Adventures in Home-Ownership (installment #2)

Hello house!

There she is, in all of her fixer-upper glory...

You'll note flags in the yard (utility markers for when the sewer is dug up this week), ivy covering the chimney (we'll be up there one of these days, teetering on a ladder with wire brushes in hand, trying to pull the pesky stuff down), and an open front door (because at the moment, bugs are the least of our concerns).

A few notable events from the last two days:

1) Clean entire house. House smells like flowers. Close house up for the night.
2) Return to house next morning. House smells worse than ever.
3) Pray that God would show us where the stupid smell is coming from, gosh darn it.
4) Marty discovers an attic. Marty opens the attic. Marty discovers 5 inches of raccoon poop in attic. Minor meltdown occurs. Then, we thank God (see point #3).
5) Raccoon discovered on roof. Marty and visiting brother-in-law-to-be attempt to coerce us into letting them shoot it. Overruled.
6) Standing in the kitchen, underneath a running ceiling fan, I suddenly feel drops of water on my arm. I look up. Water is dripping from our ceiling fan. Yikes.
7) Crowd of neighbors gather on front lawn. One thinks that I'm the cleaning lady, hired by the new owners. I tell him that I am the new owner. No comment from neighbor.
8) Marty begins to clean out attic. Unfortunately, attic is 100+ degrees. Marty is miraculously optimistic.
9) We buy new locks. And another gas mask.

I could go on, but I'll stop there. Needless to say, we're the talk of our little neighborhood, we're in over our heads, and we're absolutely loving it.

Minus the raccoon poop.