What a difference 6 years makes...

Right well the house....I'm not sure that I really want to go over it all again but I'm sure your all curious so here I go.

We did a walk through the house as soon as we got the keys back last week. It was dusk and there was no electricity but it looked ok. There were issues to be sure but overall the house was still standing. However Saturday morning in the harsh light of day, with our sleeves rolled up and our sponges at the ready things looked a little different.

It took two days of constant scrubbing to get the place somewhere near decent. I'm not discussing the toilet and the oven might need to be replaced because even if we can get it clean I don't think I could bring myself to trust it not to poison me.
Aside from the cleaning there's a leak in the roof, rubbish left everywhere, gutters that have fully grown gum trees sprouting from them, (well almost) dog poo all over the garden and various items missing or damaged, including walls, doors and light fittings.

Cleaning wise I'm sure there are much worse houses out there. I also sure that I've never been inside one of them. We both get that it's a rental and that people don't look after them like they would their own place but I still don't understand how anyone would want to live like that. We fully expected wear and tear, what we didn't expect was the complete lack of care these tenants had, not just for the house or for their own quality of life but also for their kids.

This has been a lesson in just how 'different' people can be.

However we have a choice here. We can stew over the unfairness of it all giving ourselves ulcers and generally being miserable. OR we can roll up our sleeves, hold our noses against the strong doggy smell of the carpet and get on with it!

And we are doing exactly that...getting on with it. We've cleaned till our fingers bled and we are all set to move in this weekend. (bleeding fingers crossed) We've toyed with the idea of painting everything (goodness knows it needs it) before we moved in but quite frankly it's been 6 years since we lived on our own and we just couldn't wait.

Once we get our furniture and belongings in there it should start to feel more like home and I think that's when inspiration for the colour schemes will come.

Can't wait for me to be sitting on my couch in my house watching my TV and knitting my sock!!