Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Old House, This

If you ever again hear the words"We're buying a fixer-upper" come out of my mouth, take me out back and shoot me because clearly I've lost my grip on reality. It seems like just when we're ready to make an improvement, something breaks and we end up spending money on that broken thing, and the improvement is delayed once again.

No, no, nothing major happened. It was just a small sequence of events in a 100-yr old house. The the two-year-old dishwasher died...again. A year ago the motor had to be replaced. Under warranty. Now it's the "harness assembly." Not under warranty. A basement drain backed up. This happens when the wind blows from just the right direction, pushing the bay and it's tributaries inland, which makes it harder for the runoff to drain properly. A new pump station was installed a few blocks away but the problem has actually gotten worse. These events have all come together at the same time, but I don't know if they are causal. In any case, I did a load of laundry yesterday and there's rinse water all over my basement floor. I was reminded of this awful cycle of horrors. Houses always cost so much more to maintain than I expect in both time and money. Makes condo living look veeerrrrrry attractive.

Okay, the dishwasher wasn't part of the "old house" thing, but still...