Questions and Answers

“How’s the new digs?” “What does it feel like to be home?” “Have you got everything unpacked?” “Are you relaxing yet?” - All questions from friends, relatives, and other well meaning caring people that have been coming our way.

The answer or answers are: For better or for worse – it’s ours. Unpacked! I don’t think so! Relaxing? I seem to remember hearing that word before but I’ve forgotten what it feels like.

We got the keys to our kingdom on Thursday afternoon and we entered armed with tools and cleaning supplies. We’ve been there every day since from morning to night, ripping things apart, remodelling, cleaning, scrubbing and painting. We get back to my sister’s where we’ve been staying late at night and plop into bed exhausted and sore. This kind of nonstop physical work sure has a way of pointing out that these old bodies “ain’t what they used to be”.

Actually I’m beginning to think we’re suckers for punishment since for ten days before procession of our place we were helping someone else do some heavy duty cleaning in two of their rental apartments. You gotta wonder where our head is sometimes except that the money we made doing that will pay for our move which happens tomorrow. Yeah! Just the thought of moving into our own castle, as humble as it may be, will get the adrenalin going and help kick start our weary old bones into gear.

When we closed in on this deal I had no idea we were getting into so much work. We knew the place was dirty but the decor had things well camouflaged and we didn’t realize just how dirty and in need of repairs the place actually was. And even though we had a house inspection done it doesn’t show you what they can’t see. It’s when a person starts taking things apart that the little surprises (which sometimes turn out to be much bigger than anticipated) start to appear.

From the very beginning our plan was to redo the roof but we haven’t even gotten there yet and it doesn’t look like we will until next year. The other plan was to rip out the old carpets in the two bedrooms and redo it with laminate flooring. No go! The minute I took my utility knife to the carpet and started ripping I knew we were in trouble. I discovered a carpenter’s nightmare. A high centered floor with slopping down sides where the mobile has shifted in the corners. We discovered a slope of about an inch and a half which the people before had tried to rectify by pouring some levelling concrete.

To make a long story short, after many trips to the stores and many conversations with different people in the flooring industry, the bottom line was it would be impossible to fix the problem enough to install some laminate flooring without going into major repairs. Our only recourse was to go back to carpets.

So off we went to choose a carpet and return the flooring which took us forever to pick out. I hate carpets. Do you know how hard it is to hurry up and choose something you don’t like? Well at least the beasts are new and the rooms are clean with a fresh coat of paint and nice new wide baseboards have been put into place and it looks alright. Hopefully we don’t have a see saw effect when we put our bed down.

Apart from that we are still dealing with major repairs to the bathroom after deciding to put in a new soaker tub to replace the little kiddy tub that was in there and we are still trying to get windows clean enough to let in the light of day. The rest of the house will have to be painted as well since we pealed and pulled and ripped off all the nasty wallpaper that was there but that will have to come later.

For now we will concentrate on moving our stuff and getting in there. We keep telling ourselves. “We can handle this.” And we are. One little bit at a time with our eye on how every day brings us closer to moving into our little sugar shack which we will call home. We’re in for an early Christmas as we unpack all our gear we haven’t seen for close to half a year.