As some of you are aware, mostly due to the lack of writing and publishing lately, I bought a house earlier this year. It's a little run down and in need of some repairs, and Saturdays now belong to the Money Pit. It's a great house; it's filled with inspiration. I may be writing a short story in honor of the experience I've had fixing it up. (That is, if I can tear myself away from editing Redemption, which is already having to steal scrap moments from week as is.)
The house has a wide array of wildlife. There are rabbits and squirrels in the backyard, which my husband and I love; there are garter snakes, too, and my husband is less thrilled about those. To me, the snakes are nostalgic; my brother made a sport out of garter snake catching when we were kids. I've already had to rescue several who chased bugs into one of our deep basement window wells.
The house is missing screens on the windows, so sometimes the great outdoors becomes the great indoors. While fixing up the house yesterday, we had a bird fly in, crap on the carpets, get trapped trying to fly out of a skylight, and fling a live worm it had been carrying onto one of the windows. My dad had to use a ladder and a broom to assist the poor little guy in finding a proper out, but the bird didn't seem any worse for the wear. Later, several large dragonflies flew in to hang around the windows and perch upside down on the ceilings while we painted and tried to fix the air conditioning unit.
My mother noted something odd that I hadn't before while we were there. One of the upstairs bedrooms (a child's room, from the way it was decorated) had the door lock on the *outside* of the door. And damage on the *inside* of the door from kicking. In fact, several of the doors showed kicking damage on the opposite side of where the lock was, and neighbors say the previous owners had several children, so it makes me wonder about the previous life of my new abode. They were rambunctious, the former owners.
Wiring in the basement is odd (such that flipping a switch turns off one light while turning on another), and as I previously mentioned, the window wells are frequently occupied by snakes and other creepy crawlies. The backyard is overgrown with weeds now, but the existing landscape hidden under was well-planned and beautiful. The carpet is in great condition, especially considering the number of children previously living there, and it's royal purple.
Readers, I do apologize that editing efforts on Redemption have been pushed off a little. As you can see, a new story is brewing. ;)
Al
