Renovating and reminiscing

    What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear, “I’m renovating a house!” For some, it means a lot of time and money while for others it’s just another day at work.
    If you would have asked me this question a year ago I would have immediately said that’s something I would love to do one day. Little did I know that an opportunity would present itself sooner rather than later.
    For the last seven months I have been working and living in my grandparents’ house, both of which have been gone for several years now.
    This tiny little house that held so many memories hadn’t been lived in for a couple of years. The last occupants were my older brother and some of his friends who left it in the truest and rawest form of a mess only bachelors can achieve.
    The house was a mess and every one of my aunts and uncles warned me not to even think about living there because it could possibly “fall in on me at any moment.”
    Being the stubborn determined person I am, I gave no regard to this. I was going to restore my grandparents home and not a soul in the world could tell me otherwise.
    When I got there, the front door was a broken duct taped screen door that barely latched. There was, what is fairly categorized as, junk everywhere and boy do I mean everywhere! Layers of dust coated every corner and crevice. I thought the tile in the bathroom was supposed to be brown, and was shocked to find that there was a white oven underneath a layer of sickly yellow grime.
    It took two months to clean everything and sort through all of the, for lack of better term, stuff.
    Then I got to the wallpaper. Does that word fill anyone else’s heart with dread or is it just me? In the bathroom alone I peeled off five layers of that ridiculously stubborn sticky stuff. When I finally got to the base wall, I rejoiced and literally danced around the house. Side note, if you have stubborn wallpaper mix together equal amounts of fabric softener and water in a spray bottle. It is a gift sent from heaven, folks, and saved me hours of scraping and tearing.

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