After our initial shock of the Asbestos, Mold and Rats pre-story, the journey from the rat race to country space officially begins, as we have finally received the keys to our little farmhouse and get see what further awaits us.  Yay!  I am excited and nauseous all at the same time.  As I look at the house again with fresh eyes and a sense of reality, I think… what have we gotten ourselves into.  I have to admit that the exterior of the house looks even more tired than I remember, and seems a little more daunting than I expected.  The house is pretty much a square box with a green metal roof and chipped beige stucco… very non-discript.  Around the exterior of the house there are lots of items left behind, which we expected, and piles of wood to keep us warm for about 20 years!  As we walk up the stairs to the deck I notice the years of wear and tear on the deck that will definitely need some attention.  Oh… good, more wood.  Make that 21 years!  Again, fresh, realistic eyes.  But as we get to the deck the nausea diminishes and a sense of calm overcomes me as I look out at the view.  Spectacular!  Even more beautiful in the fall I think.  The symmetry of the agriculture fields and the rolling hills… a canvas of fall colours.  Little farm houses surrounded by the reds, yellows and golds of the farmer fields.  Beautiful.  How can you not feel tranquil in this moment.

With a quick head shake I turn to the moment of truth… walking through the front door to see what awaits us.  As I walk through the door, I am taken aback by the smell of the place.  What is that smell my husband and I both ask.  No clue, but let’s just say the nausea is back.  As we look around the house, I have to admit that it is in a better state than I thought it would be in, other than the smell of course.  We had expected that most of the furniture and belongings would have been left behind, but in fact most of the house was cleared out.  And, it looks like they spent a fair bit of time cleaning the place before they left.  Both pleasant surprises.

So let’s give you all a bit of a tour of our little place.  You will see that inside the house is just as colourful as the fall colours outside.  There are a myriad of colours, which has resulted in us referring to rooms by their interesting colours.  But where shall we start… I guess in the front entry.

As you enter the house, you are taken immediately into an awkward space that is not really well defined yet.  From the entry you can see downstairs, down the hall and into the kitchen.  There are also a couple of massive picture windows that let in tons of light and look out to the amazing view.  The floors are a light laminate, ceilings are stipple and the walls are a bright yellow with…well let’s just say, lots of wood paneling!  The other thing that you notice quite prevelently are the spider webs on the walls and ceiling.

As we move to the hall you notice the age of the house, small cracks, chips and dirt on the walls and doors.  Mismatched light switches and plugs.  Oh yes and spider webs.  The laminate continues down the hall till you enter the rooms off the hall.  Here we have two bedrooms and one bathroom.  All rooms are actually a fairly good size.  First the bathroom.

The bathroom is definitely dated, but quite large.  Massive counter space and lots of storage.  Some outdated lino and a whole lot of wallpaper.  Just so you all know, I hate removing wallpaper.  Definitely not something I find calming.  It actually has the polar opposite effect on me and makes me angry!  But all in all nothing but a little sprucing up required.  The intriguing item in the bathroom is the inset mirror above the toilet.  More on this to come later.  Oh yes, did I mention spider webs?

Now we move to the green room.  Yes green… as it has green shag carpet and mint green walls.  And spider webs.  Are you sensing a theme here?  Here is also where the window replacements come in.  This room has single pane windows with some open air gaps.  Definitely not energy efficient, and I think a source of our friendly little spider friends we are finding everywhere.

Next the pink room.  Aptly named for its pink carpet and walls and more spiders.  No the spiders are not pink.  Here we also have single pane windows with a hole in them, covered with tape.  Very effective repair technique!

As we exit the rooms and hall, we enter the kitchen.  It is square with a bit of an island.  The cabinets actually look homemade out of paneling of some sort.  Oh yes and there is actual paneling as well.  Oddly… no spiders.

From the kitchen we move into the dining room and living room.  The dining room is mint green as well, with laminate floors, and big sliding doors to the deck.  The living room is quite large, lovely red shag carpet, wood walls and mint green walls, and a wood burning stove.  Please note this is also the epicentre of the spider webs.  Spider webs everywhere and on everything.  There were also a few musical instruments left behind should you want a musical interlude at some point and time.  Maybe we will start a band?  This is also where things get more interesting.  It appears that this end of the house was an addition at some point, and also where that bathroom mirror inset comes into play.  It looks as though the space where the mirror is was once a window to the outside.  Instead of closing it off they kept the frame for the window and just replaced the window glass with a bathroom mirror.  This could add an interesting feature.  A drive through window from the bath to the living room.  Maybe start a new trend?  

As you can see the main level is dated but has good bones to work with.  We will definitely need to do something about the spiders.  Fortunately I have yet to see our furry rat friends, but will certainly be adding spiders to the pest remediation.

Now let’s move downstairs.  Remember I said the living and dining room was the spider epicentre.  I take it back… it is definitely the basement.  I think they may have filmed the movie Arachnophobia here.  This place is not for the faint at heart.  Down here we find three bedrooms, a bathroom, a utility space and a workshop.  We will not go into the workshop in this post, as I think that one requires its own air time.  It is also where our furry little friends have made their home.  And don’t you think they should have their own story.

Down here is all carpet (except for lino over the carpet in the utility space… huh?), drywall, sparkly stipple ceilings, and as we have already discussed in the last post… moldy.  The other interesting thing to note down here is that the ceilings and walls are completely black as they are covered in soot.  The previous owner warmed the house through a wood burner in the basement, hence all the wood outside.  Sadly the burner was not vented properly and has pretty much covered the house in soot.  Particularly the basement hall and utility space.  The bedrooms and bath, oddly enough look fairly unscathed.

The bathroom as mentionned previously is in pretty good shape with a toilet, sink and shower.  Powder blue walls, lino floor and, oh yes, infested with mold!

Unfortunately the basement was not as cleared out as the upstairs.  As we first move to the orange room, with its lovely orange shag carpet and matching orange curtains, we also find a fridge, a mattress, bed frame, couch, chair, cushions, and I am sure the resting place for mice!  We have not seen any, but based on the shape of everything, it looks like a perfect nesting site.  Skin crawling again.  I believe a dumpster and hazmat suits may be in order.

The next bedroom has a stove, dressers, and miscellaneous items.  I think I may start a sideline antiquing business. The other bedroom is cleared out as this it the room they had to start work on due to the bathroom leak.

Now that you have received the tour, do you see the potential I do?  Or have you just been frightened away?  Stay tuned for our next installment when we begin demolition.  What little treats will we find under the flooring, in the nooks and crannies and behind the walls?

Don’t be afraid, if anything, just remember you are only reading about the journey.  We on the other hand are the ones living it.  So grab a cup of coffee, or maybe wine is more in order, and settle in for what I believe will be a story full of love, surprises, suspense, and quite possibly horror.  But, don’t worry my friends… I promise you a happy ending.