Entries (RSS)I also thought today of labeling this post “I hate my house.” Let me tell you, it was quite the toss-up.
I originally had an entirely different post in mind for today. However, events last night conspired against me and I found it absolutely imperative to describe to you my feelings for this awful house. Allow me to provide a bit of background first, if you will. See, I like the old style houses, which made it difficult when I was looking for a house because everything had a very modern, and to me, kinda boring feel to it. I like the character of an old house and 90% of the houses I looked at didn’t seem to have much character. The ones that did have character were in such disrepair as to be eliminated before we really got going.
It took me quite some time to find this house. I had actually been looking at another house and wasn’t sure. Everyone had always told me that when I found the right house, I would just know. However, me being me and incapable of making a decision most times, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t the right house or just me being indecisive. Well my parents talked me out of that house cause it turned out to be one of the needs major work category. It wasn’t in such bad shape to be eliminated immediately, but it had enough fix-ups required that I would have had a hard time getting moved into the house.
My mom and I had seen a picture of a nice kitchen in the Homes book. It was only two bedrooms, so I had kind of eliminated it. But towards the end of one Sunday afternoon of going through open houses, we decided to swing by here anyway. As soon as I walked in the door, I just fell in love with this house. I literally walked in the door and went “Oh, I love this house.” And I just got worse and we went through. “OK, I really love this house. I have to have this house.” Yup, turns out the other one wasn’t quite right and as soon as I walked in the door of this one, I knew it was my house. I even left that day ready to talk to my realtor about putting in an offer and was upset at the idea that other people were going through the house and someone else might get it. I almost started crying, I liked the house that much. I was terribly afraid that Dad would find something horribly wrong with it when he went through, but everything seemed to go OK. I got the house that I loved and I was ecstatic. I even spent every free minute for a month cleaning the place up and getting wallpaper stripped off so I could paint, etc. I wore myself out, but didn’t care. And for those of you who know me or have spent any time reading about my housecleaning procrastination on this blog, you know that’s a large feat for me. I loved the house that much.
Yeah, that love is long since over. I overlooked the first couple clogged shower/bathroom sink drains. I maintained my composure…well, mostly…when the kitchen sink’s cold water line cracked and started flooding the kitchen. I only slightly cried in frustration when the laundry and kitchen drains started coming back up in the basement and we were afraid to use the bathroom for fear the clog was there as well. I managed to keep it together when we found the kitchen sink fix was starting to leak again and the sink’s shut-off valve refused to work again, and then the shut-off valve for all the water in the house refused to work, so we were trying to fix it while also keep it from flooding. I even laugh about being on a first-name basis with the plumber, the plumber who also knows exactly where the bathroom clean out is in the spare bedroom behind the little bookcase.
But when the toilet broke at 12:30 at night, when Mr. B was already asleep and I didn’t have any clue how to make it stop flushing water through the system, I crossed over that line. I’m legitimately fed up with my house. So, yes, I had to wake Mr. B up at 12:30 last night to try to figure out how to make the toilet stop running. The end result – turn off the water, hope we didn’t really need the toilet and get a toilet kit today and replace the valve cause it’s apparently broken and not stopping the water. Did I mention the shut-off valve wouldn’t turn? He had to take a wrench to it, and we’re just lucky it actually stopped the water and we didn’t have to turn off water to the entire house – which wouldn’t have completely turned the water off anyway…
So yeah, there was one flush of water left. The only reprieve was it broke right after I had flushed the toilet cause I have to go before bed or I’ll have to get up in the middle of the night…guaranteed. So Mr. B used the toilet when he got up in the morning, but didn’t flush, and I got to use it and then flush and hope we didn’t need it for anything else cause that was all she wrote. We did get it fixed, and it wasn’t really a big deal. Probably the first plumbing related issue that wasn’t a major production. But when it’s 12:30 at night and all you wanna do is sleep, it seems like a huge deal. And ya know…fear of not being able to use the toilet for the night…more than major. I’m seriously getting sick of not being able to use my bathroom at odd times. It never fails you don’t really need something until it’s not available and then it’s really the only thing you need. *sigh*
Oh, and I probably get to look forward to more of this cause that “character” I mentioned my house having? Yeah, that’s cause it was built in 1912, has old cast iron pipes that are so coated in gunk as to be half their original size and often needing a plumber to come clean out. And yeah, not going to be fixing it anytime soon cause that would require ripping up one section of the house on all three stories, and most likely breaking up the concrete basement floor to replace the pipes under the house as well. Yeah, so not going to happen. Let’s just hope the pipes hold out through all these plumber visits, cause cleaning out the drains could break a pipe at any time and make that a necessity rather than an option.
So, yeah, I think moving is a much better option. Considering the housing market currently and all the work the house needs to be in any kind of shape for being sold (nothing major, just a bunch of little things like getting all the hedges trimmed back, finishing the re-landscaping of the back patio, finishing the bathroom redesign, stripping the wallpaper and painting the kitchen, etc.), you’ll likely see several more posts related to plumbing issues before any moving occurs. We really need to build a house. All the modern building tools put into an old style house.
Well…I can dream at least…
