Clapp: 20:11

it is yeah, and all of my renovations that I've done, um, you know, I've never had to do a 3D uh scanning. You know, with a drone flying around the property I never had to do the. You know the special cameras that we had go inside to create the um, you know the floor plans and that kind of stuff. But basically that's what. Why we did those 3D scans and the special photography was because we needed to create and that's the great part about technology, which again is great timing for the renovation of this property because, otherwise people would have had to be painstakingly measuring everything to create new floor plans.

Ron Clapp: 20:48

But because of technology, these days, with a drone flight, it's just phenomenal.

Julie Rogers: 20:52

It is amazing to see all that technology and how that can make that happen.

Ron Clapp: 20:57

It's really down to an eighth or a quarter of an inch accuracy which is just incredible.

Julie Rogers: 21:02

It's mind blowing, isn't it?

Ron Clapp: 21:04

So and then, even with we just recently had, like you said, the we did a topographic survey and a bathymetric survey for the bays um, that we use the LIDAR that was on a drone flying over the property and and giving us the you know that topographic, the topography of the land, and again, never did that before, but I'm sharing it online, so people can understand it and see the process and that is can be done.

Julie Rogers: 21:36

It can be done. That's wonderful. Okay, you guys camped in a tent overnight recently right here. I mean not inside, but outside I wanted to do it inside.

Julie Rogers: 21:51

I understand, girl, I totally get it, and you had some friends that came along as well. It's a two-part question First, was it spooky? And second, what else did you discover while you guys were here for that Almost a day and a half, basically?

Ron Clapp: 22:06

Actually, we spent two nights here. Two nights, okay, perfect. So it was really two and a half days that we're here. Basically, we camped out on the side yard, you know, because of the story about, you know, the villa that basically the the original owner, uh, William, uh, Wyckoff you know, he basically sadly, he, his wife, died the month before it was complete. Yes, and he died um after the first night staying here.

Julie Rogers: 22:33

It's such a tragedy, such a tragedy.

Ron Clapp: 22:35

So we took the opportunity that you know we needed to, to confirm that we were going to make it after.

Julie Rogers: 22:40

That's why I'm like was it spooky at all? Because you know all that history right.

Ron Clapp: 22:47

I wasn't worried.

Janaina Leite: 22:49

I wasn't worried, I didn't feel like it was spooky. I felt, I felt like it was actually beautiful. You can see from the tent, you can see the top of the villa, the silhouette, oh yeah and uh. You know, I didn't see any eyes looking back at us no negative vibes or anything like that.

Ron Clapp: 23:08

Like you said, we had some friends out that that came out.

Ron Clapp: 23:12

Uh, you know, one of the day, one of the nights, and uh, we, you know, set up a little fire and and just just had a good time. I just ate, had had some dinner, you know, cooked on there.

Janaina Leite: 23:21

Anything, it was extremely serene and it was really beautiful and peaceful. And then, uh, you love it. It was really great.

Ron Clapp: 23:29

And we've got some really cool night shots. You did.

Julie Rogers: 23:31

Those stars were just magnificent.

Ron Clapp: 23:34

Cause you're you're far enough away from you know not, that Cape Vincent has a lot of light pollution. Right, you definitely don't have any light pollution out here on the island.

Julie Rogers: 23:44

No, you're even more removed from it because of the water surrounding it. To have that clear view. I mean, it's just, they were beautiful, it was beautiful.

Ron Clapp: 23:51

It was great.

Julie Rogers: 23:52

Awesome.

Janaina Leite: 23:54

Did you discover anything new?

Julie Rogers: 23:55

Oh yeah, yeah, what did you discover?

Ron Clapp: 23:58

One of the other days we had the tree survey being done. Yes, and he actually, matthew from Ramshorn Surveying. He basically came out with his family and so he and his wife worked together in regards to doing the tree hugging and measuring the trees. Basically, we were surveying trees that were 12 inches or greater, sure, but his kids, they were actually down by the water in the North Bay and um and the beach just enjoying it, which was great for me because of the fact that, you know, just having seeing families, you know happy, and just kind of just the kids having a good time all on their own, without you know, without any issue and uh, so that was great. But they also we didn't know it, but they were, they were being little treasure hunters and they, they found a whole bag of, you know well, they created a bag of just different pieces of pottery and different pieces of stonework that they just found, uh, found on the. They took it upon themselves to do that.

Janaina Leite: 24:58

Wow, I love. Wow, they sure did I love that.

Julie Rogers: 25:01

So it was cool, the little ingenuity there. Yep, yeah, absolutely. And North Bay is special to Woody and I and our friends and a lot of the locals here. We will take, you know, not for sale in some of our other friends' boats, and we will go and hang out for a couple of hours and picnic on the boat and listen to a little music, to little music. And it's a special bay, right, you know. It has that really serene vibe to it, absolutely.

Janaina Leite: 25:29

And what I loved, what I discovered personally during that trip out here, is that there are a lot of berries and grapes all over the place.

Julie Rogers: 25:33

I love that. Yes, the natural fruits. And it's still here growing, Sure, all on its own. Nature has a way of doing that. It will always find a way to still survive so. But the villa needs help. So that's what you guys are doing so.

Ron Clapp: 25:48

That's great it does.

Julie Rogers: 25:53

that's true, but you can still see that vision of knowing that. That's why you guys are such visionaries. So here's my last question what is the biggest challenge at this moment that you're dealing with? You know it's kind of a tough question. There's no right or wrong, because I'm sure there's a lot of them but like what really keeps you awake at night?

Ron Clapp: 26:17

Nothing keeps me up at night, because I really have, um, you know, my faith has brought me here and so my faith will bring me all the way. So that's, I really have a great piece about it. You know, um, you know I do my morning devotionals, uh, in in the morning over at East end park, um, while we're up here and and I just look over here, and it's his plan. So it may be a slower schedule than what I'd ideally like to have, but it's God's timing, not mine, and I'm going to try to help facilitate that timing as much as possible, but that's what it is. I have a great piece about the property and I, and so many things over this time period have, you know, I'll say, green-lighted this, this whole process, and just shown that it's that this is where we're, what we're supposed to be doing. So, so, really, you know, will there be stresses down the line? Yes, um, but is it, is it over consuming me? No, not right now.

Julie Rogers: 27:27

That's wonderful to hear, because you don't. You don't want to be stressed about. You know it's going to be an undertaking. You're you're saying three years, but maybe it'll be five years, but it doesn't matter. Every day you're, you're working on something, even if you can't see it, you're working on behind the scenes, and that's what's important. That's what you got to do every day. Keep moving forward and, before you know it, you know those three years will pass and you, or even a year from now, and you'll say wow, look at what we've accomplished. Even you guys coming back this spring and summer and seeing the work you did last fall Right, right, like you know, you did that.

Ron Clapp: 28:07

And it was instrumental and it was really important that we did last year, you know again, we had never done 3D scanning before. So I wanted to try to clean up as much as possible, because I didn't know what the cameras were going to pick up Exactly. And and we, just we just did it. You know, we had tried to, you know, get a few contractors out there um to do some cleanup process. Couldn't line them up.

Janaina Leite: 28:22

Right? Um, so you know what we will do it. We'll do it ourselves.

Ron Clapp: 28:26

I mean, we're here to, we're here for this project, yes, so that's. You know, that's what I'm here for. If I, if you know, I'm not big on swinging hammers in regards to the, the, the work, but if that's what it's going to take to get certain things done, then so be it. This is what we're doing, but we're actively working on it. We're hopefully having a kind of a land ramp for barges to be able to come in in the coming days. So there's things that are moving forward to get us ready for next spring, so we can do some things.

Julie Rogers: 28:59

That's wonderful and I'm a believer of any project. Even if it's your own home that you're going to live in and it's an older home, you have to go in and do the work, like you have to start with a foundation of, like whatever needs to be cleaned up or whatever. So the house knows, or this beautiful villa knows, that you guys are in it for the long haul and that's the connection. I think that you guys have. One more thing. I guess cause this is reminding me when you showed us around the property when you guys came that first day and you looked up can you tell my audience what you saw when you looked up, when you, when you, when you first walked that path and you looked up first saw the villa.

Ron Clapp: 29:38

Yes, oh, I saw my name spray painted in the upper window. Yes, it was definitely a very surreal situation, but again, it was just a sign that we were doing the right thing.

Janaina Leite: 29:49

We'd like to know who the Ron from 82 is.

Ron Clapp: 29:53

There's an 82 in the middle of the O of the Ron.

Julie Rogers: 29:56

We need to put that out there, maybe on your Facebook and Instagram. Say listen, anybody remember 1982 Ron doing that? And you'll be surprised. Now with social media, you might be able to, and that's kind of cool.

Ron Clapp: 30:08

Yeah, we have discovered that because everybody's. There's a lot of pictures of the inside with the graffiti and there's a Pablo was here over the staircase. We have confirmation.

Janaina Leite: 30:20

We have confirmation.

Ron Clapp: 30:20

We have confirmation that there was no Pablo. His name wasn't Pablo. They just had white paint and they painted it on the wall.

Janaina Leite: 30:29

We found the culprit and his name was not Pablo.

Julie Rogers: 30:33

Just being funny. They were just being funny.

Janaina Leite: 30:38

But just the fact that, with it being abandoned for so long, you know, the inside was covered in graffiti. So for the for that to be the first, first seriously piece of graffiti that we saw, that was actually just perfectly written. It didn't really even come across as graffiti, no, and it was on the outside. It's projected from the outside.

Julie Rogers: 31:02

And it's bold. Like those letters are bold Right.

Janaina Leite: 31:05

I mean just say, Ron, I didn't be within the first 10 seconds of seeing the villain in person. That was just overwhelmingly amazing.

Julie Rogers: 31:16

I can imagine. I can imagine. Well, is there anything else that either one of you would like to share with my listeners? How about this? Is there anything like if people want to help out, or are you doing any kind of fundraising or anything like that that you're thinking about in the future?

Ron Clapp: 31:34

I'll let her start if she wanted to say something.

Janaina Leite: 31:37

Well, I wanted to thank everybody. I wanted to thank the Millers, I wanted to thank all of the people that live here on the island, the Kernans, the Kernans you know all of the people that live on this island, everyone in Cape Vincent, for your support and for your kindness, and that really goes a really long way, and that really goes a really long way. Being from Florida, the last thing that we wanted to do was come in and disrupt a town that is so tight-knit and so beautiful. That's the last thing we wanted to do, and so that, to me, is just. I'm so grateful for that and I wanted to thank them, thank everyone,

Julie Rogers: 32:26

Well, we can feel that, we sense that and we thank you guys too, because you know, timing is everything and for you guys to come in and keep doing some more things to make our little community even better for our locals and for tourists coming in, and we're a special little town and you guys are fitting in perfectly. So we thank you for coming in and believing in us.

Ron Clapp: 32:47

Thank you. Yeah, you mentioned in regards to you know what's what's coming up and what's you know is there fundraising aspects? Yes, there, there is certainly a component to this of the fundraising. You know, and just because of the, I want to be, as, in tech, have as much integrity in regards to the process that this is why some of the planning stages of what we've been doing to show that this is really you know, there was, there was actually GoFundMe pages created way before when, when they were trying to just buy the, to buy the property.

Julie Rogers: 33:22

Oh really, and they never knew that. Okay.

Ron Clapp: 33:24

Where that money went, I have no idea, but I didn't want to do fundraising too early on because I wanted to basically be able to demonstrate and show that this is actually really going to happen and you're committed.

Ron Clapp: 33:37

And that's been a great part about people that have reached out already to volunteer their time. Unfortunately, it's almost tough to have volunteers here on the property, just for safety's sake. Oh absolutely. But there's definitely going to be that component for volunteering. We want to involve the community with this project.

Janaina Leite: 33:57

And so many people want to help so many people have offered their help from all over the place.

Ron Clapp: 34:06

So we're working on some things to um, uh, to, to help, uh, help. Start to raise some funds. You know whether it be you know, we've had some t-shirts made and people are like oh well, can I, can I buy one of those t-shirts? I hadn't made them yet, but I'm going to. Uh, we actually just just finalized a new logo, um, for the Carleton Villa.

Janaina Leite: 34:30

So that's been one of. That's actually that when you'd mentioned, has there been a challenge? Ironically enough, that's the only one that I found to be a little tough is finding the right logo that represents what this beautiful, beautiful structure.

Julie Rogers: 34:47

Cause that's branding and you want that cause, that'll be it, and they'll always t-shirt, bumper stickers, whatever right? So it is a big to do to make that decision.

Ron Clapp: 34:56

But there's going to be, you know, I want to say that in the, in the back of my mind, for all the different ideas and that kind of stuff. I think there's going to be opportunities for, um, you know, uh, we'll say a major donor to be able to name a room. You know that's uh within the villa, so that's it's really there, it's there, it's there.

Janaina Leite: 35:15

People will love that.

Ron Clapp: 35:16

So I think that there's different you know, we can certainly do the bricks and that kind of stuff that we can have. You know, people put their, their names on it and those are. Those are the things that you know we're we're going to do. But, um, you know, there's an opportunity, there's potential that we're going to try to build some cabins, uh, and that will be able to allow people, while we're in construction, to be able to actually experience the property. There's a great big wooded area that's behind our property that we do own, and so that's in the works as well, that we're trying to figure out. If we can do it. That's fantastic, but it's the way that somebody is going to be able to say, okay, let me give. Let me give to the Carleton Villa, because I know that it's going to the restoration, but I got, I also get a night stay.

Janaina Leite: 36:06

It's a bonus, right, yeah, we want to make because of those other Go funding pages and stuff like that. We might just make sure we're clear with everyone.

Julie Rogers: 36:15

Absolutely. Cause is it nine,

Ron Clapp: 36:21

6.9, 6.9 acres and basically we back up right up to um Fort Haldimand. There's also that tie in too in the fact that people are going to. You know not that there's much up there as far as you know the fort structure and everything, but you'll be able to experience the uh, the height of, you know of what the fort was overlooking. You've got incredible views up there. Yes, there are still some remnants of the chimneys that are up there yeah. But you can see some of the shape of the fort and that kind of stuff.

Julie Rogers: 36:49

Absolutely. Well, for the history buffs and there are a lot out there, and Woody and I are definitely history buffs I mean for Fort Haldimand to be your neighbor and to make that more accessible. You know, I'm sure that that could be done in the future. What a great opportunity.

Ron Clapp: 37:01

And from what we understand, there are artifacts from from the fort that are in museums that are not anywhere remotely close to here, and so you know if we can bring some of those items back to the villa for display. Oh yeah, I think that just helps to tie it all together, you know the museums um. You know, at Cape Vincent museum um has a great little display for the Carleton Villa in there but they've got lots,

Ron Clapp: 37:30

there's a lot more to Cape Vincent as far as the history. Absolutely, it just allows more people to get involved in in the history. And so, yes, there's, there's lots of opportunities that are going to be coming.

Julie Rogers: 37:49

Wonderful. Well, I can't thank you both enough for letting me interview you here. I mean, it makes me feel like I don't know, it's a surreal moment. I'm still like in shock about it. So I thank you for allowing that today and we're just looking forward to all the progress that keeps happening and we support you guys so much

Janaina Leite: 38:16

And the only thing I was going to say is to look out at night towards the villa and island. It's a little secret to look out, during the winter, I guess, and starting in October.

Julie Rogers: 38:24

Yes, it's a surprise, awesome, awesome. And one more thing I guess you want to see a little bit of snow maybe before you go back to Florida. Right, I'm staying until we see snow. It could happen in October, probably not, but it could you never say never when it comes to the North

Ron Clapp: 38:45

I've been consistently telling her she only needs to see it one night. This is already, you know, considerably colder than what you're used to.

Julie Rogers: 38:55

Exactly, exactly, all right, t Thanks again, guys. You're welcome. Thank you. Be sure to check out my show notes and links on my website, Nearest And Dearest Podcast, or from wherever you listen to my podcast. There you will find hyperlinks for more information about this episode. Thank you for listening. The views and opinions expressed by Nearest And Dearest Podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nearest And Dearest Podcast. Any content provided by Julie Rogers or any other authors are of their opinion. They are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything. Thank you you.