When we moved to China almost 3 years years ago we decided to sell all our vehicles but keep our house. We did not rent it out but kept it unoccupied and full of our stuff. We hired someone to clean for an hour once a month. Others were hired to clean the gutters and cut the grass, and 2 sets of terrific neighbors periodically checked on things.
The house is 25 years old and beginning to show its age. Some of the appliances and systems are also 25 years old. Since we came back to the USA, the work on it has been almost constant.
It's been quite an adjustment for me. In China, I hardly did anything that could be called house work or yard work or home maintenance. We lived in apartments in a city with very cheap labor. I guess I did hang a picture or two but nothing else.
Now Sun-Ling and I are tackling a 5-year - we lived in Florida for two years before going to China - backlog of home maintenance projects on an aging house. I won't bore you with the list, but the amount of work is significant both in time and in money. I began to thing that it was a bad decision to leave the house unattended for so long.
However, after a few days of stewing on this thought, I've moved on. Lots of work means lots of accomplishments; lots of items crossed off the to-do list; and the physical nature of many of the jobs is good for the body and mind.
After a few more months the house will be ready for another 5 years of minimal maintenance. :-)
Borax.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Most Recent Post
New Zealand: Christchurch
After the wedding, we figured we could still bag another country before the airfares go up mid December. Since we really liked our New Zeala...
Most Popular Posts of Last 30 Days
-
Salvador was the original capital of Brazil until 1763 when Rio took over. The area not only grew sugar cane but also was the major point of...
-
From Salvador we headed inland to the Chapada Diamentina Region. We had decided to base ourselves in Lencois, a small colonial town founded ...
-
When Indigo airlines canceled our Colombo-Hyderabad flight, we took India and Pakistan off our itinerary. Considering we are in the 10th yea...
-
Hehuanshan (Mount Hehuan) at 3400+ m.a.s.l has a full service hotel run by park services and is only three hours of bus ride from Taichung t...
-
From Brasilia, we flew 9 hours to Lisbon; then, after a 5-hour layover, 13 hours to Hangzhou, just a one hour train ride away from Shanghai....
-
From Yining, China, we began a somewhat difficult two-day journey to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan via Zharkent, Kazakhstan. The easy route would hav...
-
The Ixil Triangle is an area in the Western Highlands of Guatemala where the locals speak Ixil, not Spanish the language of their European c...
1 comment:
The house looked great when we had meeting in August, as usual. I always enjoyed the atmosphere and especially the art works you two brought back from all over the world.
Mei
Post a Comment