Moving Day?!

“Would you like to keep the wire for the chicken coop?” Imagine being asked such a question upon purchase of your first home. I was delighted! I got a good giggle out of that question. “No,” I replied. Barbara, the real estate agent told me the homeowner has someone in mind whom also has chickens and can use the wire. “Then by all means give the wire to someone who can use it.” I asked Barbara to simply remove the hen house instead of trying to repair it. While I’m intrigued by the idea of owning a home where I could possibly have my very own chickens, I’d prefer to start from scratch with a less spooky and decrepit looking hen house.

I’ve lived in the same apartment since I was nine years old and the interior of the apartment surely looks like it. I actually feel guilty that our potential new home has a full basement where I could possibly just box up all of my junk and keep it in the basement. Why would God allow me to get away with hanging on to all of this, as much as I hate the term, baggage? The previous homeowner rented out the basement to college students. There is a toilet and a shower that resembles a butcher’s shower. I learned what a butcher’s shower is from the television show “A Haunting.” Butchers had a special area where they would shower and clean off the blood from slaughtering. I have visions of renting out the space but I know full well that basement is reserved for my junk. Hubby envisioned me running a daycare out of the basement. I wonder what sort of woman would gladly send her baby to spend 8 hours in my basement? Not that basement’s bad it’s classified as an unfinished basement but it sure is more finished than I’ve seen a lot of other basements. Maybe it’s classified as unfinished because there’s no drywall or ceiling?

I do realize as soon as we move, we could very well have a fire and lose it all. The junk has survived one fire. I went to work, came home and eventually noticed that the front bedroom window was open?!! Did I have spirits? I noticed a crochet pattern that had fallen on the floor in the living room. I hadn’t noticed it fall on the floor when I left for work. My cats looked a little freaked out too. I was convinced I had some sort of spirit infestation. The next morning, as I drove to work I noticed a completely burned stove sit out on the front lawn. The fire had completely obliterated the apartment in front of us along with the apartment above and the apartment below. How could I not have noticed? The windows were totally blown out. Later Hubby & I walked around the front and I noticed all of the fire extinguisher mess on the floor. The smoke alarm had melted. I did notice a very strong smoke smell in our own apartment but I’ve been blessed or cursed to have a sense of smell that has diminished quite a bit. I know that the apartment manager had come in the apartment to see if the fire had spread through the wall and thank God it hadn’t. So maybe God will allow me to get away with keeping my keepsakes? Later I learned that some girl was attempting to cook hash browns in the kitchen. She got the grease too hot the fire flared up and she simply ran out of the kitchen. The apartments had to be gutted. That’s one way to get the manager to remodel.

My husband is away on an international trip and won’t be home for another month. He liked the house and told me as all good husbands do “Whatever you want to do.” We thought that the house seemed a bit larger on the inside it seems when you first drive by. The homeowner had redone the kitchen in bright colors and if I remember correctly I think the kitchen counter is purple! There aren’t any cabinets in the kitchen but I get to select some. Imagine me in a home shop picking out cabinets!!! I hate the bathroom tiles. There is mold growing behind the tile that shows through the grout much like the tiles in our current apartment. My first thought is to have those tiles redone. I’ve become a pro at doing grout patch jobs. I know when the grout cracks that means water could possibly leak downstairs to the apartment below and that would require a visit from the apartment manager. I love the guy in some ways. He didn’t evict us after he saw the state of my bedroom!!! I can’t imagine why? I guess it’s sentiment. My father was the first tenant when they bought the set of apartments. This man has watched me grow from a child to whatever it is I am now.

I’m so awful. My father passed away in May and we simply gathered all of his belongings at the nursing home and put them in white garbage bags. Those bags are still in the middle of the living room floor. We left the wheelchair and television at the nursing home. At times I think why didn’t we just keep those but I think that someone other person who had no television or wheelchair would make better use of those things than we ever will although I am in need of another television!! The one I have is slowly dying.

I have the idea of purchasing flooring from Flor. Flor sells modular carpet. That means you buy the carpet in precut tile squares. You can pick up the squares and wash them if you like. I think I’d like to buy white carpet!! Why not? At least that way I could tell if one of the cats peed. These last two cats are pretty good. The eldest one pees on rectangular shaped old towels I put on the floor of the bathroom in front of the bathtub. I have no clue why she doesn’t pee in the litter box? I guess she got the idea from the younger cat who had the same habit. She does pee in the liter box but not as often as she should! I guess she likes to see me washing out the pee towels in the bathtub.

That brings to mind the washer and dryer we’ll finally have! Can you believe it? Currently, there is a washer and dryer in the adjacent set of apartments. I won’t even go into what a nightmare that has been. I don’t even use them. On rare occasions I pack up the car full of clothing and bedding and go to the laundry mat. Shall I admit that I’ve discovered the laundry in the town where I work, one town over has cheaper washer & dryers that actually wash the clothes better. So whenever the mood strikes me to do laundry I drive it 7 miles away. I usually wait to do it after work. Most of the clothing I wash I do it by hand in the bathtub. I think it’s the pioneer spirit in me. I know my father’s sisters and even my father had to wash clothes by hand. I have memories of the babysitter hanging clothes out to dry on the line. I can’t imagine how it would feel to strip off your clothes, throw them in the washer and dryer then step into a clean, warm pair of underwear & clothes.

I have visions of doing full body paintings in the basement. I’ll have yard sales. We’ll buy lawn furniture and a push mower! I’ll teach crochet courses in my living room. I’ll plant a raspberry tree! I actually have butterflies in my stomach as I type this. Maybe this move can be a good thing after all?