Holding the Line?
The middle aged dependents currently residing at the Urban Homestead are even harder on each other than they are on the Toxic Parents that are suffering fantasies of managing on a fixed retirement income. The grumbles from the Urban Homestead are getting ominous, even across the 190 miles between us. I am plying my doom-sayer therapy tools to resist imagining the state of the property maintenance. 3 of the 4 middle aged dependents are far better at house-trashing than house-keeping. The one who does clean up after herself is gaining clearer insight to why I don't want the not-working Mom hobby. There is no exact measure of when Toxic Mom decided the Toxic People Landfill was the preferable hang-out, but it has been 3 years now since I have lived at the Urban Homestead. My last visits made my muscles ache with the thought of what it would take to make the property a comfortable chill spot. Metaphorically non-toxic people are entirely too hard to keep up with and the literal results of their metaphorical non-toxicity is enough to shock a hazardous waste remediation team. For us, literally speaking, ALL humans are toxic. Some are more responsible for their own toxic waste than others, but we are a toxic species.
The good news is that the Urban Homestead is in a world league tourist center with one of the highest inflation rates on the planet. Even substandard real estate sells quickly at ridiculously inflated prices. Rolling over the whole freakin mess for real estate in a more rational market makes good financial sense in addition to getting us out from under that chapter of yaddahs for the middle aged blahs. No, I don't know what the next chapter will hold, but I don't see much worth saving from this chapter.
Sorting. . .
The weather is still not cooperating for finishing the exterior of the honey barn, but I am thrilled to be carrying the bungalow project to its next level. My river dreams are calling, but I feel pretty good about the progress we've made on the farm rennovations. Prayers on-going for the middle aged dependents.
Replies
I feel for you Arfie, though I’m not exactly qualified to empathize.
We live in a college town, and before we decided to head for the white north Midwest, we live in the KSU home turf.
I’m a lover of old houses, rather than the cookie cutter styles that are generically varied in most suburban areas. But unfortunately in collage towns those old majestic houses are the first to become converted to temporary domiciled for parties and immaturity stage that hits the first few years of college students. I’ve had my heartbroken so many times by seeing the destruction that can be done by people who just don’t care.
I may not be by nature domestically inclined but I’m learning and I try really damn hard to hone what domestic skills I have daily. But I live with two family member who aren’t just not domestically inclined, I’m beginning to think they’re allergic to domestic skills.
Hope your weather turns around and becomes more cooperative soon, Arfie. Saying prayer with you and sending support.
Hugs & love, my friend.
Hugs to you! I’m always going on about my working woes but one thing I could never do is mooch off others. I could go on and on about the Meaning of Work but I see a very split (in multiple ways) reality on the issues at hand and why people behave how they do in regards to work.
Wishing you well.
The vast majority of my own domestic skills were developed and honed on the road. First the travelling kiddie whorehouses. My childhood average per house was about 6 months. It took me five high schools from LA to Philadelphia to drop out of 10th grade. Boot camp was my finishing school. My wilderness retreats, disaster relief volunteer, etc. Even during my most geophysically stable years, my houses have held my family's things far more than my life. My strictly personal needs fit neatly into a backpack and a guitar case. Is it ironic that living out of a backpack makes for a more anal housekeeper? It seriously bites to find out you forgot your glasses in Bolivia while you unpack in Peru. Whatever your lifestyle, the housekeeping must be done. I ply the motto of keep up is easier than catch up.
And I ain't 'fessin' up to how many of those majestic old, converted houses I have desecrated, Vltava. I even helped with with more than one repurposing of the antique opulence worthy of the domestic staff it took to run those majestic old houses. The servant's quarters are easily spotted in those designs. Some of the remodels are even worthy of the maintenance staff it takes to keep those old beauties beautiful. I suspect Eastern Europe has as many masters of that science as Western Europe does. My first apartment in Germany was in the servant's quarters of a repurposed 300 year old Manor House. The house never had been allowed to decline and leases on the apartments in the proper quarters were family legacies being handed generation to generation. It was a magnificent building. My furnished apartment in the more humble section of the building was quiet affordable. Their maintenance staff was awesome.
I have a feeling Arfie that your desecration of houses might be different from the abuses I’ve witness to some glorious houses for college student housing. I wouldn’t be so opposed if it weren’t for the clearly idiotic and structurally unstable methods I’ve seen landlords resort. Fortunately, where we live now has very strict restrictions in place recently about student housing and what can actually be done to create a student rental property to those old homes. Our town from what I’ve recently learned has now become overrun by the historical society which is on a crusade to completely restore the original downtown areas. And if your a homeowner you most certainly don’t want your house put on the registry as they’re historical dictators that require entire homes to become restored to historic accuracy including the interiors and furnishings. You can have the modern conveniences like central air and heat, appliances but if your on the register kiss any decorating ideas good bye.
I’ve seen so extremely awesome interior remodeling of historical beauties so I’m not at all against that. It’s when you start getting stairs to nowhere and cutting up levels with no sound structural basis that makes me cringe. As the daughter of a mechanical contractor (originally plumber), yeah..., there are just some things that are not only idiotic to do to a house but a guaranteed lawsuit waiting to happen if some college party got out of hand. I’ve seen some remodels that just shouldn’t be architecturally possible much less meet housing codes.
But that’s just me.
Hugs
Yea, you're right that my desecrations are different than the college club house variety. I'll risk the sin of pride over some of my adult remodeling desecrations., buttttttaaaaa. . .
My mother was quite innovative and resourceful in the housing of her 11 biological children and endless streams of foster children, etc. Not too many contemporary single family houses can handle such a brood. Her specialty was houses which had been cornered into "Historical Marker" restrictions. That's a body of politics which she had a gift for spotting and using to her advantage. She preferred the rural variety, but the nostalgic money pit "Historical Markers" can be spotted just about anywhere.
The student damage is mild by comparison to what a large, unsupervised brood of traumatized children can do. I thank my mother for having given all that insight to old buildings but cry when I remember what we did to those buildings.