posted on Nov, 13 2020 @ 11:49 AM
Unfortunately the stigmatized house on our street is... mine.
For years my husband has refused to perform a scintilla of maintenance on our home. He is a bit of a hoarder (not as bad as some, though) and he has a
peculiar blind eye toward our home's curb appeal. I have done what I can on our small income over the years to make the inside cozy and I keep a nice
vegetable garden in the back, but the exterior of the house is, well, decrepit. Rotted wood, sagging timbers, fascia with holes in it, and stained,
cracking old stucco. We have a huge pine tree with ground cover under it out front, so the whole front yard is very buggy; lots of spider webs and a
very deep carpet of pine needles on everything, including the roof.
I have done what I can but I'm only one person and I'm only 5'2" and not in the greatest health to be climbing on ladders and doing construction work,
though in my younger years I did quite a lot of that around here, because no one else would do it and hubby wouldn't "let" me hire anyone to help.
Hubby, in contrast, is the very picture of health and totally COULD do these things; normal things every other working man on our street does to
maintain his home, and doesn't expect his wife to do. Like replacing fascia, patching stucco, painting, replacing broken light fixtures, installing
rain gutters, trimming tree branches, etc. This issue has almost ended our marriage on more than one occasion, but I stick with the man because he's
otherwise a very decent man, honest, moral, friendly, all around nice guy who would give you the shirt off his back. The whole weird situation with
this house is a strange dichotomy in his character.
I swear all the neighbors on our street must think ours is a crack house or that an alcoholic or a very old person must live here. Many people on my
street make assumptions about me, look at me sideways, gossip about me, or don't talk to me at all. They have no idea that we're actually an average,
quiet, clean-living, conservative couple who until this year worked as a blue collar construction foreman (him) and an office assistant for a
financial services company (me).
The few neighbors who talk to us and who have come in, have been very curious to see inside and are usually surprised to see how "normal" the interior
is (my domain), compared to the outside (hubby's domain).
However, after 24 years of letting the house decay more and more, my husband has finally agreed to (pay someone else to) repair the house! We had the
foundation retrofitted earlier this year and as I write there are men on my roof replacing the WHOLE THING, wood and all, and then shingling and
adding solar panels. More repairs to come...