Today was a first.
The first time in our house with no one else in it. Well, not at first. The very kind neighbors from next door who have been there every single time we have, were there. In the house, when we got there. So walking in did not feel like our house. At all. We talked to them quite a bit. They were there getting the things they were suppose to get, making a pile for the church donation, and doing some other things to help the family. They told us some good stories about the house and the little lady who lived there. Gave us some good history about the house as well. It was built by a “cop”. This makes me feel safer. I don’t know why, it just does.
Eventually, they left. They made us laugh and I enjoyed talking with them. But I so badly wanted to feel this house and it’s presence.
The house is still full of everything. Beds, furniture, books, records, tapes. The father was a music lover and he surrounded himself with it every where. I get that. Not one single room was empty. But we had talked with the son and agreed between ourselves that if we needed to work on a room we would carry the items in the room to the front room. Which should make it easier for them, I hope. So we picked the smallest room in the back, that still had everything in it. And took it all to the living room. Every thing.
Then we pulled up the carpet and padding. Yanked out the nails. Admired the little patches of wood floor beneath that were pretty unscathed. Unfortunately, the entire floor was not so lucky. But that’s okay. We have other plans. We went to Lowe’s and picked up trash bags, broom, sanding blocks, paint and painting stuff. I walked to the wall that holds 73,835 color samples. Picked up a card that had 3 colors on it. The sales lady walked up and asked if she could help. I said “if all 3 colors are on the same card they’re suppose to compliment one another, right?” She grinned and said yes. I handed her the card and asked for a gallon of each color, went back and told her to give me 2 gallons of the color in the middle.
Back to the house. First time we walked in and no one else was there.
Okay, well, that feels good.
We swept up all the debris from the earlier work. We emptied that room. It needs little patches. Wall paper taken off. And paint put on. Floor laid.
It’ll be ours.
The rest of the house is still packed full of lots of other people’s stuff. Until it’s empty, it’s not really going to feel like ours. Until no one else has access to the house, it’s not going to feel like ours.
But when we were in there working on it, just the two of us, I realized it is going to be ours.
That was a first.
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