My Mom's house was a mess as Dad was sick the last 6 years with kidney failure. This house was a 1300 square feet home when we moved in. I was a ripe age of 3 months old. When I was about 14, my father woke me up one day, handed me a shovel then said, "START DIGGING!!!'.
Oh man, my brother sucked at construction, he was 2 years older. I always had an easy time doing things as I was more coordinated and more of the physical type. The plan was to go from a single story 1300 sf to 2400 square feet, 5 bedroom house. And yes we did! The shovel was given to me as a token of appreciation, for digging up the foundation of the addition. My God, it never ended! I think I spent all my young teen years and summers doing construction. Go to school, private all boy's Catholic school. Comoe home, go work at Weinerschnitzel 4 or 5 hours, then go home and help with construction, sometimes before work if needed. Every weekend was spent going to lumber yards and picking up lumber, wall board, wiring, whatever it took to build the house. EVERY summer, every weekend, all year. Crazy one year we had the back framed but not covered and it poured like a mother! We spent all weekend and all Christmas vacation pushing water out of the house, missing a back wall with squeegees. We spent windy days standing on the second level as Dad bolted down the wall frames. How I didn't fall off and die, I dunno! Maybe I did and that was part of the hell I had to live through ha ha!
Of course my brother sucked at everything and he was of driving age. My Dad called him and idiot more times than I can remember but now I wonder if he was smarter than we thought making his way out of the hard work. I remember one day, my Dad outlined a large closet door figure with the blue chalk line. Clearly one could see that we would knock out the wall inside the blue chalk to form a closet door for a big butt walk in closet.
My Dad made the outline, handed a sledge hammer to my brother then said, "hit it at the top". Of course I knew at the top of the line to form the doorway but my brother was either really good at playing dumb, or he was a genius and willing to take some verbal abuse just to get out of work. HIT IT AT THE TOP !!! At the top? Yes, at the top!
BAM!!! He hits it on the ceiling and puts a big hole in the ceiling. GREAT, another hole to fix. But the dude talks his verbal abuse then heads of to pick up a few hamburgers for lunch. Of course I'm swinging away with the sledge wondering when my idiot brother will return with my lunch. I don't think Dad really cared cause big little Beanz was busting out walls like there was no tomorrow. It was so easy for me and kind of fun but after hours of work and that idiot isn't back yet, I'm getting irritated. of course he never gets in trouble cause Dad is getting his work done through me and the longer he is gone, the less Dad has to deal with him.
Really was a sucky time in my life, really was! Spending my childhood, young teenage years breaking my young back and drawing blood and sweat on a daily basis when I knew I should have been out at the roller rink holding some young chick's hand. But Dad wanted to teach us responsibility, and save lots of money through child labor.
We still laughed about it last year before Dad got too sick. He would say, "remember when your brother and I were building the house, oh wait, when you and I were building the house....!!".
Yeah Baby, that was the payback. After years and years of listening to stories of how WE broke our backs, Dad finally admitted that I did a majority of the work while my brother pretty much was a lunch Go'fer most days. It really sucked back then but now that I see this old house falling apart, it inspires me to fix it up a bit. Dad was always working on something to fix over the last years of his life. Like that was all he did, work and fix the house. I can't really say my Dad was all that good with construction either. I mean I look at things and the freaking outlets are crooked. I'm known as a perfectionist and I look at things he did and pretty much laugh. I'm no construction expert but I look and think, Dang Dad, you suck! I look at things as simple as painting and see he missed large sections here and there. He would have beat my ass had I done a half ass job like that when I was 14 or 15 years old.
Now I point things out to Mom and say, "wow, look at this, I can't believe he did this bad of a job!". She always says that he was getting older and couldn't do things right any longer as he aged. OK, Uhhh he was like 58 when he did this, I'm 56 and no freaking way would I have done this!
But then I think back to my childhood slavery days and think, that is probably more than likely why I got stuck with all the work. I did things right. Just like I do now and always will. heck no you won't see me install a tire on my bike half ass-ed, even if I am 65 years old. I think Dad knew that!
Sadly, Mom knows it too! So Dad is gone and guess who is doing all the stuff Dad didn't do, or couldn't do the last few years. ME! :-P
But that's cool, my Mom is really cool about things. She is alone in this big ass house and is super lonely since Dad passed away. Talked about getting a room mate. Nah! Letting her sister move in rent free just to keep her from being lonely. Nah, all her kids are jailbirds and alcoholics. If she moves in, they will find a reason to let them move in and probably try to take over my Mom's house. My brother and I were like HEEEELLLL NO!
Gina and I had just moved to Creekside, sweet little house with a 2 year lease and a decent rate. Been there 6 months and loving it, you've probably seen my jacuzzi pics, my bike ride around the loop pics and videos. Loved it! But brother comes to me and says when he goes to visit Ma, taking her a sandwich to eat, she's alone crying in the house. Saying she feels like she is going to die and has no reason to live now that Dad is gone and the two of us have lives of our own. Mom tells me of all these bad plans and bad people she is considering as rent free roommates. Uhhh no!
Then they tell me, that Gina and I are the only logical choice. Yeah, my Mamma loves me! Loves Gina too, who doesn't? She hints and hints then finally I tell her, that if we do give up our cool little house, I want a bike room! She agrees and asks when we can move in! Dang, we have a 2 year lease and only there 6 months. But the owner says no problem, he understood as he was leasing his house after his mother fell in the same situation. Cool deal!
Get our deposit back and all is well. Except that we have to move all Mom's stuff from upstairs to the lower level, rearrange the entire house, then make room for our stuff. Lots of work but we get it done, not even sure how we did it but we did!
Mom is so happy and says since the house is paid off, we can stay rent free. Uhh what! Well, she was going to let other bums move in rent free so better us than them ha ha! But we have to help, can't take advantage of Mom like that. Feb was the first month and just about every other day we take her to the mall to walk around. She will be 80 in March and has not walked this much in 6 year, maybe 15 years seeing Dad was not much of the walking type.
But Gina cooks for her, we clean the house, she watched TV with us in The Lounge, seems really happy! One big thing is that she tells me she feels so safe with me there. Yeah, I'm the big dude who if anything goes down, I'll be the first one to get shot while the others have a chance to run ha ha!
So anyway, getting back to construction, I can't stand the crap others have done to take advantage of my parents. Had they let me know, or asked for my help, I would have helped them. But the kind people they are, they let others accept the tasks for a chance to earn some cash. My cousin, sad mother fucker, took over $400 to paint and install the baseboards in Mom's washroom. You've seen the pics. He also installed a fan for them. Dumb shit actually was supposed to brace the new motor, install the fan for them. He didn't want to, or couldn't brace the motor so he actually installed the new fan with the old motor. He THREW AWAY THE BRAND NEW MOTOR and lied to my parents.
Everything he did went to crap even before he left. The baseboards fell off, the fan failed 2 minutes after he walked out of the house. Mom called him and he swore he would be back the next day. 3 years later, he has not returned. Freaking loser. I didn't know this till we moved in at the beginning of February.
So anyway, I fixed his crap, then removed the falling wallpaper from Mom's restroom. She had someone install a new fan for her. But the exhaust pipe was left uncovered even though the installer had found a nest in the old one. OK, so I found a gutter strainer for $3, a hose clamp fro $1 and covered that baby. Less than $4. Lowe's employees were directing me to materials that would cost more than $25. I knew I could find something that was more reasonable.
OK, some pics from tonight after I painted her restroom. Much better!
This was the before pics. First one I started stripping off the wallpaper. BTW, vinegar and hot water work great. Don't waste money on that $18 solution stuff. That cool little wall paper stripper/slicer thing worked great, $6.
This is why Mom asked me to fix the restroom. I would have done it anyway cause this kind of stuff drives me cray cray! :-P
Here are some pics of the upstairs rooms we inherited. Some huge rooms. King size bed, some furniture and still have space to dance around. This was the middle of Feb so still needed some tidy up. One the bedroom, a walk thru restroom with a shower big enough for 2, maybe 3 he he he! the second room is The Lounge. My Dad's old karaoke room converted into my TV room/guitar room.
Look, here comes Mom with her popcorn and all ready to watch some TV with us. Even though she has her own huge living room downstairs. Also my bike room is downstairs.
OK so part of fixing this stuff up was because Mom needed it. She had put up with some shabby stuff over the last few years knowing Dad was not in good health. Paid a few jerks to do work and ended up getting ripped off. I didn't know but seeing the work it needed, I got to work. It sucks as far as cycling. Every time I had a chance to ride, it would rain.
But we did have a couple of yard sales. Raked in over $400 selling little things here and there to make room for 2 homes worth of furniture. Like Mom already had 2 refrigerators, why do we need 3? Got our brand new washer and dryer in storage. Will use Mom's till it poops out then move ours in. Might not be to long ha ha!
Sad thing is that Mom was alone. But everything was put in a trust so that when she passes, we sell the house and my brother and I split the cash. Only 2 of us. I tease Mom that she may have a year or two but just to be snippy, I might tell her only 6 months ha ha! But honestly, she has never been the exercise type but always fairly strong and in good health though she will tell you different. Will be 80 in March but I really think she could make it to 90 hanging around with us. She has walked more this month than she has in the last 10 years at least. Her legs getting stronger, getting up out of the chairs easier and actually eating better now that we are here.
But my Mom loves me, knows I would never do her in for money. Actually I have never taken or borrowed a dime like every person in our family. I think that is why she tried so hard to convince us to move in. She did say since the house was paid, we could live rent free if we take care of her. Well we have to help, never been moochers but she did say no rent the first month because we went out of our way to move in and that made her happy. Then she said if we wanted, we could pay $100 or 2 but only if we wanted the second month so that we could recover from the move.
Well I actually recovered pretty well. I cleaned out and reorganized the mess others made in the shed I built for them. Wow, so many lazy unorganized people borrow their stuff, then toss it in the front doorway when they return it. I emptied the thing and reorganized all of Dad's tools and equipment. Made a ton of room. Then I cleaned out and organized the utility room Dad has as an itty bitty workshop type of utility closet/room connect to the outside of the house. Again, made a ton of space and room.
Then I did the washroom, now her bathroom, fixed the stair banister and a few other things. Today we drove by the bank on the way to take her to walk the mall. OK, drink coffee and tea while people watching too! Pulled out the first couple hundred to help out but she refused. She said no way, Gina does lots of stuff for her, I have done a bunch of repairs, and we take care of her, pick up meds, doc appointments, so she said no way, maybe next month. Hmm, she must really be enjoying them TV nights and late evening salads ha ha!
Just so funny that the house that so haunted me for so many years is now coming back to treat me really good! I can do this and my bike are happy in their own room. ;-)
Another 9 hour on this fine rainy Saturday. Not like I was going to ride my bike anyway with this project going on. The floor installers really made a mess at the bottom of the tub years ago. Looked black. I painted it the same color as the wallboard. White. I also applied a little silicone rubber at the top of the trim and the wallboard to seal it and make it look uniform since Mom wanted two different colors. Not my style but it is her bathroom ha ha!
The vanity was a mess. grout falling out, big separations between boards, old adhesives covering the tiles. Whoever worked on this stuff was a slob, all I can say. I sealed everything, painted some stuff and even pretty much rebuilt the wall on the other side by the toilet. I cleaned up a lot of this mess and if you had seen it two days ago.... ;-)
But got everything finished, even cleaned up the outside of the tub, old adhesives, junk, and whatever else one could imagine on a dirty tub. Funny thing is, Mom hires this cleaning lady to clean her house every so often. I'm thinking because my Mom can't see that well, the lady is taking advantage of it. Mom thinks it looks clean, but is legally blind. Some of the things Mom tell me that the lady cleans, has not been touched in years. I could tell when we moved it. the corners behind dressers were really dusty, dirty actually. Umm OK lady! I can see and you ain't getting paid to fool me ha ha! Doubt we will even need her at all anyway. Well anyway, I am done with her bathroom.
Sadly I see a bunch of other stuff that needs attention. Hopefully they are small projects. Like painting halls etc. :-P
