As 2007 dawned our new house was a mess. The contractors had begun demolishing the only existing (and water damaged) bedroom on the second floor after Christmas, but much of the work throughout the house was on hold until we removed the accumulation of personal effects and furnishings left behind by the previous owner.
In this, the last few months before the discovery of Craigslist, I had no outlet to get rid of the hundreds of 1980's era Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Time, and other mags that were boxed throughout the house.
I ignored Lisa's pleas to throw them out and instead spent New Years Day 2007 hauling them to Half Price Books to sell. The price quoted me? Nada. Not one slim dime. So I loaded them all back up, took 'em to the house . . and then out to the garbage.
Meanwhile Lisa and I had switched off spending evenings at the house, trying to sort through the mess. I'd been so gung ho for the junk before the sale, as if it was an elaborately expensive rummage sale. I had my eyes on a few Time Life WWII books, a few art books, an old push mower in the basement, etc. etc.
Then I bought the place and every item was just one more thing to move and dispose of, and Time Life be damned. Oh, and the lawn mower? It disintegrated in my hands when I tried to move it, just plain rusted through and through.
Sometimes my Dad helped, sometimes my sister Katie, and once my friend Tre. You never spent the evening there/here alone at the time. It was just too dang creepy to do that - dim light from spastic light fixtures, whistling wind through the windows stuck that were stuck inches open, the all-encompassing smell of decay and neglect and abandonment.
[True story: with my sister Katie with me at the house we heard a door slam shut upstairs. Remember, we both heard it, and it was a clear and distinct sound, not something that could be mistaken for any other. The problem? The only two doors still hanging in the house were the front door a few feet away and the back door, visible to me from where I stood. My sister shrieked and I myself was in no hurry to stay]
I think it was Lisa who eventually got most of the kitchen lineoleum up.
That exposed some heavy water damage from where the ice box - no,not a fridge - had once stood.
My Dad and I removed the threadbare wall-to-wall carpeting in the dining room. I mean 'threadbare' literally - the first time in my life I saw a carpet so thin it was sheer. And the dust from the decayed padding . .
Anhow, to continue with New Years Day 2007. The whole family bucked up and attacked the mess. What follows are some of the most famous photos in the Slapinions arsenal.
Here's YaYa prepping for the cleanup:
And little LuLu bravely carrying chunk after chunk of linoleum to the garbage pile.
Note the huge size of the pile, which was only to grow. On the 16th of Jan, despite having a standing order for a special pickup that the city never bothered filling, we were cited by Milwaukee and had the contractors spend a day hauling it to the dump. By then it included many more items and some mattresses some jerk had randomly dumped on the pile.
Smiley couldn't do much, but he was Smiley :)
At some point I'd picked up our friend Chris and her kids (Faith accompanied me to the bookstore) and together we shared our first meal in our new home.
True, Little Ceasars (or as the family calls it, 'Pizza Pizza!') is nothing special, but I didn't touch a slice.
Confession: I was still grossed out by the house and couldn't fathom eating there/here.
Man, it seemed like it could never be our home . .
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