Bringing Down the House

I've mentioned before that we're having a new house built where our old house stood.  Undoubtedly I will repeat some details.  The old house was built in 1964 out of blocks that had a pale blue glaze on one side. The house needed saving or destruction when we first bought it in 1993. We saved it by doing extensive renovations and repairs. Even then we were well aware that the lot was worth more than the house, because the lot is on Annapolis's South River where it enters the Chesapeake Bay.

We didn't put a new roof on the house even though it was not long thereafter we bought it when the wind started blowing shingles off. We were planning to build a second story when we accumulated enough money, so why waste the money on a new roof? But living near the water is hard on roofs, and periodically Tom would climb on top of the house to put roofing material over the bare spots. Fortunately, the roof was simple and had a low peak, so Tom did not risk his life doing this, and he could take advantage of a great view of the water from up there.

Ultimately, wind and water took its toll on the roof and the rest of the house, with leaks especially apparent in our bedroom, where a hole steadily expanded in the cathedral ceiling, letting in insulation and cold air. The crawl space, which we had had waterproofed and was nice and dry for the first ten years or so thereafter, eventually took on water from plumbing leaks and snowfalls. Mice and raccoons also intruded. It was not unusual to see a mouse run across the floor of the family room in the evening while we were watching TV. Raccoons in the roof and under the bedroom floor would rustle around at night disturbing our sleep until we finally realized the source of the noise.

We were losing the battle to both species despite persistent trapping efforts. One raccoon trapping experience resulted in the humane capture and release of a mother and her babies (years later, the release of captured raccoons became illegal out of fear of the spread of rabies). Since we had stopped living in the house during the work week in 2002, the critters had more opportunities to execute their attack than we had to defend against it. The mice built nests in a computer printer and in a sofa, among other places, shredding paper to make them cozy. Mice poop became so common in the kitchen drawers that we took the stuff out of them and stopped using them.

The house had outlived its natural life span. Our architect determined with the help of a structural engineer that the house could not support a second floor. It was time for change. It took about two weeks to take the house down to the foundation.

Here are a few things I learned during the process of house destruction:

1. Mice do not need to taste non-natural fibers to know they don't like them. Wool items stored under the house were well-eaten, but the polyester things were untouched. I don't think they care much for granola bars, either, based on similar observations.

2. Plastic shopping bags are nearly indestructible. Many were in our crawl space and even though they got wet, they remained intact and structurally as good as new. Even the ink was stable. This is why it's important to recycle plastics rather than bury them or otherwise discard them.

3. Plastic garbage bags seem to biodegrade when wet. I guess they make them to do that. Why can't them make all plastic bags biodegradable?

4. Do not store things in cardboard if there's a risk of its exposure to water. Cardboard is biodegradable and vulnerable to attack from mold and mildew. If breakable objects are in a cardboard box that has been wet but then has dried, remove the objects before lifting the box.

5. Raccoons have a high-fiber diet and tubular-shaped poop. They enjoy watermelon but spit out the seeds.

6. Raccoons are not always as cute as commonly portrayed. A raccoon living out in the wild can look pretty scruffy.

7. Some artificial fibers seemed immune to mold, mildew, and other causes of decay. I found this especially to be the case for knit scarves and hats. These came out of the worst possible conditions looking nearly as good as new with just a slight smell of mildew as a result of exposure to less durable fabrics.

Let It Go

I accumulate things that I should let go. I always have a reason for keeping them, but they are not good reasons. Some of these reasons are: One of these days I might be interested in this again (to justify retaining books and papers on topics I used to work on); I want my grandchildren to have this (to justify keeping my kids' toys and clothes); my parents gave this to me (to justify keeping clothes I can't wear any more or other items that no longer fit my lifestyle); or this will be worth something some day (to justify retaining old video game systems and their paraphernalia).

The unfortunate fact is that the accumulation of large amounts of unused stuff results in every item having the same low value. The things get stored in bags or boxes out of sight and difficult to reach. The one or two things that actually might be worth keeping for posterity or resale get lost in the crowd. Moreover, the storage sites are probably spots in your house, like the attic, basement, garage, or crawl space that are vulnerable to heat, cold, water leaks, insects, etc., that can damage or destroy. Your stashing of stuff in these places is not attractive to prospective buyers if you're trying to sell your home. If you are moving, they cost you time, effort, and money at a time when you are already under a lot of stress.

Take for example, my kids' stuffed animals, which were in excellent condition when they were stuff in supposedly secure trash bags and stored in our extremely dry crawl space. Then came a record-breaking snowfall, and the crawl space wasn't so dry any more and the bags not so secure. Mold on a cute stuffed animal is particularly ugly, especially when you're moving out of the home your kids grew up in and seeing the decay of their toys somehow makes you feel that you are an irresponsible parent.

So I am intent on learning my lesson. I will no longer store en masse. An item that I can care for and display is enough to hold many memories of other things that I will give away, throw away, or sell. When we move into the new house, I will diligently, promptly, and systematically let go of possessions and let someone else have their benefit.

House under Construction

Emptying our house in preparation for new construction revealed just how ready it was to become part of our memories and make way for our future.  The leaky roof, which Tom had patched repeatedly over the years, had allowed water to penetrate the ceiling in a number of spots, most notably in the master bedroom, where a steadily widening hole allowed insulation and cold air to come in.  Mice poop was everywhere and throughout the house along in various corners and cubbyholes, the little critters had made nests.  The crawl space had let in melting snow that saturated the huge amount of stuff that we had stored there--books, baby clothes, toys, etc.--to the point that it succumbed to a coating of black mold.  We had caught numerous raccoons over the past several years that had made their home in the attic and the crawl space and let them go miles away, but apparently our hospitality was well-known among the greater raccoon community.

It struck me as I walked in for the last time before demolition that the house was reverting to the way we found it back in 1995, when the bathroom and kitchen floors were soaked to the point that the toilet had almost fallen through and termites had occupied the crawl space from the surface of two and a half feet of standing water to the underside of floors and were eating the wallboard in the living room, kitchen, and dining room, and had already consumed the metal screens of the back porch.

We revived the house then by doing extensive renovations, but it seemed that its life span was destined to be 50 years.  The contractors were salvaging a few things--bookcases built by my dad, our natural cherry kitchen cabinets, the four load-bearing Doric columns, some light fixtures, some hand-painted crown molding, and a unique curved wall half-wall--to remind us of the home that was, but it was time for a more durable structure to take over.