The Money Pit

My house was built in 1971. Yes, it is older than me. And these days, it is showing its age and that is NOT meant to be a compliment.

On July 4, we had a tree come down during a seriously horrible thunderstorm. Yeah, I know, coulda happened to a brand new house with a bug tree too but hey, its my blog and its my rant so I count it! Same day, during the same storm, the siding on the right side of my house came flying off the side. Yes. FLYING. Seriously. We were sitting in the kitchen watching the storm though the window and we watched a piece of the siding whip acoross the lawn, along with a few branches from the tree mentioned earlier.

Tuesday, I worked from home for most of the day so that the plumber could install a new water heater. You see, it was a COLD shower that morning and I was NOT going through that experience on Wednesday morning if it could be helped. SO $1400 later, we have hot water thanks to the 66 gallon water heater in the basement. Who cares if we cant afford food---we have hot water!!!!

And then came tonight. The night was going so well---a nice dinner with friends and then some Sex and the City on tv. Hubby went back downstairs before coming to bed and thats when I heard him yell "Jaime, ummm, come here a sec!". Never good, my friends, never good! And what did I see when I went downstairs-----the bathroom ceiling in the ONLY bathroom on the main floor of the house was caving. Yes, there was mold on the ceiling (the same spots we had cleaned 2 days ago in an effort to not admit there could be a leak in the ceiling). Yes, the water was coming through the ceiling and the ceiling caved. Luckily we put the trash can underneath it before that happened but still....it sucks.

Hubby seems to think that the a/c is leaking and causing all these issues in the bathroom. Honestly, I dont care much WHAT is causing it but am more concerned with 1) HOW does it get fixed, 2) WHEN can it get fixed, and 3) HOW the hell we are going to be able to afford to continue with this house?! Its Hubby's childhood home so there is a lot of emotional attachment but at what point do we give in?

Based on what we know about as of tonight that needs to get done, there is about $50,000 worth of work that needs to get done before it is really ready to be called home (for me at least). No, its not frivilious crap either---kitchen remodel (seriously, I have chipped lime green linoleium as countertops and most of the interior cabinet shelves are either duct taped back together or are barely hang in there), new cooper pipes though the kitcehn so I can stop with the pinhole leaks that seem to happen every other month (yep, a pinhole leak ends up being about $500 each time it gets fixed), new a/c unit (the current one is on its last leg and sucks!), and oh yeah, and we have already replaced all the floors (except the kitchen area) and stripped all the wall paper and repainted.

Okay, I vented. There is no conclusion/end/closing to this post because well, there is no end to this situation at the moment. I will let you know sometime!!!