A little background before I go into detail. (this is mainly just because I feel the need to vent)
I was born in this house, I was raised in this house, I hate this house and it holds terrible terrible memories, I love this house and it has great memories. It has alot of sentimental value to me and I want it to one day be a family house filled with happy people.
About 4 and a half years ago, my aunt passed away. She was in bad shape ever since my grandma passed away from colon cancer in 2001 and her being a nurse thought she knew better about her health than anyone else, fell into an alcoholic binge for 10 years neglecting her own health. She passed away from complications resulting from diabetes, liver failure, cirhosis, and other ailments she never took care of. In her final days she was completely bedridden and swollen from fluids leaking from her internal organs, as well as had to have her foot amputated.
I was living on my own at the time, going to college and culinary school. I felt bad that she was being taken care of by my brother and uncle in her house alone, they are the reason I'm writing this. I visited every weekend to check up on my aunt, but I dreaded going or being there because I knew all I would be doing was cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cleaning and being throughly disgusted.
If you ever watched one of those hoarder shows, you would be familiar with how the house looked, only instead of things it was just filled completely with trash, beer cans, maggots, dog shit on the wooden floors INSIDE the house that was never cleaned, and several corners of the house they would often just straight out piss on the floor and cover with a towel or dirty clothing. My brother and uncle have no sense of hygiene or proper health care to the point that one weekend I came over to put some fresh bandages on her amputated foot and found her entire leg covered in ants. I immediately cleaned and disinfected it, called the ambulence and even though she cried and begged me to not to, I had to have her put in a nursing home where she could get proper treatment and care. She would not talk to me for months and would curse me out whenever I visited her for putting her there, but I didn't know what else to do.
When she passed away I had to make a choice, I was put in charge of her finances, I was the one paying the mortgage and bills for the house every month, I was the one that cleaned it every weekend and bought groceries for my uncle and brother and my aunt told me before she passed that she trusted me to care for my brother, uncle and mother. I had to move back in to my old house. This wasn't an easy decision. But I had no choice.
However I moved into the house on my terms, and I determined that one day I could make a profit on it, however in the state that it was in I would not make any money on it all. I had to fix it up as best I could.
After three and some years I've made the best progress I possibly could on my own with my own hands.
Here's the results
The entire roof and facing beams were rotted from over 100 years of weather and rain, I added a support beam to the roof on the far left because it's very weak and put in the new red planks, The balcony covered by the tarp is a WIP, but at least it's sealed now so it doesnt leak a gallon of water when it rains onto the living room below.
The entire porch was filled to bursting with old rotted and broken furniture and was also being used as a makeshift dumpster, when they were to lazy to actually use the trashcans, It's been cleaned up and I actually found a pool table under all the mess, and sanded and varnished the cabinet to the left and the old baby rocker near it.
The kitchen had to be gutted completely, the amount of decay it held was unbearable. The original cupboards and shelves were infested with insects and rat droppings, The original ceramic tiled floors were cracked and caked with dirt. I've installed new wooden floors, fixed the cracked ceiling and added mini flood lights, and an actual vent over the oven. A new sink, an island and sink and granite countertops.
I had to tear up the original wooden floor from the entire bottom level of the house, they were rotted and warped so bad that you had to be careful how you stepped or you would trip yourself. Every shiney part of wood shelving, edge, corner and beam you seen was hand sanded and hand varnished by me, (good workout). I had the wooden shutters custom built and finished them myself and installed some cieling fans.
I'm very proud of the dining room, I found a really really awesome table and set of chairs underneath the piles of garbage in the house, cleaned it and re did the chairs and it looks amazing in the dining room. All the dark bits of wood were sanded and done here as well, including the walls and built in cupboards. The dining room cieling was completely caved in and the three lights were hanging by 100 year old electric cords, the reason the cieling caved in was due to the large of amounts of urine from the upstairs bathroom surrounding the foundation of the toilet bowl since no one could be bothered to actually piss in the toilet, it built up underneath the floorboards and led to the entire cieling collapsing.
I wont go into detail on what the bottom floor bathroom looked like, I'm pretty sure you can imagine. I'm extremely proud of this section of the house. Most people say it doesnt fit the aesthetic of the house but I love it because i think it's pretty cool looking. I gutted the entire bathroom from the ground up and replaced everything with slate, I found a jacuuzi tub and sink at a junk yard for $30 each, cleaned it and installed it and I'm happy with it.
Now on to the title of the thread.
I still feel a little lightheaded after I've ventured into my uncles room, wearing latex gloves a face mask I still felt sick. The stench is like something that's comparable to ammonia and rotting flesh. The floor was crawling with maggots and ants. Every other week or so, I have to come into this room to retrieve whatever plates, glasses, bowls and utensils that are salvagable, the rest are thrown away because whatever is left in or on them is too disgusting to even try and clean. He is a walking biohazard, and I mean this literally. His clothes are constantly covered in feces and blood and piss. He never showers and his face is always bleeding and filled with scabs he constantly picks at. We've had doctors make house calls, we've had police, social workers, fire departments and ambulence called and talked to him to get him help, clean and healthy and he refuses every time. when it gets really bad to the point where he's moaning for an ambulence, taken to a hospital and forced to eat real food, vitamins, fluids, put on dialisis and given fresh new clean blood and cleaned up by a nurse. He refuses any further treatment or medication and asks to go home and they let him. Two days later the cycle starts over again until his body breaks down again we rush him to the hospital by force two months later, over and over.
right now I'm boiling all the stuff that should be safe to use in vinegar and dish soap and salt. I had to throw away two nice dinner plates, two bowls and special christmas dinner platter he stole from the wooden cupboard because he cant be bothered to wash anything.
remember the nice dining room? well It was nice, until he decided it was easier to just piss on the floors in his room. Now this is actually the third time I've had to replace the cieling in the dining room. It constantly caves in not because of plumbing issues, nope...it caves in all the time because he just pisses on the floor upstairs as he pleases. and currently it looks like I'm going to have to replace it again because he's still doing it.
It's unpainted because I just finished it at the end of last month, but as soon as I saw the yellow stains I gave up.
This month his room is actually alot cleaner than it was previously, no ants this time but a shit ton of maggots crawling over the floor. Blood all over his blankets and bed. Oh and two buckets I used to use for painting filled to the brim with bloody piss. The little white things are maggots. The floor is entirely plywood from last month when I had to fix the cieling in the dining room, the floor in his room was rotted from the piss to the point where it was also caving in. It's more sturdy the original wooden floor and it's seems to soak up the majority of the urine when he misses the buckets.
I'm pretty sure from the pictures you can guess what his main problem is. He used to work for a hospital as an organ courrier, but he had a DUI on the job. They suspended him and asked him to spend a week in AA and he would get his job back. He refused even to spend one hour in AA has been jobless for the past 14 years. The pictures of the room is the light version of what the entire house looked like before I started to fix it up.
I was born in this house, I was raised in this house, I hate this house and it holds terrible terrible memories, I love this house and it has great memories. It has alot of sentimental value to me and I want it to one day be a family house filled with happy people.
About 4 and a half years ago, my aunt passed away. She was in bad shape ever since my grandma passed away from colon cancer in 2001 and her being a nurse thought she knew better about her health than anyone else, fell into an alcoholic binge for 10 years neglecting her own health. She passed away from complications resulting from diabetes, liver failure, cirhosis, and other ailments she never took care of. In her final days she was completely bedridden and swollen from fluids leaking from her internal organs, as well as had to have her foot amputated.
I was living on my own at the time, going to college and culinary school. I felt bad that she was being taken care of by my brother and uncle in her house alone, they are the reason I'm writing this. I visited every weekend to check up on my aunt, but I dreaded going or being there because I knew all I would be doing was cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cleaning and being throughly disgusted.
If you ever watched one of those hoarder shows, you would be familiar with how the house looked, only instead of things it was just filled completely with trash, beer cans, maggots, dog shit on the wooden floors INSIDE the house that was never cleaned, and several corners of the house they would often just straight out piss on the floor and cover with a towel or dirty clothing. My brother and uncle have no sense of hygiene or proper health care to the point that one weekend I came over to put some fresh bandages on her amputated foot and found her entire leg covered in ants. I immediately cleaned and disinfected it, called the ambulence and even though she cried and begged me to not to, I had to have her put in a nursing home where she could get proper treatment and care. She would not talk to me for months and would curse me out whenever I visited her for putting her there, but I didn't know what else to do.
When she passed away I had to make a choice, I was put in charge of her finances, I was the one paying the mortgage and bills for the house every month, I was the one that cleaned it every weekend and bought groceries for my uncle and brother and my aunt told me before she passed that she trusted me to care for my brother, uncle and mother. I had to move back in to my old house. This wasn't an easy decision. But I had no choice.
However I moved into the house on my terms, and I determined that one day I could make a profit on it, however in the state that it was in I would not make any money on it all. I had to fix it up as best I could.
After three and some years I've made the best progress I possibly could on my own with my own hands.
Here's the results
The entire roof and facing beams were rotted from over 100 years of weather and rain, I added a support beam to the roof on the far left because it's very weak and put in the new red planks, The balcony covered by the tarp is a WIP, but at least it's sealed now so it doesnt leak a gallon of water when it rains onto the living room below.
The entire porch was filled to bursting with old rotted and broken furniture and was also being used as a makeshift dumpster, when they were to lazy to actually use the trashcans, It's been cleaned up and I actually found a pool table under all the mess, and sanded and varnished the cabinet to the left and the old baby rocker near it.
The kitchen had to be gutted completely, the amount of decay it held was unbearable. The original cupboards and shelves were infested with insects and rat droppings, The original ceramic tiled floors were cracked and caked with dirt. I've installed new wooden floors, fixed the cracked ceiling and added mini flood lights, and an actual vent over the oven. A new sink, an island and sink and granite countertops.
I had to tear up the original wooden floor from the entire bottom level of the house, they were rotted and warped so bad that you had to be careful how you stepped or you would trip yourself. Every shiney part of wood shelving, edge, corner and beam you seen was hand sanded and hand varnished by me, (good workout). I had the wooden shutters custom built and finished them myself and installed some cieling fans.
I'm very proud of the dining room, I found a really really awesome table and set of chairs underneath the piles of garbage in the house, cleaned it and re did the chairs and it looks amazing in the dining room. All the dark bits of wood were sanded and done here as well, including the walls and built in cupboards. The dining room cieling was completely caved in and the three lights were hanging by 100 year old electric cords, the reason the cieling caved in was due to the large of amounts of urine from the upstairs bathroom surrounding the foundation of the toilet bowl since no one could be bothered to actually piss in the toilet, it built up underneath the floorboards and led to the entire cieling collapsing.
I wont go into detail on what the bottom floor bathroom looked like, I'm pretty sure you can imagine. I'm extremely proud of this section of the house. Most people say it doesnt fit the aesthetic of the house but I love it because i think it's pretty cool looking. I gutted the entire bathroom from the ground up and replaced everything with slate, I found a jacuuzi tub and sink at a junk yard for $30 each, cleaned it and installed it and I'm happy with it.
Now on to the title of the thread.
I still feel a little lightheaded after I've ventured into my uncles room, wearing latex gloves a face mask I still felt sick. The stench is like something that's comparable to ammonia and rotting flesh. The floor was crawling with maggots and ants. Every other week or so, I have to come into this room to retrieve whatever plates, glasses, bowls and utensils that are salvagable, the rest are thrown away because whatever is left in or on them is too disgusting to even try and clean. He is a walking biohazard, and I mean this literally. His clothes are constantly covered in feces and blood and piss. He never showers and his face is always bleeding and filled with scabs he constantly picks at. We've had doctors make house calls, we've had police, social workers, fire departments and ambulence called and talked to him to get him help, clean and healthy and he refuses every time. when it gets really bad to the point where he's moaning for an ambulence, taken to a hospital and forced to eat real food, vitamins, fluids, put on dialisis and given fresh new clean blood and cleaned up by a nurse. He refuses any further treatment or medication and asks to go home and they let him. Two days later the cycle starts over again until his body breaks down again we rush him to the hospital by force two months later, over and over.
right now I'm boiling all the stuff that should be safe to use in vinegar and dish soap and salt. I had to throw away two nice dinner plates, two bowls and special christmas dinner platter he stole from the wooden cupboard because he cant be bothered to wash anything.
remember the nice dining room? well It was nice, until he decided it was easier to just piss on the floors in his room. Now this is actually the third time I've had to replace the cieling in the dining room. It constantly caves in not because of plumbing issues, nope...it caves in all the time because he just pisses on the floor upstairs as he pleases. and currently it looks like I'm going to have to replace it again because he's still doing it.
It's unpainted because I just finished it at the end of last month, but as soon as I saw the yellow stains I gave up.
This month his room is actually alot cleaner than it was previously, no ants this time but a shit ton of maggots crawling over the floor. Blood all over his blankets and bed. Oh and two buckets I used to use for painting filled to the brim with bloody piss. The little white things are maggots. The floor is entirely plywood from last month when I had to fix the cieling in the dining room, the floor in his room was rotted from the piss to the point where it was also caving in. It's more sturdy the original wooden floor and it's seems to soak up the majority of the urine when he misses the buckets.
I'm pretty sure from the pictures you can guess what his main problem is. He used to work for a hospital as an organ courrier, but he had a DUI on the job. They suspended him and asked him to spend a week in AA and he would get his job back. He refused even to spend one hour in AA has been jobless for the past 14 years. The pictures of the room is the light version of what the entire house looked like before I started to fix it up.
I feel really, really bad for you OP.
