Apologies for my absence over the last month or so. At last we’ve made it to our new home, the first one we’ve ever owned. It’s been a wild ride so far. So wild, in fact, that sometimes it’s hard to remember why we did this. There’s a lot of glamour about the fixer-upper lifestyle, not to mention endless reality shows about flipping tired and dirty places into beautiful homes. Today, I’m sharing some of the less fun side. Not because I don’t think you should get a fixer upper. I just think you should be prepared for a wild ride.
Moving is traumatic in itself, but while I’ve done it eleven times, this is so different. We own this house, so we are responsible for everything about it. No landlord to call if the toilet breaks. It’s liberating and terrifying at the same time. Yay! I can paint the walls and garden! But cats, rats and fleas, oh my! Strap in folks and let me tell you a tale!
Let me set the scene
I know that I told you all we had bought a house, but I haven’t shared much about it yet. Obviously for privacy reasons I won’t go into enormous detail, but I’d like to give you some context.
After almost a year of looking, the listing for what is now our home popped up. We loved that it has beautiful trees in the front garden and that the house itself is quite sweet architecturally. It also had plenty of bedrooms and a separate studio, which we feel will give us the option of staying put should we have a large family (one day, please God). It’s also on a lovely street, within walking distance of the town centre and some local parks. The price was also a big drawcard: we could afford it and have money for the reno. As an aside, something is deeply wrong with a housing market that makes getting something within your budget a drawcard. But I digress.
The reason that such a gem was so well priced was simple: it was tenant tired. After what we think is about a decade of renters, the house is in desperate need of some TLC. The gardens are heavily overgrown or just dead. The interiors are dated and the bathroom needs immediate attention due to potential water damage. The exterior is suffering from a bit as well. While structurally sound and with a lovely floor plan, this baby is going to require a fair bit of work and money to get her back to her glory days.
In which we discover many pests
We were so excited to get into the house, but straight away we were assailed by the strong odor of cat. I am badly allergic to cats, and there is cat hair everywhere. You could see a film of cat hair against the screen door. There was cat hair in the bathtub and the back of the kitchen cabinets. How do you get cat hair at the back of your kitchen cabinets?
The flooring is so badly filled with dander and urine that it as to go. Luckily, we were planning to change them anyway, but it’s meant expediting that whole process. I’m currently surviving on open windows and more antihistamines than I care to think about. While vacuuming, I realised that the lino is not stuck down to the floor, so you can pull it up. Underneath is a horrendous layer of cat hair, dead (and living) insects and general dirt. I haven’t been game enough to lift it again.
And then there were fleas. Fleas!!! So gross and itchy. We’ve organised pest control, and hope that we will shortly be free of these unwanted houseguests. Removing the cat-filled flooring should also help. Again, I wonder how people can live (with small children) in a house that is full of cat hair and actual vermin. A mystery.
Lastly, we have rats. So far they have stayed in the garden and our roof. We’re on a mission to rid ourselves of them, which should also help with the fleas and general pestilences.
Given we need the fleas out and the new flooring in, we have had to postpone a lot of the unpacking and settling in. For now, we’re surrounded by boxes, pesticides and allergy medications.
Honestly, the second night in I had a little cry. I missed my clean, bright little apartment so much. I knew where everything was and that there were no nasties there. Everything felt chaotic and fixing it felt overwhelming and so expensive. Why did we do this? Was buying this house an awful mistake?
In which we realise we’ll be fine
But the next day was Sunday, and we walked to Mass through the cool morning and the beautiful streets of our new town. I sat in the sweet little church and prayed. I had been so confident that our move and renovation would go according to plan. I think God was having a gentle laugh at me, with my high expectations of cleaniness and efficiency, and I suddenly saw the humour of the situation too.
You can’t do it on your own. My brother kindly gave us his Saturday afternoon to get the last of our things from the apartment. My mother brought me food so I didn’t have to cook for a couple of days. Friends called and messaged. My husband has vacuumed daily and let me sleep with windows open for allergies, even though I know he hates it. Our marriage is taking on a new challenge, and it’s more important that we support each other gracefully through it than it is that our house be perfectly clean and organised. What would the point of the perfect house be if it wasn’t there to be filled with people and made a home with my little family?
Strapping in for a wild ride
Right now, I’m writing this with shoes on to keep off the strong flea killer that’s on my floor. I’m still coughing from the cat and after this, I’ll be popping out to set out some rat poison. But I also get to water my new garden and listen to the birds talking to themselves in our trees. I get to stare at the paint swatches on the wall and pick the perfect shade of white. This is going to be a challenge of epic proportions. But I’m beginning to get glimmers of what it will be once it’s even just a little bit more ‘done’.
It’s going to be a wild ride, and I’m sure that this won’t be the last of our woes. But if we do it together, I know it’s going to be good.
