Lick and a promise

Grammy, my sister, and my nieces have been hearing all about this project at House #1.  They have listened to our stories of construction and demolition.  Except in pictures, they have never seen the house.

This past weekend they were in the area for the afternoon and I gave them the 10 cent tour.    I should really increase that to 25cents because of inflation.

They liked it.  They liked to be able to see it in progress and get a better idea of everything in person, not just in pictures.  The kids had lots of questions and Grammy and my sister had good ideas for the remodel.

My youngest niece commented at one point that the people who lived in this house previously must have been very poor.  Grammy said "No, they were lazy.  You can have no money, but still keep a clean and decent house.  My grandmother had no money and lots of kids but she had the cleanest house in town.  Everybody had to clean up."  She is correct.  Her grandmother, my great-grandmother, would be very disappointed in the Cat Ranch right now. 
 
I don't consider myself lazy.  Time-challenged would be a better term. Although given the choice of sitting by the fire or cleaning the bathroom, sitting by the fire is going to win every time.  Hands down.
 
We found out just recently that 14 people once lived in the house.  

14 people! 

14 people with one bathroom upstairs and a single toilet in the basement (which might have been a recent addition).  Let that sink in for a moment.
 
I can't think of 14 people I want to go on vacation with for a week let alone share living space. 
 
Can you imagine the shoes piled up at the front door?  There's only two of us and this morning and there were 10 pair of shoes by the front door.  Those cats must wear a lot of shoes. 


P.S. My granny often said she gave her house a lick and promise, meaning she cleaned it real quick and promised she'd do it better next week.  Her real quick lick was still WAY better than my good.  :)