May 2016
July 2016
My Old House
I bought this house in 1978. I was young and in a hurry
to buy a house before I got priced out of the market. My plan was to live here for 5 years then sell it and
buy something better. I figured by then I'd be making more money and would have built up some equity.
Unfortunately things didn't go as planned.
To begin with there was the divorce. It took a while to recover from the emotional and financial strain,
and during that time selling the house was out of the question. The longer I lived there the more I
hated the place. It's noisy, lord is it noisy. It's situated a few feet off Route 68 and the traffic noise
makes it impossible to get a good nights sleep. Even during the day the din drives me to distraction.
There have been times when my neighbor and I were unable to talk to each other from just a few feet
away. It's gotten to the point where I get violently angry every time some jackass on a motorcycle
or in loud car or truck goes past the house.
Then there's the yard. It's small and oddly shaped. I didn't notice that before I bought it because the
realtor pulled out the survey stakes before I viewed the house. I could probably have sued him but
I didn't know that at the time.
Anyway it's time to let go of the place and move on so I've started renovating it. In the 40 years
I've owned it I've done major repairs, but only minor upgrades. I have however maintaned the property. I rebuilt the
back porch, painted it almost every year, installed new windows, and replaced the roof.
In addition to renovating the living room, kitchen, master bedroom, and upstairs bedroom I plan
I plan to upgrade the wiring, install a new water heater, and convert from electric to gas heat.
Then I'm going to sell the place. If I can't sell it I'll rent it. If I can't rent it I might abandon it.
As I'm typing this narrative cars are roaring past the house and it's driving me crazy. I hate this house!