Sunday, 15 December 2019

The condemed house

In 1979 my then husband decided it would be a good idea to buy a fixer upper!
We had a ten month old baby when we moved in, the only heating was a coal fire in the back room.
There was a downstairs toilet that had been an outside toilet, the previous owner had bricked up the door to the garden and knocked through to the kitchen.
The coal store had been turned into a bathroom, the ceiling fell into the bath a few weeks after we moved in.
The kitchen contained a butlers sink that was resting on a cupboard that was black with mould and full of slugs that came out at night.
We acquired a home made cocktail cabinet from somewhere and that along with a camping cooker comprised my kitchen for many years.

My son grew up thinking it was normal to have a pile of sand on the floor.

Eventually we had a heating system put in I got a gas cooker and the place was decorated.

The kitchen remained unfinished until we put the place on the market.

5 comments:

the veg artist said...

I think women who cope in such circumstances do themselves a dis-service in the long run. There's no incentive for their men to get on and fix things.
I once knew a woman who only had to bat her eyelids and complain about one (ONE) broken ring on a cooker and she'd have a new kitchen!!!
I often wonder where I've gone wrong!

Chris said...

You've come a long way from then! Whatever doesn't break you makes you stronger.

Hard up Hester said...

I know a lady who hates her husband starting any job because he never finishes anything. Her whole house is full of unfinished work.

Col said...

My husband's nickname is 'Arfur', not Arthur, but 'Arfur' with an 'f' because he usually does half a job, hence 'Arfur', Arfur job!!!
Since we moved into the bungalow, he seems to be a bit better at finishing things, either that, or I'm nagging a lot more than I used to!
I'm going to have my dream kitchen put in as soon as we have the money to do it, but that will have to wait until we 'tart up and sell' our other house. It will all be fitted by professionals though, 'Arfur' won't be allowed near it until all the work's finished!

Hard up Hester said...

Oh Col, that made me laugh.

Today.

I'm cooking the Sunday roast again today, I can't face another ruined meal at 8 o'clock at night with Steve either in a strop or...