Do you ever watch Homes Under the Hammer?
On it properties are sold at auction and the purchaser is interviewed telling what s/he plans to do with the property, and the programme returns after an agreed number of months to see what has been done. All too frequently the answer is 'nowt' - not even a basic clearing of the rubbish.
Joe got the keys on Friday evening. The painter gave an estimate on Saturday. The house was cleared yesterday. The painter starts work at 4 o'clock this afternoon.
Sadly Joe didn't take any 'before' pictures, and nothing can give a real flavour of the smell of old carpet, damp, disuse and stale cigarettes, but here are a few taken early in the process
Take note of the lovely '60s wallpaper in the kitchen, and the slightly earlier and badly cracked fireplace in the sitting room, not to mention the delightful shade of sticky nicotine on the walls.
To clear this mess take one octogenarian granddad who spent most of Sunday getting rid of the numerous layers in the kitchen including some very firmly stuck laminate.
Add to this two enthusiastic teenagers with boundless energy and a ruthless streak about throwing away,
(Tilly just came to look round afterwards)
and two brothers with a truck and a fondness for lighting fires,
and you will soon find yourself going into a house clear of rubbish
(everything worth keeping is now stored in just one room)
and ready for any ornament with which you care to adorn it.
Pa worked a full 12 hour day from eight till eight, while Joe didn't join him until after church, and the others after stables (and seeing to all the other livestock) and riding.
And what did Lissa do while all this was going on? Well, having been to church she stayed at home and made sure that everyone had a proper sit down Sunday lunch of roast lamb with all the trimmings followed by strawberrries and cream.
The_Walrus
Pro 
It's not nice of you to call a Land Rover Defender a truck, they are much more dignified than that!