View from Within, View from Without

This is my current window view, sitting in the study.

We finally have the waterproofers here to do the basement. Over 150 years of neglect have taken their toll. The basement leaks like a sieve - at least half of it. The previous owners' solution was to carve grooves in the cement leading to the sump pump. Great. The house was purchased from an estate, and we were told how much the parents 'loved their house'.

You can love something, but that doesn't mean you take proper care of it. All the love in the world can't make up for years of neglect.

Sixty-year-old wallpaper is also being torn from walls as we speak. The housepainter is finding that, beneath the surface, the walls were never tended.

So, mold in the basement; crumbling plaster in the bedrooms. Cover it up and it will be fine?

Our current neighbors get frustrated with us because sometimes the outside of the house doesn't meet their standards. Like during the 10 day period we didn't mow the grass because the new blades we needed were out of stock at John Deere. But, did they know that we were inside, dilligently working? The grass was still there when the blades came in. Or, last year when we did a natural agricultural process called leaching, letting the weeds grow up to cut down and burn to eradicate some of the toxins from years of crop abuse, cleaning the ground of over 100 years of pesticide. We hoped to plant a natural pasture for our horses. The neighbors didn't understand and so complained. The township could do nothing because we are zoned agricultural and it is a verifiable process.

There is a point to all of this.

Because we don't understand what is happening on the surface doesn't mean that something good isn't in the works.

I am learning, the older I grow, that being discontent today can be futile. You never know what the morning brings. But, taking rash action almost always ends in heartache.

Sometimes, it is just best to wait things out.