The empty house

David and I just got back from taking my mom to see our new apartment, and boy, am I overwhelmed! I took a clipboard with paper and pen to make notes, and now I’ve decided that’s not enough. So I started a binder for all of our house issues. So far there are separate pages for Carpenter, Electrical, Lights, Curtains, Furniture, and Cleaning, but I’m sure I’ll come up with more the next time I visit.

For those of you who have lived in the U.S. all your lives, it will be impossible for you to imagine the state of our apartment. The good news is that we’re not moving in until the last week of August or first week of September. The bad news is that there are a million things to do before and after we move in. Try and picture this with me:

We unlock the front door (they’ve given us four keys) and step inside. The floor is tiled here in the living room. There is a high ceiling above and two windows on our left, where the living room opens out—two bare walls to our left and a bare wall to the right. In the middle of the room is a huge pillar (?). The room is rather dark; it never gets any direct sunlight. David tries the light switch, but there are no bulbs in the four fixtures around the living room. Ah. They had told us there would be a ceiling fan, but—surprise! No ceiling fan. How can there be with a pillar in the middle of the room? And we’re talking a honking pillar, at least 3’ in diameter. No kidding. Right in the middle of the living room. Hmm.

As we move into the dining room, we notice that the tiles change abruptly from one design to another. It’s actually quite comical. The dining room is just three bare walls, including one large window, an arch for the fourth wall, and four light fixtures (no bulbs). There’s a J-box for a ceiling fan but no fan. A door on the left leads into the tile-floor kitchen.

It’s not big but not as tiny as the kitchen in our current flat. There’s an empty light socket in the middle of the ceiling. On the far wall is a window that gets morning light and a steel door with no lock, only two sliding bolts that don’t want to open. They’re probably painted shut. Under the window is a sink with a small steel sideboard (all one piece of metal). Water splutters out of the tap but then stops. Hmm. The sink is the only thing in the kitchen. The other walls are entirely bare, with one large outlet (meant for a stove/oven) where we’ll never be able to use it, right between the back door and the kitchen door, and one more outlet on the empty wall to the left of the door. It’s an awkward place for a fridge… We’ll have to figure something out. There are no cupboards, no shelves, nada.

Through the kitchen is a small storeroom we could use for a pantry—or “time out” room for the kids?—with a small, high window, bare concrete floor, and an empty light socket in the ceiling. The door locks—don’t ask me why! The walls are entirely bare. I figure we’ll have to put shelves in there if not cupboards. But we can’t put the fridge in there because—you guessed it—no outlets. We go back through the kitchen and dining room into the hallway. There are two empty light sockets in the ceiling and two outlets. Good. Mom stays behind in the storeroom to measure the window for potential curtains.

David and I go into the bathroom. It’s only big enough for a bathtub, toilet, and sink. Everything is filthy, covered with dried paint and dirt. The toilet tank has no cover, but the toilet seat is intact, and water trickles from the tap. Yes! The walls and floor are tiled (pink and blue) to about 7’ or 8’ high, and there’s an empty light socket overhead. I don’t know if we’ll be able to hang a mirror because of the tiled walls. But the good thing is the door locks—or at least, it will once we get the lock oiled. Right now it sticks. There’s a switch to on the water heater but no water heater, just an empty J-box. Aha. David tells me water heaters are rather expensive, not including the cost of getting them installed. Great.

The corner bedroom is the brightest; it receives direct sunlight more than half the day and has windows on two walls. We’ll need good curtains in there. The floor is bare concrete; we’ll have to bring in the carpet we’re using in our current living room. There are four empty light fixtures and a built-in closet (something we don’t have in our current flat!). But there is no rod to hang up hangers, so we’ll have to get the carpenter to do that in all three bedrooms. There is even a lock on the closet door, but we’ll never be able to lock it because the doors won’t close tightly due to wood expansion common in the rainy season. The other two bedrooms are much the same. The third has only one window, and the master bedroom has a smaller closet to accommodate the adjoining bathroom. How ironic. The master bathroom is exactly like the main bathroom. I notice that it, too, has a handheld shower fixture in the bathtub. Excellent. The tiles in here all have a pink design. For some reason, this is funny to me.

Mom finishes measuring all the windows, and we regroup. This place needs a whole lot of work. First things first, we’ll need screens put on the windows. Then we’ll ask the carpenter to put up boards above the living room windows to accommodate our curtain rods, which won’t screw easily into the concrete walls. After that we’ll have him build a cabinet under the kitchen sink. Our plans after that are still muddled. We’ll need to get the place cleaned; scraping dried oil-based paint off tiles is not on my list of favourite activities, so we’ll have to hire someone to clean for us. Should that be done before, after, or while the carpenter works? Without Ikea, Walmart, or Target, we’re going to give somebody a lot of business building our furniture. All we have is (2) bookcases, (2) dressers, (6) dining room chairs, an old sideboard/cabinet from my mom’s bathroom, and a canvas wardrobe from Walmart. That’s the extent of our furniture! We also need to buy (20) light bulbs if we can figure out the right wattage for each.

Well, we have our work cut out for us. Next time I go, I’ll try to remember my camera and give you an idea of what we’re up against. And how are we going to pay for all the work?? God only knows. Pray for us!