Dumpster Arrives
Tuesday, August 6th, 2024 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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65F and overcast tonight. It was a gloriously cool and cloudy day today, with a nice breeze!
When I drove by the house on the way to work, there was still no dumpster, but I could see they'd emptied the basement of all my scrap plywood, and scrap lumber, because it was all sitting on the front lawn, near the livingroom.
More furniture and garbage bags were piled by the porch, and nothing was left on the parking.
On the way home tonight, the giant blue dumpster was finally there in the driveway, and all the furniture and garbage were gone... either inside the dumpster, or taken by randos.
The upstairs was dark, and it looked like there was a work light in the living room, but something was partially blocking the windows from in the livingroom... possibly drywall.
I'm assuming they'll start tearing out the plaster & lath tomorrow... and getting up the shitty floor tiles and linoleum.
I'm sure they'll be replacing all the windows at some point, and they kinda have to do the roof, but I'm wondering if they'll redo the siding!
On the one hand, it's sad and slightly disturbing to see that these strangers are in my house, throwing away all my shit, and fucking with everything.
But on the other hand... over the ten years I lived there most recently, I saw almost every other house in that neighborhood get a new roof, and new siding.
Many already had newer windows installed even before that, and... in general they've all been getting a lot of love, while Dad's house just sat there falling apart.
I mean, I did what I could for her, but... it is good to know she's finally getting the full, professional renovation she deserves!
That house has been continuously occupied since it's construction in 1875, and the additions in 1886.
Every generation has done what they could to modify and modernize the place, but there's only so much you can do when it's occupied... and when you're on a tight budget.
So it inevitably turned into a frankenstein of different features from different eras, with a ton of wear and tear... and a lot of features falling waaay behind the times... like the 100 year old knob & tube electrical system.
And in the last... Dad & Mom wound up just hangin' out in there, in their old age, for a good 10 years, before I moved back... just kinda neglecting the place, because it was too much for them to keep up with anymore.
And when I did move back... those 10 years of neglect were an overwhelming challenge to reverse!
I took me five years just to stabilize the place, and clean up the back yard!
But it's also worth pointing out that for nearly my entire life, the popular opinion about that house has been that it needed to be bulldozed!
Dad, obviously didn't feel that way, but he was presumed to be biased... because he lived there for 88 years, and owned it for 65!
I could've moved back there as early as 2011... before the HELOC... and worked it out with both Mom & DAd, to buy the place from them.
But I didn't want to, because I thought it was a pile of garbage.
It was only after I moved back in 2014, that I slowly began to figure out she might be worth saving.
But I stupidly hoped that Dad would live long enough to pay off the mortgage himself, and I'd be able to inherit it as a freehold, and renovate it myself, out of pocket, with my hospital money!
I'll never forget Matt, at the hospital, telling me in 2018, Pat!.. drywall is cheep!.. lumber is cheep!.. plywood, electrical wire, all that stuff is cheep! So you just do the work yourself, one room at a time, and you'll get that whole place looking great in five years!
That was when we thought we'd both be working there until we retired... and before Covid triggered runaway inflation of everything... especially building materials!
It was also right before Dad started having all kinds of health issues.
And of course... way before I knew about the HELOC!
That whole plan from 2018 couldn't have been wronger!
And in the midst of the foreclosure crisis, when that putz, Tony, sent by King, did his eyeball assessment and said the place should be bulldozed... On one level I felt offended on behalf of the house, like, How dare you talk about her like this, as you stand inside her!
But when that sale fell through, and it looked like she was worthless, I started to feel like maybe he was right!
Because I needed some reason to justify losing her! So I worked up this frenzied theory that the south wing was falling off the main structure, and the whole place was gonna collapse as a result!
I was ready to hand over the deed to BMO, at one point... just to get out before it fell down!
Those third-party inspectors... paid for by Mr. Taylor... were the first professional inspectors in at least 50 years, to give her a thorough exam!
And it's because of them, and him, that she's finally getting the renovation she deserves!
This is HER time!
And I guess the question for me is... am I worthy of getting her back?
Or, does she want nothing further to do with me?
If we're personifying the house, then it all depends on what she feels about everything that's happened, these past 149 years.
And specifically what she feels about the past 65, when Dad & Mom were at the helm.
Because I know Mom never had anything but resentment for that place.
I feel as though the house tolerated Barb, just as much as Barb tolerated the house.
But was there some kind of mutual feeling, shared by them both... of having become prisoners in some wise, to Mike!
Did the house love Dad as much as he loved her?
Or did she come to feel he was holding her back, and keeping her down, out of a selfish, and childish desire, for things never to change?
And did she grow weary of his nearly eternal stay!... eighty eight years!.. well MORE than HALF her life!
If all of that was the case, then she might have seen me as a breath of fresh air!
But I also have a fairly long history of insulting the house, and cracking jokes at her expense.
"Nothing I can do to this place could make it worse!" Kind of stuff.
And, ya know... that crazy counterweight hatch door?.. maybe just made her eyes roll like, Am I EVER gonna get somebody who takes me SERIOUSLY?
I did love her, of course.
And I came to respect her dignity more, over time.
I wrote a book about her history!
I did fight like hell, in the end, to liberate her from all the cursed baggage that had accumulated in her rooms, over her life... while rescuing all the heirlooms and artifacts that she may have prized... like John Henry's saurkraut crock.
And in the last... I did save her from auction, by selling her to a competent flipper, and I set her free.
I guess I set Prowly free too... right?
And Prowly ended up being the last Melody to occupy the house, by himself, for an entire month!
Both of them free to enjoy each other's company without any annoying humans around!
And I'm quite sure their love for one another is mutual!
So the next question is... was Prowly always attacking me because the house was telling him, I want this loser out of here!
Or was he just trying to show me what a warrior he is... in his defense of the house and property he came to love... by picking up on how much I loved it, when he was a kitten?
And has the house been telling him, Everybody has to vacate, so I can get my renovation... but I want him back, and you're his familiar, so I need you to stick close, so that he does return!
And here I am now, driving past the place twice a day.
And there Prowly is, blending into the scenery by day... lurking in the shadows by night... keeping an eye on everything.
And we're both just... scavenging for food, and hunkering down in shitty digs... on-mission!.. and waiting it out!
If I've learned anything from the insanity of the past few years... it's that crazy shit, both bad and good, can just pop up out of nowhere to change the whole story for the better or worse, without warning, at any moment!
And the only way to get any control over that is to try and work with the cosmos!
Like, yes... you should also try to work with the world, and plan as best you can, and put in the effort on that front.
But that worldly front alone... is SOO compromised right now, by incompetent professionals, computer glitches, economic instability, societal unrest, and political instability... that you really CANNOT create a working plan on it alone, anymore!
And you also can't just cross your fingers and hope God carries you through it!... the old, Jesus, take the wheel! mentality!
You have to partner up with the cosmos and work with it!
If anything, it should be you at the wheel, with Jesus doing the GPS, like, in 1000 feet, take a left!
You have to drive, but you can't count on people in the world anymore to help you navigate, because all the conventional wisdom is out-dated, all the professionals are clueless hacks, and all the clerical workers are underpaid drug addicts!
You have to partner with animals, and semi-conscious old buildings, and nature, and benevolent spirits, and get in touch with your gut and your higher consciousness... while battling your own ignorance and bias... to have any hope of negotiating a pathway!
Okay, that's about it for tonight.
I guess, just picture me and Prowly on-mission... radio silence... both keeping a close eye on that house as she undergoes her 150 year transformation, in the capable hands of a team of technicians.
I think she wants us both back, when it's all done.
But as always, we'll have to see how it plays out.
°¦}
