"TINY HOUSES"....Could this Work for Some?

[IrishAyes]

116. Good grief.

At least ten different families in town had brief stays in my home before I bought it at auction, and I had the worst time not behaving homicidal when they'd come and brag to me about what they'd done to 'improve' the place. I suppose they expected me to lavish praise on them for the atrocities they'd committed, but the best I could do was to mumble something about everybody having different decorating tastes. Truth is, it was all hideous when new. At least since it was falling apart by the time I got here, I have some cover for getting rid of stuff as fast as possible.

That's one strange thing I discovered; people seemed angry at times when they saw me getting rid of what they'd done. It offended them. When one couple with an antique store brought me some furniture and I made the mistake of saying the whole place has to be rennovated, they chided me severely - "It's been good enough for other people to live in!" I guess, if you like falling plaster, hideous paint, even worse carpeting, and almost worst of all, wallpaper borders! then yeah, it was a great place when I got here. There was the first model furnace Lennox ever built, about to blow up; rooms with no electricity, original window glass so fragile you couldn't wash it, holes in the walls, you name it. Don't even talk about the roof! Etc.

Either people were angry because they were jealous that I outbid everyone or angry because they still considered it their house; I don't know what. But it was weird. And all I did was grit my teeth and smile.

All the original doors remained, but for kitchen cabinet hardware I've used 2 sets of art deco hardware I took off a couple dressers found at curbside one Big Trash Day. Stuff like that. I'm good with recycling and repurposing. Partitioned long-legged laundry tubs painted green and turned into planters, backed against a shed clad with barn red metal roof panels, with a piece of white lattice slipped between them for contrast.

I found out fences are considered a slap in the face too, but what was I to do with 2 big chows? It's a whole different world here. Even with my thrifty ways, I've had to plow at least $40K into the place to make it livable, and I'm hardly halfway through. People didn't just let this place go to pot, they almost ruined it with their supposed improvements. Can you imagine cheap commercial carpet GLUED over hardwood floors???? Even the Amish contractors couldn't understand why I had to have those 'nice' lowered ceilings ripped out and raised back to their original 12'. Etc etc. I've circled the wraparound porch with lattice now; next summer comes gingerbread, I hope.

However, I was pleased with one couple visiting from Vermont. They came to see my house and said it made them homesick because it looks "so New England". I could've kissed their feet.