I am in a place that will just HAVE to be put into one of the books I am going to write. This place is a rental cottage but it feels more like we are crashing someone's cottage. It is filled with personal items. There is no space that is left open to allow a visitor to make their own space. The structure itself has many little add ons. When an addition was put on windows were just filled in with plywood. It is a bit hill billy which isn't actually the most unique thing about this place. This place is stuffed, over flowing with no room to breathe. Every wall has pictures, mirrors, crosses and things that light up. There is even a picture hung on the wall under the kitchen table. There are 43 small mirrors in one room. The kitchen cupboards are packed, items mismatched and spilling out when I try to get an item out. Finding a place on the counter to actually work meant boxing up items temporarily. Finding a place for dry goods meant stuffing items into already full cupboards to open up a shelf or two for our groceries. Then there are the owls. The owner collects anything with an owl on it. One person who signed the guest book said they stopped counting at 146. I like collections as much as the next person but all these owls staring at me is annoying. Its not like the collector was being picky about the owls, it looks like any owl will do. The lamps, dishtowels, wind chimes, ironing board cover, and pictures all have owls on them. The windows and shelves are filled with figurines of owls. I find myself not liking owls anymore. I was in a store today and saw an owl on a coffee cup and I felt myself feeling repulsed.
By far the most disturbing thing is the shrine that this place has been made into to a child that has died. There are pictures of a child named Luke all over and in every room. There are even pictures in the shower of Luke in the tub. A picture of Luke by the outside shed is laminated and put on the shed. We discovered some writing that was done by a school mate and it told the story of Luke dying of lukemia. It is depressing and fells unhealthy the degree to which the owners have gone to honor this child. It is one thing if they want to do that in there own space but a space that you rent out? I want to make my own memories not be weighed down by someone else's.
I am using this space as an example of "how not to do a rental" and putting it in my memory for a somewhat creepy location in a book. I also am dying to go home and get rid of junk because I now see what it leads to and I don't want to live there!
