This Old House

I'm mad. Really mad. Hot under the collar, steam coming out of my ears mad. It's not a matter of who, but what. Yes I am mad at my 112 year old house. Yep, you heard me right, 112 and yes, I am mad at my house. When we were house hunting 5 years ago, I was as big as a house pregnant, and Seth wanted to get a house. It was right before the housing bubble burst, so everything was pretty much out of our league. The only houses we qualified for were either in really bad sections of town and had no garage. One we qualified for that was really great, until we found that the insides of it had been infested with termites. I was quite content staying in our apartment of many years, in fact I didn't want to leave. Elijah had passed away only one year before and I wanted to be where he was. Seth on the other hand, wanted to get out, he really wanted a garage where he could work on his projects. Not only that, but we always had to rely on our neighbors being careful. Only after 3 months of marriage our 1st apartment complex burned down due to someone cooking bacon at 2 in the morning. If it weren't for Seth working 2nd shift, people probably would have died. He got everyone up and moving out of our building as he heard the crackling of a fire. No thanks to the dude who started the whole thing, who decided to go outside and watch the place burn down and not wake anyone else up... Grrrrrr.... Long story. Yep, if you can't tell, I'm in a mood. Back to the house hunt. So we found this place, it had a garage, it had a back yard, good neighborhood, and it wasn't infested with termites. After the relater tried to convince us not to even bother as it was way out of our price range (funny how things change) our bid was accepted. We moved in and were excited, yes even with the carpeting in the bathroom and the kitchen. This is where I learned that old saying "Jack of all trades and master of none." Need I say more? Yes, the house has great potential. When we "got the lead out" we were able to get new siding so that it no longer looked like the haunted house on the block "as our neighbor's nephew said. Then we finally pulled out the carpeting and replace it with a floating floor. Thankfully Isaiah's sinuses have gotten a much needed break. It's a work in progress, which wouldn't be so bad if we could get a line of credit (which no longer exist thanks to the economy) to add on another bathroom and some closets. Yep, we bought a house with ONE, count it people, ONE bathroom that you can literally go to the bathroom while shaving your legs and wash your hands all at the same time, no joke. We've even accidentally have knocked each other in the toilet as the door opens right into the toilet that is inches behind. (SIGH for dramatic affect). Oh yeah, and you want a real laugh. Our refrigerator that is out in the mud room because there is no room in the kitchen! Seriously, I have had to laugh sometimes, because if I don't I will cry. The hardest part is with the economy, the house value has dropped significantly. Oh yeah and our neighbor next door decided to take a loss on the house because she didn't want to take care of it anymore. What does that spell out? Even more a dwindled house value since we are next to a foreclosure. Argh!! What brought this all on you ask? The crack. The crack in the wall from the ice that dumped into the roof that turned to water that dumped in the wall and it cracked!!!! Now it is cracked and there isn't anything we can do at this point. It's bad enough that when we are taking a shower that the hot spigot spits scalding hot water out, while the cold spigot spits out ice cold water and the surrounding wall looks like that of something you'd find in a condemned building. There are so many other things, but those are just the major ones! Am I throwing a temper tantrum, you bet your bippy, I am! I ended up getting really sick yesterday, so I have been trying to clean everything up and I guess I just needed to snap. It seems no matter how much I clean it doesn't look any better. Aria just gets into anything sitting out as we don't have much storage places and it drives me nuts! I have been praying a long time for G-d to help me be content and grateful, but today I lost it! I know we are blessed to have a home, but sometimes it seems it is one thing after another. Not to mention having every financial piece of advice saying to save, Save, SAVE! How do you save when your savings goes to repairing the house or whatever else breaks??! Plus it is pretty embarrassing inviting people over. I am having a bad day. I will get over it. I feel a little bit better. It just goes to show we all have our moments and I am having mine right now. I do not want pity, but I hope this makes someone else smile or laugh. That's right, go ahead and laugh, someone needs to! Stupid house (grumble grumble....)