There is a saying that I've adopted lately: "Jump, and the net will appear." That seems to sum up me and my family's move to the Creekistan area. In July of 2005, my husband and I purchased a house that had been neglected and left abandoned for a couple of years. It needed a lot of work to make it livable and to make improvements to it. Originally, we were going to work on the house in our "spare" time over the summer and during the holidays, as well as hire work to be done. Then, when it became ready for us to live in, we would look into moving. However, a job became available for me near Creekistan that was too good to pass up. So, we leaped.
When we moved, the house was not livable. In fact, I could hardly stand even being inside of the house! Things were strewn everywhere. Faulty construction plagued the structure. Small animals and insects had started to take over. It was a mess! So, we rented a two-room construction trailer to live in for a couple of months while we get the house fixed. The construction trailer wasn't much better, actually. But it at least had air conditioning and a door. We had to run electric to it from the house. Therefore, we couldn't watch TV and run the air conditioner at the same time. Not that it mattered much, we can't receive any channels anyway!
Both the trailer and the house lacked a usable bathroom. With two males and a baby wearing diapers, it wasn't much of a problem. I become proficient with using the outdoor "ladies room" at a secluded area near some tall plants. In other words, "squat by the bamboo." It wasn't so bad: when I used the ladies room in the morning, I was sharing it with beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds. If you needed to do "number two," however, we had rigged up an old swing set, covered it with tarp, and included a "bucket seat" to do your business. My 5 year-old actually had fun using this contraption, but I seemed to have developed selective constipation.
Showers were a problem. Since we didn't have a hot-water heater, we had to make our own hot water. We set up a camp shower that warmed up water using the sun. That worked for both my husband and I, but my son wasn't very thrilled. The baby, on the other had, loved taking baths outside in a little tub. I lucked out by having a shower here at my new job, and utilized it on a daily basis. In fact, I would bring the kids here to wash them up too! Especially when it started getting colder and darker outside.
Cooking was a problem, too. I was a Girl Scout, and was proficient with making campfires and cooking on them. But day after day, it became tedious. We had a grill, but that too became a problem. Especially when it got dark earlier in the evening. It's just too difficult to cook in the dark. So, we ate out a lot!
Work on the house progressed. In fact, we finished the bathroom and the master bedroom the first week of November. Just in time, too, since it started getting cold outside. Recently The kitchen is almost done, too, except for the floor. But the rest of the house is quite undone. Hopefully by spring we will have made a lot more progress. By summer, I hope to start having parties!
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