Ben stood and stared at the walls in his living room. His living room. He felt immensely proud of himself standing in the living room of his first house. He also felt slightly disgusted. Even with his friends helping, moving everything in was hard work. He was sweaty, dirty, and sore all over. It was all worth it. After months of dealing with paperwork, getting approved for a mortgage, and searching for the perfect house in his budget, all of that was over. He found his perfect house.
Maybe not perfect to his parents. Or his friends, but it was perfect for him. It was definitely in his price range. His parents politely called it a fixer-upper and impolitely called it the worst investment he could make. Ben liked it and more importantly, he could afford it. It had been on the market for years and just needed some attention. The inspection revealed a list of mild-to-moderate concerns, but nothing major. It had good bones. It had character. It had peeling wallpaper, creaky floors, and flickering light, but Ben appreciated it in a way he'd never appreciated something before. It was his. He worked for it. He wasn't afraid of hard work, but the work would wait for tomorrow. Tonight, he was exhausted. He wanted to take his first shower in his new house.
He checked that the doors were locked before grabbing his duffel bags. Ben had the foresight to pack a few bags of essentials he might need during his first couple of days. All of his belongings were packed up and shoved into the garage. He had made sure to bring the essentials. His TV was set up in the living room and another in the master bedroom. His mattress was on his floor, his bedding piled on top of it. He had some kitchen essentials in boxes on his counter.
It would be a while before he unpacked. Ben had A Plan. He was going to fix up the house before he unpacked it. He had the extra money saved up, and he worked from home, so there was no reason he couldn't fix up a room before he unpacked it. That way, there was no chance of him getting lazy and putting off repairs. He was going to start in his bedroom. There were many reasons why Ben wanted this house. His bedroom was one of them.
The master bedroom was huge, with the same cathedral ceilings as the rest of the house. Ben was ambivalent about the walk-in closet, but he was in love with the beautiful patio doors. The house had a sprawling porch that wrapped its entirety. The doors were in good shape. The glasswork was dirty but lovely. During the day, the patio doors and the window let in ample light. At night, it was pitch-black.
Ben was secure enough in his masculinity to admit it was a little unnerving. While his new house wasn't rural by any means, suburbia was several streets away, his house sat on more property than he would have had in a housing track. He had neighbors and he was sure you could see lights from their houses if you looked through the right window but his patio and window were in the back of his house. It overlooked his backyard. Beyond his and his neighbor's backyard was a thick green belt. He could see no lights through the darkness.
First thing tomorrow he would put up some curtains. All he wanted to do tonight was shower. His room had a spacious en-suite bathroom. When he viewed the house, he was delighted to see the bathroom in such good shape. It was dirty and dated but it had no visible damage. It had double sinks installed in a large vanity. All the fixtures, including the sinks, were black. Everything else in the bathroom was white, or it was white at one point. Everything was covered in a nice layer of grime.
The bathroom had a long-track lighting fixture over a gigantic oval mirror. The lights in the bathroom were the same washed-out yellow tone as the rest of the house. All the rooms were dimly lighted and cast in a sepia filter. The inspection didn't find anything wrong with the electrical. Ben figured he had a lot of lights to replace tomorrow.
There were several boxes in the bathroom. He grabbed the one marked 'cleaning'. He quickly rinsed out his enclosed shower. The water pressure was awesome. He coated every surface of his shower in powdered bleach. He hurried and scrubbed down his shower. He could give it a deeper clean later. The hot water felt amazing. He stood for a long time under the hot water. The water ran over the tense muscle in his shoulder and eased the aches in his back. Ben took one of the longest showers of his life. At least his water heater was in good shape.
Ben was rinsing out the shampoo when he realized he had forgotten to grab towels out of one of the unopened boxes in the bathroom. He also had a pair of slip-on house shoes in the box he planned on wearing after the shower. The floors in the house, including the bathroom, were covered in dirt. He didn't want to walk wet and barefoot on his grimy floors. He groaned as he turned off the water. Maybe his dirty clothes were close enough to reach. He could walk on those. He opened the shower doors to see a wall of steam. He forgot to turn on the exhaust fan, and with the door closed, it was a sauna.
He was pleasantly surprised to find his house shoes waiting just outside the shower door. His towel was even hanging from the outside handle of the shower door. He must be more tired than he thought. He made quick work of drying off and changing into sleep clothes. He didn't bother making his bed. He collapsed on his mattress, with his back to the gaping darkness coming in from his patio doors, and almost instantly fell asleep.