Buff Honey wants to live in various cities for a month during the summer until he is nearing feebleness. This year it’s Baltimore, next year New York and then Toronto. I’m fine with this, although I do not love walking for miles on end as he does. I’m fine with walking to restaurants, bars and the local CVS. We want to soak up the unique culture of each place.
In February, I started looking on Craigslist and the local ListServe for our Baltimore rental. I definitely wanted to be close to my daughter and her family, including my newest grandson so I could help out in whatever way she needed. The pickings were slim and temp rentals are crazy expensive. My daughter got a response from a neighbor a block away, who would be on vacation for three weeks in June. The price was right and the location even better.
She checked it out and said it was fine. We moved in Friday afternoon. Well, I am here to tell you, it is not fine. BH’s Olney house is a mansion in comparison. This is a house that HGTV would love to get their hands on. It’s a brick row house in a beautiful neighborhood one block from the Orioles ball park. Great curb appeal. And that’s about it. The interior needs a complete makeover….floors, bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms….you name it, it needs it.
The kitchen is the size of a half bath and every inch of counter space is taken up with appliances that don’t even work. Papers and old mail abound. The miniature pantry is full to overflowing and the cabinet doors don’t close. There’s not an iota of space on the refrigerator door, which is covered by pictures, magnets and papers. The sink’s faucet is coming apart.
I have no inspiration to cook anyway but this gives me even more excuses. Where would I put any food anyway?
The sofa in the living room isn’t at all comfortable for anyone over 5 feet tall, so it’s fine for me but where’s BH going to hang out? The lighting isn’t bright enough to read by so we’re going to have to bring in some lamps. The deck is great, bright with rocking chairs for us to sit outside with coffee and newspapers. However, the jerry rigged screen in front of the sliding glass doors isn’t fooling any of the local flies. There’s a big step down from the deck into the living room, which i neglected to remember and dropped my Kindle on my fourth toe, which I’ve been icing all day, hoping I’ll be able to walk tomorrow.
The air conditioning works, which is great, because the handles to open the windows are broken. There are no empty drawers in the bedroom, which the owner promised we would have. So, now we have piled up our clothes on a couch outside the bedroom.
I think I’m a spoiled brat. Obviously, environment plays a major role here. I need order, empty countertops, clean lines. I’m not a neat freak but I can’t think clearly when there are chotskies aka generally useless crap of little or no value everywhere. It makes me crazy.
So, now we’re here for three weeks. I love the location. The king bed is so comfortable I’d like to take it home with me. I’ll spend a lot of time reading on the deck. I’m hoping my toe will heal fast enough, so I can walk without making ugly faces every time I take a step.
The next time we do this, we’ll go through VRBO or Airbnb or find a Residence Inn in the middle of a city. I should’ve insisted on pictures. This was a family with three boys graciously offering their home, although truth be known I would never have offered this one if it was mine. We now think maybe a month is too long. Two weeks should be sufficient.
In the meantime, I think I’m going to grab some boxes, clear off the counters and haul them off to the basement. And I thought I wasn’t high maintenance!
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