The little house gave a sigh that made all its timbers creak and groan, a big fat tear dropped off one window ledge and rolled slowly down the wall. A long time ago there had been a family, with children and cats and dogs, it had been a happy place full of love and laughter. In the summer the children and cats and dogs had played games in the garden all day, and in the winter there had been snowmen built, and snowball fights. At night when the curtains were drawn, there were stories told around the cosy fire while chestnuts roasted on the grate.

Now those days were gone and the little house longed to feel the warmth of a fire in its grate, with the smoke curling upwards through its chimney; and to hear children laughing, and to be loved and cared for once more.

Many people had come to look at the little house, they had traipsed in and out of the little rooms and muttered things about peeling paint and wallpaper and sagging windows. They did not like the big old-fashioned kitchen or the bathroom plumbing and they complained about the creaky old staircase. They always went away grumbling about the overgrown garden and they never came back.

Some weeks ago, there had been a group of people to see the house, a young couple and an older couple. They had wandered about the house and garden for quite a long time, making lists of all the things that would have to be done to put the house in order. Then they left and the little house did not expect to see them again. Since that day no one else had been out to look at him.

The little house knew the two men at once, they were the young one and the older one who had been several weeks before with the young woman and the older woman. The little house felt a quiver of excitement run through his timbers, something unusual was about to take place.

Over the next few days the little house learned that it had been ‘sold’ to the young man, Tony, and Tony and ‘Dad,’ the older man, were going to ‘renovate’ him. Soon the little house felt all kinds of tickles and tugs as the old floorboards were pulled up and carried out into the garden to be heaped in a neat pile in a far corner. Then the old bathtub was carried out and the farmer down the lane carried it off on one of his farm trucks, he told Tony it would make a grand trough for the cows in his top field.

Dad pulled out all the old wiring and plumbing and very soon there was all kinds of sawing and banging and drilling going on inside. There were new floorboards in the attic and the bathroom and bedrooms, and one day a brand new pink bathroom suite arrived. Dad and Tony had it installed by the end of the day and they ran water into the bath through bright, shiny new taps.

The next day a strange van stopped outside the house and a man with dirty overalls and a black sooty face got out. He carried a bag full of brushes up the garden path and Tony took him inside. Very soon the little house felt a funny sensation in his chimney and all of a sudden a big black brush popped out of the top of the chimney pot. The little house felt a sneeze coming and a big pile of soot fell with a loud whooshing noise into the fireplace. The man with the sooty face was a ‘Chimney Sweep.’ When he had finished sweeping the chimney he gathered up all the soot into a big sack and carried it away in his van.

Tony and Dad took out the old sagging windows and broken glass panes and put in new window frames and clear sparkling glass panes. Then a new roof was built over the front porch. In the old-fashioned kitchen, Tony put in a brand new sink unit and built new fitted cupboards and Dad took the old shallow stone sink outside and filled it with soil and planted some seedling plants in it.

Soon a smell of paint filled the air inside and outside the little house, and one day the young woman and the older woman came to see the house again. The young woman was called Sally and the older woman was called ‘Mum.’ When Sally walked up the garden path and said ‘Oh, it is beautiful,’ the little house felt a thrill of pride and happiness. Tony and Dad had scraped and burned away all the old peeling paint and then they had painted the walls a sparkling white and the door and window frames a lovely blue.

Sally and Mum wandered around with tape measures and notebooks, measuring windows and walls and admiring Tony and Dad’s handiwork. They climbed the brand new staircase that did not creak at all, and in one of the bedrooms they fussed about a lot and talked about ‘ducks’ and ‘rabbits!’

Strange men arrived with rolls of carpet, which had to be fitted, then one day a huge van arrived and more strange men carried furniture into the house, upstairs and downstairs. Sally and Mum came too and put up new curtains and made up the bed in the biggest bedroom. Then Tony lit a fire in the grate and Sally started cooking a dinner on her new cooker. As the first wisps of smoke started to curl up and out of the chimney, the little house suddenly realised it was being ‘lived in’ once more.

As each day went by the little house grew happier, it was being loved and cared for again. Sally cleaned and polished and hung out washing to dry on the new clothesline, while Tony and Dad worked on the gardens at the front and back of the house. They made a big bonfire of all the rubbish, then they dug and raked the soil and planted lawns and flowerbeds, and built a rockery and a fishpond. The young plants in the old stone sink had grown and were now a mass of blue, white and pink flowers. Dad showed Tony how to prune the fruit trees in the orchard at the back of the house.

Mum came to visit one weekend and she brought a big bunch of flowers and a tiny ginger kitten. The kitten romped in the garden, and soon learned to climb trees although Tony had to rescue him once or twice when he climbed too high and was too frightened to come down again. He hid behind bushes to watch the birds, and chased butterflies and bees in and out of the flowerbeds. At night he would curl up on the rug in front of the fire, or on Sally’s lap, but if she was knitting he would get himself and the ball of wool in a real tangle. Sally called him ‘Tiggy’ but Tony called him ‘Scamp’ or ‘Menace.’!

About the middle of the summer and in the middle of the night, the little house was startled when all the lights came on suddenly. A little while later a small car drove up to the house and Tony opened the front door so that a shaft of light lit up the garden path. A woman carrying a black bag scurried up the path, letting the new garden gate bang shut behind her.

The door closed and the little house felt feet running up and down the stairs a few times, then all was quiet and still for a while. The moon shone down on the sleepy little house and he dozed off again until a tiny breeze came whispering through the trees and around his chimney pot. Then a new sound came from the big bedroom, the sound of a new baby crying. Birds began to sing and the morning sky was streaked blue and gold and pink.

The little house was just bursting with happiness, and thought to himself, "I’m not a lonely empty little house anymore, now I am a happy little home."

Jackie S Brooks
1987