From the outside of the house, I could see that a pair of huge, old trees threatened to crush it if they fell. There were quite a few overgrown and ill-placed bushes that also needed to be removed. Some shingling on the house was missing. A fence needed to be installed, especially with businesses and a bar on the other side of the alley behind the house.
Inside the house was worse. When I finally got the key to enter the it, I walked in to the thick smell of mold. Figuring the mold was coming from the basement, that was the first place I looked. It was not pretty. Mold crept up walls and covered a garbage littered floor. Two old, broken freezers in the basement needed to be removed. One of the freezers was empty. The other emitted a foul stench, even though it was closed. Two dead water-heaters also needed to be lifted out of the basement and disposed. There was a water-stained drop ceiling covering the underside of the floor above. Supports looked like they needed help. . . And that was just the basement.
From what I understand, renters had been living in the basement before the house was foreclosed by the city. They had erected drywall walls down there for privacy while they worked on fixing the upstairs of the house. Their labor to fix up the place served as their rent. When the city foreclosed the property, the renters only took what they thought was of value. Everything else was abandoned.
When the house was seized, the city turned off the utilities. With no electricity running to it, the sump pump stopped working and water flooded the basement every time the water table got high. The combination of garbage, water and no ventilation (the house was all closed and locked up) fostered the mold.
Upstairs was not much better. The kitchen was gutted. The floors were (are) only floorboards, except for some unfinished and broken tiling in the kitchen, a carpeted living room and a tiled bathroom (some broken tile in there, too, but I think it can be fixed). The electric wiring was (is) all messed up. There was a leak in the roof. The front porch was (is) sinking. Some of the windows were (are) not level. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Slowly but surely, I am working on this house with the help of my family. The first thing we did was rent the largest dumpster available to remove as much moldy garbage as we could fit into it, including the drywall from the basement. We went over the weight limit by 2,000 pounds. Next, I researched mold. Then I dragged my daughtger up to the house with my buckets, mop and chemicals. We washed down the basement floors, walls and studs. The mold (mostly) disappeared.
My neighbors took down the huge trees in my back yard and most of my ugly bushes. My parents paid a roofer to patch the hole in my roof. My brother, sister, sister-in-law, parents, daughter and I all helped replace the missing shingling on the house last Fall. This summer, my birthday present from my parents is the raising of my porch. My siblings and their families have all agreed to donate some time to restoring the inside of the house as much as possible. And, believe it or not, I intend to learn how to fix my electrical wiring. (I reserve the right to call an electrician for help as needed.) Right now, the house is barely livable. (It is still better than when I found it, though!) By the middle of summer, it should be occupancy approved by the city. By summer's end, it will be in better condition than it has been for years.
I understand why God put this task before me. It is a metaphor for my marriage and a symbol for hope. My marriage was substandard living before it was foreclosed, but it was not much of a home. My husband's adultery equivocates to the garbage left in the basement when the house was foreclosed. The mold, obviously, is what happens when the sump pump (my attempts to sustain our family) stops receiving electric current (my husband's favor) and the garbage is allowed to fester. But most important are my consistant efforts to slowly renovate the house after foreclosure. When construction is finished, this will be a beautiful cottage home that has No Mortgage. (My daughter and I are already looking at flowers!)
Do you think I will ever let my renovated home get back to the condition it was when it was forclosed? No Way! I will spend the effort to maintain it. The same principal applies to my marriage when it has been restored.
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