Wednesday, January 22, 2014

HOME SWEET HOME

We don't really own our homes.  They own us.

Even if the mortgage ever gets paid off (we did that!!), the she-devil demands a lot of attention and a lot of money.  For no reason, the faucets in each bathtub started to leak.  Drip, drip, drip.  When it got to constant dripping (and my water bill went up), I called the plumber.  Two and a half hours later (don't even ask the cost), he proclaimed all was well.


For two days.  Today he came back with the caveat that he would probably have to cut through the living room wall to change the valve.  WHAT?  I called my handyman neighbor who said yep, most cost effective way to change it all out ... or I could remodel the whole bathroom (which is what they have done).  Anyway, he got them both to stop leaking (again) by changing the cartridge.  Stay tuned.

This year I put up outdoor Christmas lights.  With the bits of rain we have had, the GFI tripped.  Guess where the GFI is located?  In the garage behind a 72" cabinet filled with gardening supplies.   With a container of camping gear stacked on top.  While I had a house guest, we emptied it and scooched it out enough to reach behind and reset.  But when it happened again, Bob came and put a hole in the back of the cabinet so now I can get on my knees to lean in and try to push it.  Inconvenient but possible!

Really!  This is a pretty new home (2001) and set up to be the most maintenance free and carefree ever.  Each plant, in the ground or in a pot, has it's own individual drip on the watering system.  My outdoor landscape lights turn on at dusk and turn off in six hours.  Soon I'll have solar panels and will need to learn something else!

It's a sweet little home that is just right for me.  But she still owns me.  

3 comments:

  1. I had the same, knock-the-wall out conversation with my plumber. I was spoiled before building this house. In my old houses my dad had built a removable inspection plate in the walls behind the shower values. You'd think they could invent a value that could be changed from the shower side, wouldn't you.

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  2. LOL Yes! Our homes own us. Full of lots of Do It Yourself projects, depending on how steep we want our learning curve to be. Sounds like yours is tamed, for the moment. Me, I wither in front of plumbing issues. Can't tell you how many times I've called my brother-in-law, a plumber (unfortunately he lives 3 hours away). I HAVE learned to change out the water filter under my sink.

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