Flipped

Two years ago I purchased this

cute little condo with beige walls

and carpeting & crisp white trim

For some unfathomable reason I

had painted a picture in my mind

of the seller:

A 70ish, widower

 had resided there many years,

 Wife passed away in the condo

He had it painted & carpeted,

so he could begin anew

I could not have been more wrong!

I did not find out until signing across

the state line (where I was bilked out

of all the closing costs) that:

The place had been a rental

for several years,

 the owner was a 30- something entrepreneur

who flipped it!

As the months passed, the house

began telling its own story

Blemishes surfaced in the beige

paint like acne on a teen boy

The crisp white trim readily chipped

and upon closer examination, I

realized that it was laid on thick

like frosting on a wedding cake

A pipe burst in the crawl space

and the plumber reported that

there was substantial water damage

because it had probably leaked

for a lonnng time

Needless to say, my Homeowners

covered the first $5,000 of repairs…

Then my kitchen lighting began to flicker

I hired a man to replace the little black

doohickeys that power fluorescent tubes

Six months later 2 out of 3 tubes are out again

The kitchen cabinets are woefully inadequate

in size and use of space

The paint is horrendously uneven and

I am putting off the inevitable…

My job doesn’t pay well, so

I have a new plan:

to get a weekend job at Home Depot

and slowly, diligently replace cheap linoleum counters,

 chipped sinks and chintzy vinyl flooring with the GOOD

STUFF!

 Slowly flip this place more to my liking

Eventually perhaps I’ll lease it out with an

Option to buy when I relocate to a small

Coastal town in a few years…

In the meantime, I have a “quaint” little

place to live…truly, it has its charms…

RMK 9-2015 ©