Pee in the toilet and The Pawnee Motel Water Company

I just bought a cute old house in a cute little town on a half acre.  I’m excited to move to a small little town.  There are maybe 29 houses, a couple of churches, a volunteer fire station, a Post Office, a small motel and a school.  No street lights and dirt roads.  I’m going to love it.

It was a bittersweet day as I was on my way to closing and my Mom called and told me my Uncle Bob had just passed away.  He would have loved seeing this house and what I do with it and how I’ll do the gardens.  RIP Uncle Bob.

It’s a little over an hour drive to get to the house for the walk-through and when I get there I jokingly say, “I need to see if the toilet in the bathroom works.”  I go in and the previous owner had used it and not flushed.  Really???  Welcome to your new home, here’s a surprise.  The toilet did work so wonder why he didn’t know how to use it.

After the closing I go back to the house and meet my good friend Dan.  We get started on the house.  The first thing I want to do is rip out the new carpet upstairs in the bedrooms.  One of my goals in life is to live in a carpet free house.  There is cool old original wood up there in the hallway.  I asked what was under the carpet and I was told the same wood that is in the hallway. Painted the same.  The carpet comes out pretty easily except we can’t get it under the closet doors so we take the doors off.  We can’t get it under the room doors so we take those off too.  Now it comes out easily except for that one closet door track that is screwed through the carpet.  We unscrew the track and then the carpet comes out easily. We think about cutting it up to make it easy to carry but we know that someone in town would like the carpet so we try to roll it up. None of the rooms are square so we’re folding the carpet and trying to roll it.  Ah well, that is easier said than done.  We sort of fold/roll it and start pushing it down the stairs.  There’s a little loose plaster on the wall so we find it all as the carpet goes down the stairs.  Bits of plaster now adorn the stairs.  Guess we needed to find those spots sooner or later.  Oh yeah, the floor is gray with white paint splattered all over it from the ceiling being painted without a floor cover.  Just like the hallway – NOT!!

With carpet

Without carpet – going to paint the floor

My vision was this nice wood under the carpet so we could pull it out, I could set up a couple of beds and sleep there for the first night.

We drag the carpet outside and with the help of another friend John we load the carpet into his truck to be carted off to the youth center in town which is around the corner.

We decide to call it a day and go find some food which is an adventure because the closest food is over a half hour away.  We call my good friend Denise (other half of John) and ask if they would like to join us.  John has not arrived home yet and we tell her he was off to see if he could get rid of the carpet at the locked building with no one there.  We decide on Mexican food in Eaton.  Everyone makes the obligatory joke about Eatin in Eaton.

All of a sudden I remember I need to go to the water company office and change the water to my name.  At closing I asked where to do that and they said “well, it used to be in the market but I think the moved it to the motel”.  Off I head half a block away to the Pawnee Motel.   We knock on the door but get no answer.   There is a number on the door so Dan calls it and a lady answers and says her husband should be inside.  I ring the bell.  No answer.   The nice lady says she will call him and Dan hangs up and we hear the phone ring inside.  No answer.  The lady calls Dan back and is concerned so she says she will be right over.  She says she can’t help us with the water but needs to find out why her husband didn’t answer the door.  All of a sudden the door opens and there he is. He invites us in and asks me my name and writes it down and says he’ll call in the change.  We call his wife back and tell her she doesn’t need to come home as he is there and ok.  We now officially call it the Pawnee Motel Water Company.

Off we go to Eaton for a nice dinner with Denise and John.

Uh oh, couldn’t put the bed up.  Actually decide to repaint the floor, and while I’m at it the walls and ceiling could use it to. There is still some padding and tack strip to get out of the rooms so we can do that tomorrow.

Ended up sleeping at Denise’s house.  Ran out of steam and it was getting late so the beds can wait.

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