My Childhood Home, Part 2

When my husband and I decided to move forward with buying my parents old house, we knew there were a few conditions that went along with it. At the time, we just didn't know how far that would test our breaking point. 

1. My mom couldn't officially sell the house for five years from the time of the mortgage modification. 

2. She also had to live in the house... At least until she was allowed to sell it.

3. All of her "stuff" was still in the house... And I mean a lot of stuff. Think border line episode of Horders buried alive. 

To make our move a little easier, we got rid of a lot of our own stuff before we moved. We knew we were looking at some major clean up in the new place. 

Within the first month of us living there, we made numerous dump runs, clearing out the basement, the yard and the garage. My mom had a hard time letting go of things she thought could be used someday. During one particularly bad instance while we were cleaning out the garage, she actually climbed into the back of the truck to get some of the junk out after she had a panic attack. I was torn between thinking my mom had gone bat shit crazy to feeling horrible about getting rid of so much of her stuff.

The thing is, none of it served a purpose, a lot of it was broken, and to us, just useless.  We needed a blank slate, but couldn't get that with her still in the house. 

So, for the first few months that we lived there we worked on cleaning the property up, inside and out. Once we had an agreement worked out with my mom for the house, we slowly started working on minor renovations. 

With the understanding that the house was now ours, we were okay with investing some money into basic upkeep. We weren't willing to do anything major until the house could be officially ours. But that didn't stop us from painting the house, inside and out, adding trim around windows and doors and adding a new fence for our dogs.

The first year of us being there went by fast. We were happy working on projects around the house, making if feel more like our home and less like a dumping ground. Little things started bothering us though. My mom still called the house hers, even though we'd been making the mortgage payments and putting our money into fixing up the house. Then one day, she let my brother move in, without talking to my husband and I. From that moment, we decided to not work on anymore projects on the house. Not until my mom and brother moved out. 

It's been about a year since he moved in... I admit we feel defeated and used at this point. We are giving it a little more time, then I think it'll be time for us to move on if they choose to stay.