Ted's House

I've been helping my brother Ted do some work on his new house; the first one he's bought. It's a cute little airplane bungalow; it promises to be a good place to call home. He knew it needed some remedial work when he bought it - the kitchen counters were badly deteriorated, and the floors needed some TLC.

But, as he's dug into the place, he's discovered one problem after another. This wasn't completely unexpected - he knew, given the purchase price, that the place had some issues. He just didn't know what they were before he closed.

Someone used latex paint over the oil on the wood, and the pretty white trim in the bedrooms gets dinged up if you look at it crossways. The tub was plumbed wrong, and has no cold water to the shower. (Ouch!) There was once a fire in the kitchen, and the side of one of the cabinets is badly charred. The floor in the back room addition only pretends to be level. The gas line for the stove isn't actually connected back to the supply. Stuff like that.

The part that has me angry is the part where someone faked out the wiring update. They found coating from modern romex wire, took the old knob and tube wire off the outlets, sheathed it so it looked like it had been replaced, then reconnected it. The setup was a fire waiting to happen; thank Goodness Ted found the issue before he plugged in the floor sander.

Most of the other stuff can be explained away by ignorance and having low standards for maintenance. But this one. This one could have gotten someone killed. And given that they knew enough to fake out the system, the person who did the wiring had to have known what a dangerous stunt they were pulling. In what world is this an OK thing to do?

The whole thing got me to thinking about the cycle of poverty and how people get trapped in substandard housing. (The house isn't in the most wealthy of neighborhoods - people like Ted are coming in and fixing places up, but much the housing stock has been neglected for decades and is in pretty rough shape.) Fortunately, Ted either has the know-how to fix the problems he finds, or he knows someone who does. He can afford the parts to do the repairs, and doesn't have to pay himself to do the labor.

But he is an outlier; most people don't have the skills to be able to do the work themselves. If he were part of the majority, he'd be hurtin' for certain right about now. He'd have put most of his available funds into purchasing the house, only to find he couldn't live there without shelling out a bunch of money he wouldn't have available. No wonder people can't escape poverty. It's a catch-22.

Grrrr.

Tonight, I am grateful he has what he needs to fix up his nest, and that I have some time to help him do it. He'll be moving in soon - the repairs won't be done, but the house will be livable. Once he's in, it won't take him too long to finish turning the place around. Good, bad and ugly, it's all his. It's a beautiful thing to see.

Go, Ted!