The Crazy House
Today I was sitting at work, a term I use very lightly in regard to what I am doing, and I was thinking about all the different places I have lived over the years. I am starting to get a little cramped at the house with the entire family, and I have been thinking how nice it would be to be in my own place, with my own space and the ability to decorate all of the rooms, any way that I choose. Then I remembered I don’t have enough money saved up to be trying to move out on my own and still live in the manor to which I have grown accustomed. :) Whilst thinking about this very thing, my mind wondered back to the summer after my fourth year in college. Mary and I had decided, like the previous two summers, that we would not be going back to Houston for the summer, but that we would get a place in OKC. No big deal right, we will just get a place. Did we have jobs? No. Did we have any prospects? No. But we had faith. We were sure that everything would just work out.
About a week before we were supposed to leave for Brazil, we were approached about “house sitting”. Boy were we excited – we get to stay in a real house, all by ourselves – keep in mind, we had been living at the OC apartments, we didn’t have a dishwasher, or a washing machine or a garage. We were so excited about this great deal that we had found that we invited Lori Losh to join us. Without asking too many question (lesson learned) we agreed to occupy the house when we all got back from Brazil. I remember talking with Mary when we went to deliver our belongings how dirty everything was. Again, we decided that everything would be fine, even though it hadn’t been cleaned out yet (lesson learned). Mary and I naturally assumed that during the three weeks that we were out of the country that the owners would take that opportunity to clean out at least most of the general living space. Wrong. Nothing was cleaned while we were in Brazil. Nothing. I really don’t think I can adequately describe the feeling that went through me as we walked through our new home and discovered that the only space that had been cleared was the closet that was holding all of our things. After a quick meeting with the owner, it became clear that he really preferred that we not move anything around while we lived there. Oh the desperation, we didn’t have any money – we couldn’t afford to improve our situation – we were stuck at this point. Lori was a little bit luckier that us, she made it back to OKC a weekend before us and took one look at the house and decided that she would move in with Kim and Amanda.
Because we had no other choice, we decided to make the best of it. First order or business: remove the dead man’s boxers from the end of the bed, wash the sheets and try to make pathways to the places we needed to be. This was no easy task – there were boxes stacked up in the hallway and in the bedroom that they cleaned out. There were three bedrooms in the house. One was packed floor to ceiling with boxes of who-knows-what, one we called the rainbow room (because it had a rainbow painted on the wall) and then the master bedroom. Obviously, staying in the room with the boxes was not an option. So we were trying to decide who would take the rainbow room and who would get the master suite. After a short discussion that went something like this: Mary: “Well, I’m not staying in here.” Marilee: “well, I’m not either.” We agreed that we would both set up in the master. We stacked all the boxes in that room up on the far side of the room and went to take a look at the rest of the house.
The kitchen was totally disgusting. There was cat food all over the kitchen counters and there were dirty forks in the sink. Supposedly no one had lived in the house for months, so we didn’t even want to think about how long that fork had been sitting, rusting in the sink. Alyson Slack was nice enough to come over and help us out for this monstrous project. We decided that it would be best for us to go ahead and wash every dish that was in the kitchen. We weren’t sure how many the cat had been able to get into. That’s right, to add to the fun, we were given the responsibility of taking care of this dumb cat. Precious was his name. Precious he was not. Precious had a shedding problem, a shedding problem that had turned the carpets from brown to white. Despite our efforts, I don’t believe we ever saw the true color of that carpet.
We weren’t there long before we realized that there were just too many things wrong with this house – and the situation – for us to stay. It sends up a red flag when the owner of the property asks you not to tell anyone that the previous owner is now deceased and not to change anything on the answering machine to reflect that he is not there. Another red flag goes up when he tells you that he has removed the mailbox from its perch because he doesn’t want to receive any mail. A third red flag goes up when a bus with red flames and the name ‘Rufus – the Redneck RV’ painted on the side shows up in the drive way for an extended stay, a bus that has mattresses inside instead of seats, complete with curtains and a warning on the back ‘no fat chix.’ It was at the arrival of Rufus, that Mary and I decided it was now urgent that we find a new living situation. The little irritations, like him coming over to steel our light bulbs (right out of the fixtures), or our Dr. Peppers from the fridge, or telling us that we needed to pick up sticks from the 3 acre property, were no longer something we were willing to tolerate.
We left the house after two short months, just long enough for us both to get jobs and save enough to afford a deposit at a new place – the castle.
About a week before we were supposed to leave for Brazil, we were approached about “house sitting”. Boy were we excited – we get to stay in a real house, all by ourselves – keep in mind, we had been living at the OC apartments, we didn’t have a dishwasher, or a washing machine or a garage. We were so excited about this great deal that we had found that we invited Lori Losh to join us. Without asking too many question (lesson learned) we agreed to occupy the house when we all got back from Brazil. I remember talking with Mary when we went to deliver our belongings how dirty everything was. Again, we decided that everything would be fine, even though it hadn’t been cleaned out yet (lesson learned). Mary and I naturally assumed that during the three weeks that we were out of the country that the owners would take that opportunity to clean out at least most of the general living space. Wrong. Nothing was cleaned while we were in Brazil. Nothing. I really don’t think I can adequately describe the feeling that went through me as we walked through our new home and discovered that the only space that had been cleared was the closet that was holding all of our things. After a quick meeting with the owner, it became clear that he really preferred that we not move anything around while we lived there. Oh the desperation, we didn’t have any money – we couldn’t afford to improve our situation – we were stuck at this point. Lori was a little bit luckier that us, she made it back to OKC a weekend before us and took one look at the house and decided that she would move in with Kim and Amanda.
Because we had no other choice, we decided to make the best of it. First order or business: remove the dead man’s boxers from the end of the bed, wash the sheets and try to make pathways to the places we needed to be. This was no easy task – there were boxes stacked up in the hallway and in the bedroom that they cleaned out. There were three bedrooms in the house. One was packed floor to ceiling with boxes of who-knows-what, one we called the rainbow room (because it had a rainbow painted on the wall) and then the master bedroom. Obviously, staying in the room with the boxes was not an option. So we were trying to decide who would take the rainbow room and who would get the master suite. After a short discussion that went something like this: Mary: “Well, I’m not staying in here.” Marilee: “well, I’m not either.” We agreed that we would both set up in the master. We stacked all the boxes in that room up on the far side of the room and went to take a look at the rest of the house.
The kitchen was totally disgusting. There was cat food all over the kitchen counters and there were dirty forks in the sink. Supposedly no one had lived in the house for months, so we didn’t even want to think about how long that fork had been sitting, rusting in the sink. Alyson Slack was nice enough to come over and help us out for this monstrous project. We decided that it would be best for us to go ahead and wash every dish that was in the kitchen. We weren’t sure how many the cat had been able to get into. That’s right, to add to the fun, we were given the responsibility of taking care of this dumb cat. Precious was his name. Precious he was not. Precious had a shedding problem, a shedding problem that had turned the carpets from brown to white. Despite our efforts, I don’t believe we ever saw the true color of that carpet.
We weren’t there long before we realized that there were just too many things wrong with this house – and the situation – for us to stay. It sends up a red flag when the owner of the property asks you not to tell anyone that the previous owner is now deceased and not to change anything on the answering machine to reflect that he is not there. Another red flag goes up when he tells you that he has removed the mailbox from its perch because he doesn’t want to receive any mail. A third red flag goes up when a bus with red flames and the name ‘Rufus – the Redneck RV’ painted on the side shows up in the drive way for an extended stay, a bus that has mattresses inside instead of seats, complete with curtains and a warning on the back ‘no fat chix.’ It was at the arrival of Rufus, that Mary and I decided it was now urgent that we find a new living situation. The little irritations, like him coming over to steel our light bulbs (right out of the fixtures), or our Dr. Peppers from the fridge, or telling us that we needed to pick up sticks from the 3 acre property, were no longer something we were willing to tolerate.
We left the house after two short months, just long enough for us both to get jobs and save enough to afford a deposit at a new place – the castle.
posted by Marilee at 8:23 AM
1 Comments:
I do like this story!
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