The Money Pit

I don't think I've ever properly introduced you to something near (and usually dear) to me. "Money pit, meet blogworld. Blogworld, say hello to my money pit."

We've lived very happily in our home sweet home for just over a decade now. We've made lots of changes to it, added two kids, created wonderful memories, changed it some more, and made this house our home. But over the past two weeks, something very strange has started happening. Something very stressful, very frustrating, and very expensive. Apparently there is a great-and-all-powerful-cosmic-house-force dictating that 10 years is exactly how long things are supposed to last. My house has suddenly turned into a ticking time-bomb for repairs.

Maybe it's our own fault. Maybe we upset the house by starting to replace the wood fronting with stucco. Just as we find ourselves on the brink of having that job finished (and a big invoice delivered) everything else in the house seems to be banding together and saying "How about me? Pick me. Repair me. Replace me. Me me me!" Here's the tally since last week, which we've managed to take in stride pretty well, all things considering:

• Monday: The week started with the discovery of odds and ends that got 'busticated' during the stucco project (which will hopefully be finished today if the rain holds off). Broken door bell, broken hose fitting, rain spout that was removed and not reattached, some broken tree branches and crushed groundcover. Not a problem though. After all, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs right? Annoying - yes. Devastating - no.

• Tuesday: Someone backed into hubby's car (moneypit jr.) . Someone did not leave any insurance information. In fact, someone did not leave any information at all. Someone has now left us stuck with paying the deductible. (This one was pretty hard to take in stride, but I think we did a pretty respectable job of it.)

• Wednesday: Hubby finished setting up a computer (that we swapped out when we recently discovered the monitor starting to go on our laptop) in the kitchen. After having spent hours on it over the weekend, he discovered that it was being attacked by a Spybot virus that was hijacking the internet connection every few minutes. Three evening of hair pulling, cursing and several glasses of scotch later, we have since won the battle and defeated the evil Spybot.

• Thursday: While preheating the oven to cook dinner it started shaking and making a horrible grinding noise. When I ran into the kitchen and opened the door I saw blue sparks, small flames, tendrils of smoke, and a heating coil literally melting into a black bubbling mess. So after a panicked moment of "Holy Crap. This whole kitchen's gonna blow and I've got a half-naked pre-schooler and a baby to get out of the house!" a calmer train of thought prevailed...and I turned off the stove. I opened some windows, took a deep breathe and began researching stoves on the internet. Then I was reminded of the price and poured myself a glass of wine.
  

• Friday: I went to turn on the television in our bedroom and remembered that about two weeks before it had started acting like the tv from Polterguist (meaning only that it has really annoying and frequent static - none of us have actually been sucked into it - yet). On a positive note though, I do enjoy reading at bedtime.

• Sunday: Some good news. The stove only needed a coil replacement. A $30 part and we are back in business. Hip Hip Hooray. Could the spell finally be breaking?!?!

• Yesterday: I turned on the air conditioner for the first time this year. IT'S BROKEN!!!! I'm crossing my fingers, toes, eyes, knees, ankles and anything else I can think of in the very faint hope that we might get away with replacing some little tiny part - but I really doubt that we're going to get that lucky a second time.

I suppose this is simply the problem with having stuff. Stuff gets broken. Stuff needs to be repaired. Stuff is a choice. So while we ride the roller-coaster of repairs around here over the next few weeks, I'm really going to try to maintain some perspective and gratitude for all that we have (even the broken stuff). And above all, to remember to love home even when we are frustrated by house.

Oh, and we will be drinking wine. Many, many glasses of wine.