Many many years ago, my honey and I purchased a home. We had been living in an apartment for the first while, and our son informed us "all kids need trees and grass". Although we were financially stretched to the max, the parental guilt kicked in, we needed to find a home with trees and grass, or decades later, we would be hearing from our grown children how we scarred them for life, living in an apartment.
Broke people do not have a whole whack to chose from, but, "lucky" for us, blocks down the road there was a lovely yard, with a cedar sided hovel for sale. Somehow we managed to purchase this hovel. The yard was huge, it had grass (about 2 foot high) and trees, especially an extremely old apple tree made for climbing kids.The hovel, however. left plenty to be desired. One bedroom had been used to store the firewood, the first evening in there, a hunk of that wood rolled all the way down the floor to rest against a window. Things were definitely slanted.
We have been fixing this money pit for decades, and it still has a long ways to go. We tried to sell it when we moved away, but, for all the time,effort and money we had dished out, in these economic times, we would have suffered an unbearable loss, so...instead for the past 9 years, we have simply been keeping it. I lived with all kinds of problems. The first winter, I would wake to find an ice build up in the bathtub, because the taps leaked, and the house was so damn cold, it would freeze when it hit the tub. Walls had to be replaced, because of serious dry rot, windows replaced, because they had swelled and shrunk over years, so badly, they would not open. Shag carpet was ripped out and plywood replaced, as wear and tear had destroyed stuff, plywood had rotted because of moisture. Panel walls were torn out, and insulation replaced (some spots had been insulated in newspaper) all walls were torn out and new drywall put up. The bathroom, well, again, some spots had rags as insulation, that had to be completely redone.
It took a very long time before decades of smells had disappeared, and what we sniffed was simply our own odors. Stuff that had been acceptable in 1960, but since deemed unsafe, was removed. Still the hovel needs more TLC, and with an old place that is a continuing issue.
Why am I writing about this? Well, the place I work is likely as old as my hovel. The difference is, little has changed since the 60's. The carpet is original in many rooms, the bathtubs, toilets, panel walls, and plywood are still in place. The windows and doors are the same. Oh, it certainly holds a whack of history, but it holds plenty of other crap as well.
It, like my hovel is slanted! I get vertigo in some rooms when I kneel to clean out a tub. After years of working here, myself and my co-workers suffer a similar ache. It is situated on one side, and causes us to have a lop sided gait. We used to think it was from carrying heavy vacuums, but....I have come up with a new theory, it is the constant slant we walk miles on. When we place shampoo and lotion on the back of the toilet lid, they will fall off...closets have large spaces between them and the walls, as far as the walls go, there are simply no straight lines there. Everything is lop sided. One room was so bad, something had to be placed under the bed frame wheel to keep it from rolling. The slant is becoming more pronounced, I have learned to walk close to the downside wall, because it is like being at sea. I have made a silent vow, never to go into work hungover, because at least sober, I know the place is not moving...........right?????
No comments:
Post a Comment