by Crystal Shimo

Created on: July 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 26, 2009

The moment we stepped into the house, I knew it was going to be the worst place we ever lived, and we lived at a lot of places. The boards on the floors were cracked and creaky. With every step we took, there was the feeling that we would fall through the floor at any instant. The walls were skeletons. The only thing seen was the supports and a little insulation hanging out.

The bathroom only had a toilet, and pipes poking out of the floor where a sink was supposed to go. Where the bathtub was, there was more pipes sticking out of the floor. The floor was solid concrete stained with heaven knows what that wouldn't come up with any mop or hand scrub.

The bedrooms were only big enough for one bed and one desk, which left maybe two steps in any direction. The only one bigger was the master bedroom, which after a king sized bed was placed in there had maybe four steps around each side of the bed. We were told that we were renting this place in exchange for work on the interior.

Dad had agreed to work on the interior of the house in order to get a discount on the rent we paid to our landlords. We were expected to assist mom and dad in the renovating of the house and the yard around it. The house had an air of disease about it, like it was sick and we were just delaying the inevitable. My sister and I helped mom and dad enthusiastically at first.

We were extremely interested in making our bedrooms the way we wanted them. We got to choose the color of our rooms, and where to put our bed and desk. We couldn't move all of our things in right away, we had to keep the majority of our things in our old trailer that was two houses away. Any time we had to go to the bathroom or take a shower or bath, we had to go to our old trailer as the bathroom in our new house didn't have a sink or tub.

When we did finally get a sink and tub, the water in the pipes was so backed up that when we turned the water on, nothing but liquid mud and mold came out of the pipes for days at a time. I have kept this in mind whenever I see an add for fixer upper when looking for someplace to move. Never, will I ever, move into another place like that. And beware to anyone who answers an ad for a fixer upper.

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