I would just like to have it on record that pretty soon this country is going to forget about Thanksgiving. Universities are going to get a week off for "National Christmas Shopping Week." I suppose discussing the hype is just as bad as being a part of it, but I think someone needs to remind people what the Spirit of Thanksgiving is, or something, because I don't think anyone gets it.
We left for Iowa on Sunday evening. Monday we drove up to uni to see some people. I ran into a friend from high school who just got married. She's one of the only members of her class (a year behind me) that isn't still living in the hometown spending a lot of time drunk, high, or both. Yeah, good use of all the potential that class was supposed to have.
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in DM with the Grown Ups. We stay with my brother who's living in my grandparent's house.
I know I've talked about this before, but I would absolutely love to have that house. It would be an amazing amount of work to have that house, but I honestly don't know how I would feel about it if someone who didn't really understand the house got it. It's been in my grandfather's family since it was built, and it just doesn't seem right for it to go to strangers.
Anyway, The Boy and I have talked about it on and off, and I've told him I'd like to have it if there were any possible way. Basically, that way would be if he were to be offered a job in the city. It's not totally out of the question, but he's just as likely to get something there as anyplace else.
So, brought this up with the Grown Ups, just as a sort of possibility and because my brother is getting tired of the fact that he doesn't really live there. He's become more an everlasting house sitter who has to pay the utilities. He informed us we were moving in this March so he can move out and try his hand at being a hobo or a super hero or a plumber or whatever stupid scheme he's concocted this time. (I wish I were kidding, these are genuine things he's aspired to, and all since he's turned 18, so it's not as though I'm dragging kid's stuff into this.)
Anyway, I just wanted to find out, because it always sounds like a wonderful idea until I think about it too much. I know that the house needs work. It mostly needs one new kitchen and one new bath; the upstairs bathtub hasn't worked in my lifetime and the upstairs kitchen sink's pipes froze a year ago or so and ruined a couple of cupboards and possibly some floor. (The house, I've mentioned, has two kitchens. I found out the kitchen in the basement was put in because Aunt Hilda -my grandfather's Aunt Hilda- did a lot of canning and preferred not to do it in the "good" kitchen.) The outlets all needed updating and there are termite problems. There's also repainting and recarpeting that would need to be done along with possibly some tile work.
However, this is almost the case with any other home. The termites might be a little outside the norm, but most people move into a house and change the bathrooms, kitchen, repaint and re-floor. But, it seems that there are other things that should probably be done too.
The house has a septic system. Uncle Frank (Aunt Hilda's husband) used to own a motel in the area. My dad says Uncle Frank always said that they'd never outgrow the septic tank for the house because it was the same size as the one for the motel. Apparently, you could've parked two cars inside the thing. Yeah.
I understand it sits in the side yard outside the kitchen window. You could park two cars on that part of the grass and not a whole lot else, so it's easy to guess where the tank is. My uncle says that it may not be legal to actually sell the house with that tank still in the ground, meaning that the old one might have to be dug up and a new one put in.
Yikes.
There are also outbuildings to be taken care of. The outhouse foundation has cracked and leans further than it ever has before. From my point of view, taking it out entirely isn't an option. Its placement with the barn allows for the little mossy fern-y path that would make you believe in fairies if you saw it on a dewey morning.
There are plenty of other things that need to be done, the cave (root cellar, but, whatever) needs work. The barn needs a little, the rest of the hen house should probably come down, etc. The lot's not quite a football pitch, unless it would be a small one, but it might be about a football field. I suppose if you want to be accurate, it's the field when you include the inzones, sidelines, etc. A standard American football field has about the same area as an acre, a typical European football pitch can be anywhere between one and two acres, but is generally about an acre and a half.
You can imagine the kind of work that goes along with a place that size, and after my father and uncles grew up, my grandfather tackled it pretty much single handed. And, up until about the last year, he was doing a good job of it too.
I'll admit that I'm considering this way too much at the moment, because it seems like a possibility right now, but who knows what will happen with TB. For all I know, he'll end up getting an offer from who knows where on the other side of the country.
Still, it's nice to think about.