Quarantine tough on us — and on the house
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- July 29, 2020
- 772
Most Americans are growing tired of being stuck at home; most houses are growing tired of that too. My sympathies to both occupants and occupied. Too much of a good thing can be incredibly boring.
It is not like there isn’t plenty to do at home. There are always numerous projects awaiting our attention, and as we all know, houses love being the center of our attention. However, since variety is the spice of life, dealing with home projects every day is numbing. It makes our houses nervous when we are constantly under their roofs. It makes us a bit cranky when all we do is house projects. If it wasn’t so blazing hot, we could be doing yard work to add some variety to our days.
Our rare excursions away from home are to the grocery store. There we might see friends, though we seldom recognize them because almost everyone is wearing masks.
Houses find quarantine difficult too. They love having visitors who come to admire them and give them compliments, then leave. When this pandemic is behind us, both houses and humans shall all celebrate with joyful abandon. Imagine being able to hug friends and family.
Not having their occupants constantly underfoot will have our places giddy with joy. Don’t get me wrong: Our houses love our attention, but our constant presence is just too much. We will be ecstatic when we are able to “get out and about.” Humans just don’t handle isolation well.
Years ago friends took a long vacation, leaving their house all alone for three months. They had a marvelous time traveling around the world, but their house suffered. Our friends arrived home to a very depressed and lonely house. She had a leak in her roof, her floors were covered with moisture and her furnace had died.
It wasn’t cheap to bring that abode back to life. Fortunately, our friends loved their house and soon had her repaired. Plus, they added a porch as a peace offering. The house forgave them but only after they agreed to a house sitter the next time they vacationed.
There are people in this world that are totally content being at home all the time. The houses they live in have learned to cope with the constant occupant presence. However, the constantly occupied abodes are blessed with copious amounts of patience. Most houses are not.