It’s been a tough few months for all of us. I’m sure, for most of us, Covid is not the only challenge we’ve experienced this year. Some difficulties have been caused by the disease and some exacerbated by it.
Our family falls into both categories with two members in the family passing away and with my husband’s mom being confined in a nursing home. She moved in just days before the lockdown.
Cleaning out the family home
If you fall into my age group you might be familiar with the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. At the end of the cartoons there was always this little old man who appeared, prepared to clean up after everyone left.
Rob and I have taken on that role these past months working on cleaning out his family home in Lambeth.
The house had not seen much TLC for a long, long time and there was the accumulation of the last 62 years to deal with when Bob and Estella moved away.
Along with dealing with an accumulation of life’s general detritus, we had to decide whether or not to renovate before selling…
Dining furniture 
Kitchen after demo
We decided to renovate. The furniture had to be sold. Here the cupboards are gone and a new floor is in but as you can see there is still plenty to do.
Now, I like to think of myself as Rocky to Rob’s Bullwinkle. Brains (me) and braun (Rob and our tradespeople) are what it takes to power through the task we took on.
Every spare day, weekend – literally every moment was spent mucking out, ripping staples out of flooring, pulling carpet, caulking, painting, running to Lowes for parts and Tim’s for coffee. Speaking of coffee, if your contractor tells you it will only take two days to change out the toilet for a new one, don’t believe him (think 2 weeks). Gotta love that toilet!
We finished all our tasks this past weekend, with Horst plowing through the kitchen tiling and Rob and I doing a final cleanup. The Century 21 For Sale sign went up on Monday.
When the sold sign goes up we’ll all be a little bit sad. But the house is so different now, and that’ll make it easier to let it go to somebody new. They’ll love it just like Bob, Estella, Laurie and Rob did. I’m trying to imagine who will buy it and am already wishing them many years of happiness.
Leave a Reply