It has been over twelve years since we lost my mother to a sudden massive heart attack and I am finally ready to let go. That may sound strange to some but my mom was my very best girl friend, my teacher, my mentor, and at times my sounding board – not surprising when you think about it since I was an only child.
Being an only child also meant that Bill and I had to deal with everything ourselves and still work full-time while also dealing with three grieving children. It was a very hard time and after removing the best of the items from the house we locked the door and walked away. We would check on the house daily and then less often as time moved on. We mowed the grass and trimmed the bushes less and less. Life continued as it normally does after a death – the boys grew up and started separate lives and we retired.
This summer I decided to do more than mow the grass I decided it was time to open the house again. But first I had to find it since it was buried under overgrown shrubs, trees, and poison ivy.
It took a lot of work but I managed to clear everything away from the house myself.
The next step was opening those doors and carrying the rest of the things out – one truck load at a time.
I managed to get two rooms cleared out while Bill was working at his part-time job and it was hard. Most of the stuff needed to be cleaned before I could even make a decision about what to do with it.
It was slow going and I wasn’t happy with the new-found clutter on my nice clean back porch but I was getting it done. Bill’s part-time job was summer work and now he is able to help me clear the house and that has sped things up which is both a blessing and a problem.
A blessing because I want to get this job over and done so it no longer acts as an anchor to the past. A problem because it has created a mess on our back porch and at our apartment in town. A blessing because the need to remove that mess has over powered the desire to hold onto things I will never use but just have a sentimental drawing to. A problem because we accidentally burned down the old wood shop. A blessing because the shop was already past the point of repair and the area looks much better without the shop.
We have over half the rooms cleared out with only a few things left in the three bedrooms, The worst area was the kitchen with all her cooking stuff which we finished the other day. Yesterday I spent a lot of time at the apartment cleaning pots and dishes that we either gave away or donated. That mess is almost cleaned up and the back porch is almost back to normal. I need to get this under control before we clear out the last three rooms. Lucky for me we have already removed all the large items and only have a few things to deal with.
While I am loading up the truck with items from each room Bill is working at gutting the inside of the rooms. We are removing all the walls paneling, dropped ceiling tiles, and carpets to get to the bare walls. We hope that they are repairable and that we can refurbish the house for future use. I do hope we can refurbish it becasue my mind is already designing and decorating the place. Time will tell…… to be continued.
DIY with Kathy! 