A talk with the house

I’m sure it sounded insane but insane times calls for insane measures.

I had a long talk, outloud, with my house this morning. Yes, my house.

Long ago I had met a woman who had bought a very shabby home and wanted to restore it but the home kept giving her so many problems that she grew frustrated with the house instead of growing attached. Despite the notion of fixing it up, she quickly tired of all the unexpected fixing taking place. She wanted to abondon the home.

When talking to a neighbour she learned that there had been numerous owners of the house; all of them leaving quickly and complaining about the “could be pretty but too much of a hassle home.” And then the owner realised that the house was just acting out like a child; giving problems for attention. What did the owner do?

She talked to her house.

She explained that she would not abandon her house, that she wanted to make it beautiful inside and out. That she wanted to support that house and have the house support her. She wanted to make it a home but found that she needed the house to help her by not acting up all the time so that there would be less frustration and more love.

And wouldn’t you know it, the house stopped acting up and the owner has lived happily in the most charming, easy home for the last 20 years.

Upon moving in, I knew there would be a few things to fix (I have to update the electricity and remove an old asbestos insulated pipe in my office, landscape and insulate the addition in the back) but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of things that have gone wrong since literally day one (there was no cable in the house, there were no telephone feeds to the house, the plumbing backed up, and some other things I can’t think of because I’m too tired to think from all the fixing).

It seems that literally nothing has gone right since moving in and as soon as I fix one problem, another arises. It has been both an emotional and financial drain that I wasn’t prepared for. I just thought it’d be all lovely with tea freely flowing and curtains going up! Ah, to be naive again…

But I thought this morning, the house really is quite amazing; the perfect size, beautiful details, quirks that I adore and its solid. But it had been left alone for so long that I think its nervous and acting out. And so, I had a talk with it this morning, too.

Oh, I know a talk cannot do the job of a Roto Rooter but a Roto Rooter can’t help me make peace with my home. And that’s what I need at the moment – to look at the picture beyond the plumbers, contractors and electricians and see just how the home is so very good indeed.